There is a particular smugness available only to people who walk past the fruit aisle knowing the good stuff is hanging in their own backyard. A home orchard used to mean acreage; modern grafted trees changed the rules. A standard suburban block fits eight productive fruit trees, an edible hedge, a berry patch and a climbing vine, and still leaves room for the trampoline. This is that design.
The idea
An edible garden fails when it's planted like a farm, rows of lonely trees in the lawn, and succeeds when it's designed like any other garden: structure, layers, and something happening in every season. The trick is that every layer here also happens to be dinner. Trees carry the structure, an edible hedge does the screening, berries fill the mid-storey, and a passionfruit does the vertical work a jasmine would normally do.
The palette, layer by layer
The everyday heroes: Eureka Lemon and Imperial Mandarin. If you plant only two fruit trees in your life, plant these. The Eureka fruits nearly year-round in warm areas, and the Imperial is the mandarin school lunchboxes were invented for. Citrus are heavy feeders, feed them and they will embarrass the supermarket.
The long game: Hass Avocado and Kensington Pride Mango. The two trees that pay off a mortgage's worth of brunches. Both want warmth and drainage; in frost-prone areas give them the most sheltered north-facing corner you own, or swap them for a second citrus in the pack below.
The storytellers: Black Mulberry, Pomegranate and Gala Apple. The mulberry is the tree childhood memories are made under, stained fingers included. The pomegranate is tough, ornamental and absurdly productive. The apple earns its spot in cooler districts especially, and fruits better still with a second variety nearby.
The edible hedge: Feijoa. Here's the design secret of this whole page: feijoa clips into a dense silver-green screen every bit as handsome as a photinia, then drops sweet pineapple-guava fruit into your hand through autumn. Plant a row at one per 75 cm and clip it exactly like any formal hedge; tubestock knits into a real screen within a couple of seasons, and advanced sizes make it instant whenever they land in stock.
The pick-and-eat layer: Blueberry Premier and Panama Gold Passionfruit. Blueberries in a sunny bed (or pots of azalea mix if your soil isn't acidic) and a passionfruit doing beautiful, delicious work on the ugliest stretch of fence.
The kitchen keepers: Kalamata Olive and Bay Tree. Silver Mediterranean good looks, zero fuss, and two pantry staples growing metres from the pot they'll end up in.
How to plant it
Fruit means sun: six hours minimum, so give the orchard your best northern aspect and keep the mulberry (the future giant) to the far corner. Plant trees 3–4 m apart, improve every hole with compost, and mulch wide but keep it off the trunks. Feed citrus in late winter and late summer, net the blueberries before the birds file their claim, and prune fruit trees lightly after harvest to keep everything at picking height. It all arrives fresh from our growers, and if you'd rather start with the digging done, professional planting is offered in the cart.
Good to know
Cold district? The apple, mulberry, pomegranate, feijoa and bay will thrive; give the mango's spot to a second apple for cross-pollination. Small block? Citrus and feijoa espalier brilliantly along a sunny fence, the same trick the formal garden uses with jasmine. Kids in the picture? This pairs perfectly with the practical family garden, few things get children outside like a mulberry in December. Browse more in citrus trees, apple trees and avocado trees, or size the whole orchard in the garden pricer.
Ready to make it real? Your instant garden pack is just below: every plant in this design, live-priced from today's stock, one click to add the lot to your cart or open in the garden pricer and make it yours.