Small-ish fruit frees for a long sunny border - what and where from?

[GoldfinchCharm]

Hello.
I'm a bit of a novice gardener. I have a pretty long (must be about 10m?) border in my garden, which gets sun for most of the day. At the moment it's got nothing in it (or nothing but a few weeds which I'm planning to dig up next weekend). My aims for it are that it will attract birds, not be toxic to dogs (I have a small one who likes to sample things on occasion), and that it won't take a huge amount of maintaining. What I've come up with for this so far is "fruit trees". I don't want them to go much higher than the fence, which is probably about 2m tall. So mini fruit trees? When I search for these online, I get a dizzying number of places to order them from. I'd like to get them at a reasonably established size if this is possible...(?).

So, my questions:

1. Which fruit trees would you plant in this situation?
2. Are there any nice other things (bushes/shrubs which are non-toxic and attract birds) I should intersperse them with?
3. Can anyone recommend where I can order these things from?

Thank you so much, in advance, for any thoughts and advice.

Not directly answering your question but my local BNQ has some lovely fan trained fruit trees at the moment, apples, cherries, pears etc

@ChristopherTracy

Not directly answering your question but my local BNQ has some lovely fan trained fruit trees at the moment, apples, cherries, pears etc

Thank you @ChristopherTracy - I'll check whether it's the same at my local one :-)

The RHS website www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=359 explains rootstocks really well. Choose what size of tree you want in the end and then buy a tree that's rooted on the right rootstock. It sounds like you want an M9.

If you look on a reasonably reputable nursery's website - or better a local garden centre they'll have a good choice.

Grow what you like to eat....I've got a cooking apple, a fantastic greengage, an apple whose name I can't remember, but it's an eater and a plum.

I've also got blakcurrants, gooseberries and redcurrants.

Another option would be a nut tree - they look lovely in spring.

I live in the north west so I went for slightly hardier ones.

That's quite a long border so you'll get a few in if you want.

If you can make it wider do - remember to plant far enough out that the tree can grow all round (Or buy a fan trained). And improve the soil lots, basically add a ton of well rotted manure. About 2 to 3 inches thick depending on how good the soil looks.

And when you buy a tree check whether it's self fertile or not. For some you need another tree to get fruit - or check if your neighbours have fruit trees.

@MaryIsA

The RHS website www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?pid=359 explains rootstocks really well. Choose what size of tree you want in the end and then buy a tree that's rooted on the right rootstock. It sounds like you want an M9.

If you look on a reasonably reputable nursery's website - or better a local garden centre they'll have a good choice.

Grow what you like to eat....I've got a cooking apple, a fantastic greengage, an apple whose name I can't remember, but it's an eater and a plum.

I've also got blakcurrants, gooseberries and redcurrants.

Another option would be a nut tree - they look lovely in spring.

I live in the north west so I went for slightly hardier ones.

That's quite a long border so you'll get a few in if you want.

If you can make it wider do - remember to plant far enough out that the tree can grow all round (Or buy a fan trained). And improve the soil lots, basically add a ton of well rotted manure. About 2 to 3 inches thick depending on how good the soil looks.

Thank you so much, @MaryIsA - that's extremely helpful :-) I did dig some manure into it last year (grew some potatoes and onions in it last year, but decided that now I'd like to have some trees instead), but I'll do another load now. I hadn't even thought about the self-fertility issue - thank you!!

If you’re mainly wanting to grow fruit for birds, crabapples are good. They don’t taste that nice (to us humans), but many have the advantage that they’ll hold on to the fruit until late winter/ early spring. Birds will eat windfall fruit, but if it’s been on the ground for a while it becomes a lot less appealing to them. So, a tree that holds on to the fruit is a bonus.

You could also look at growing some berries. Blueberries (if you have acidic soil) or black currants, redcurrants or gooseberries.

What the birds in my garden like best though is shrubs that give them shelter. It doesn’t really matter what it is as long as it’s relatively dense, but not so dense that they can’t get into it. I have a smallish buddleia (about 2m high) which is popular with birds, as well as insects.

I forgot to add - I’ve found this company very helpful when I was looking into buying fruit trees a few years ago. If you send them an email, I’m sure they can advise you on what varieties will work best for your garden

www.orangepippintrees.co.uk/

trees should ideally be planted in autumn.

Cherry or crabapple or rowan are all good for small gardens with fruit for birds

but you should also look at having some evergreen shrubs so there is something to look at in the winter. choysia or vibirunum etc.

crocus.co.uk is a very good website to look stuff up - it has good photos & diagrams to show how big something will grow.

I would be looking at fruit that I like that are not readily available in the shops, such as damsons, greengages, mulberry etc. As PP has mentioned, crab apples are good for wildlife, and are an excellent source of pectin if you want to make jam.
If the temperature doesn't drop below -10 in the winter, why not try lemon? They do take months to fully develop, but have lovely fragrant blossom and there's nothing like picking your own for a gin & tonic!

I can second the recommendation for orange pippin as a supplier. Lots of info on their site, good range and good service.
Only - you've missed the bare root season and there might be a little wait until the pot grown trees are available.

It depends how far south you are. Where we are, our garden has a range -15 to +40, but normally has much more reasonable intermediate weather. We have to factor in that northern plants get cooked and mediterranean plants freeze, so about 30% dies every year! We've got a real mix of fruit trees though. We mostly grow miniatures in pots due to lack of space. The advantage of small trees by a fence is that they're a bit more sheltered than a big tree, so you might be able to get away with something a bit more delicate. You can also wrap it up if it snows.

We've found that things that overwinter happily in the patches where we get 8 hours sun are: olives (with fruits! the insects like the flowers); grape vines (wine grapes like pinot noir are sweeter for eating than desert grapes in northern Europe. They have thinner skins so damage too easily to be sold as desert grapes but they taste as good); cherries (you can get dwarf ones); plums, and peaches. For insects, lavender round the bottom of the trees will do the job, or honeysuckle up the fence. The bees really liked the lupins last year.

Otherwise, we have a crab apple for jam and to add a bit of oomph to cider, but that's in dappled shade. The fig is vigorous, but gets too cold in the winter so doesn't really fruit. We'll take it into the garage next year. The apple trees get too hot and dropped all their fruit. They had to be moved into the shade. The strawberries do well in the sun, but aren't tall. We also have a tall chilli bush and a calomondin orange (amazing marmalade) which do really well, but they have to be inside until outside temperatures are above 10 overnight, so probably May. Raspberries and tomatoes do well in the sun, but they're really ugly plants. This year's purchases are more unusual fruits: a loganberry for jam, blackcurrants for liqueur and a mulberry because they have an amazing flavour.

Thank you very much, @Crazzzycat, @parietal, @Ifailed, @BewareTheBeardedDragon and @stodgystollen.
Sorry for the delayed response - I didn't realise I had all these amazing replies.

I can't tell you how much this has helped. So much I hadn't considered.

I'm in the midlands, so probably not as huge a temperature range as some places but still reasonable.

I'll definitely look at the orange pippin supplier, and enquire about when pot grown trees are available.

Sounds like I should have a think about whether I should be waiting till autumn, so will consider this too (though feel so impatient about it now...).

Thank you all again

I've just been browsing fruit trees and orange pippin are taking pre orders now for autumn delivery. You could get a pot grown tree elsewhere but if you plant from April - August you will have to water considerably more to ensure your tree settles in well. Young bare root trees planted from November - March will establish more reliably and will not need the volume of summer watering, so easier all round. I feel your pain on waiting. I had ordered 3 trees and some raspberry canes in January from another supplier, Chris Bowers, and they just cancelled the order last week leaving me high and dry. I managed to order a replacement for one of them from Orange Pippin, which arrived in excellent condition 2 days after ordering but the other varieties I wanted were sold out everywhere so I will have to wait now for them. I only just managed to scrape in with the one variety that was still available.

What about things like red currant or gooseberry? Very easy to grow.

You could have pyracantha. Great for pollinators in June, and birds in autumn.

Prickly bastard though.

The top favourites with my birds are rowan and red currant