Anyone have nut trees in their garden?

[TunipTheUnconquerable]

We're (hopefully) moving to a place with about half an acre so I reckon we'll have room for some nut trees.

A few questions:

1. Anyone successfully get almonds to crop in England? The garden is walled and on a sw facing slope but it's in Yorkshire so....

Almond blossom is so pretty, I would happily have it there even if we rarely got nuts out of it, but occasionally would be nice.

1. Anyone have the walnut and chestnut varieties that don't grow too big and don't take forever to start to crop?

1. Does anyone know why the nurseries seem to sell cobnuts and filberts rather than hazelnuts? Are they pretty much the same thing?

Thanks

1. We had an almond tree in the garden in Yorkshire when I was a kid. It did nothing for about ten years, then suddenly produced vast quantities of nuts all in one go. We got them occasionally after that, but never a repeat of that crazy bounty year.

1. No experience of these.

1. Same thing, just the terms for cultivated varieties.

Thanks, Rhubarbgarden.
I think I might give the almond a try then.

Uh huh, so best planted away from the lawn then?!

We have several hazels and one extremely large walnut. The squirrels get them all. One year we managed a crop of 12 walnuts that the squirrels missed because it was a bumper year and they'd gorged themselves. I've never seen a small walnut or chestnut variety, do they do them?

Damn squirrels!
I have no idea if there will be many squirrels in the new place.

Yes, they've bred/grafted chestnut and walnuts varieties that take up less space and come into bearing within three or four years rather than ten or twenty. Apparently you can also grow a walnut in some kind of root bag that limits their growth, makes them fruit sooner and make it possible to move them if you move house.

I've got a twisted hazel in a pot, that produces nuts, it's about 5 foot high and probably needs to go in the ground. I have no idea how old though it was here when we moved in.

we have a walnut tree, it is rather big and the crop is always fantastic. I don't even like walnuts and have no idea what to do with them all. The cases fall off all over the patio and it's a job to sweep them up every day at the end of the summer, otherwise they get trodden on and we have gross squishy stuff everywhere. It was here when we moved in so no idea how old it is.

Thanks, Sleeplessbunny and Bumbez.

We can easily eat a lot of walnuts. DH and DD sit there for hours happily cracking them and dipping them in salt.

I'm not too keen on cracking them myself but I'm sure I could train a squirrel like in Charlie And The Chocolate Factory.