Recommendations for Landscaping with Edible Plants

10 years ago

My wife and I are preparing to buy our first home soon. We've been renting the house we are buying for a few years and now we want to buy and make it what we want. This will include landscaping our front/side yard on our corner lot. We have space I think to plant 12 fruit trees and then we want to block our sideyard completely from view with the use of bushes. We are looking for recommendations on what types of trees and bushes to plant.

We are interested in making hard cider and we want to have other apple varieties that are good for eating and for cider making. I think Granny Smith's fit the bill well for that, but we are thinking of having three apple trees and I love the idea of having unique varieties.

We also want to have 3 peach trees, 2 pear trees, 2 cherry trees, and 2 nectarine trees. We haven't made any decisions on any varieties, but we want fruit that tastes good and trees that will look good.

Lastly, we need to block the view with hedges, and we were thinking of trying to do so with Blueberry bushes. Any recommendations there? We have about 80 ft worth of total space that needs to be blocked, so another idea that I liked was Hansen Bush Cherries and Blueberry bushes alternating. Would that work out well?

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Comments (3)

rhizo_1 (North AL) zone 7
10 years ago
last modified: 10 years ago
Can we assume that you've researched the pollination requirements of all of the fruit varieties you want to grow?

No suggestions regarding varieties but you find a world of suggestions from ACES, if you haven't already. Have you visited the ACES website?

You should also check out the Fruits and Orchards forum, here in GardenWeb. Be sure to share your general location in Alabama. USDA zone will be helpful. Also, any information regarding the site and soil.
Weedy Weidenthal
Original Author
10 years ago
I have been researching pollination requirements. I think that I understand them now. It seems that I should be able to plant Arkansas Black, Granny Smith, and Gold Rush. I'm also considering dropping the GoldRush in favor of a crabapple variety, but I'm just now getting into researching them. I am new to this, so still trying to understand it all.

I'm in Madison, Al, Zone 7B. I don't know much about the soil yet. Right now, my front and side yards are just open with Bermuda Grass and weeds, but we have about a half an acre in the spot we are looking to plant on.
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jeff_al
10 years ago
here are some links that might be useful. alabama orchards directory will have links to the 3 orchards in north Alabama. you can read about the varieties that they are growing.

here is another link the wildlife group from a site about wildlife plantings but also offers information about the desirable characteristics of those same fruits for human consumption. crab apples, pears, blueberries are listed. they are just down the road from me in Tuskegee. did not know that cherries could be grown in the south (not enough chill hours?) but I look forward to them hitting the stores every year.