At three ft from the fence, the rear branches will hit the fence, the figs on that side of the plant may be harder to reach, and the plant may be harder to prune (my voice of experience, but I also had a space limitation). I prune back to a 3.5-4 ft height and diameter each winter to cover them, and they get 8-9 ft tall, 7-8 ft wide each summer. You can keep a fig plant to almost any size you want with pruning, training.

And I would consider planting 3 different fig varieties to give some different flavors, space out the harvest, instead of 3 of one type.

Susan and eboone, thank you. Are you also both in zone 7?

No I am in zone 6A, in Pennsylvania

s n i'm growing just inground figs now.orry, green, my notification thing was turned off so i never saw this.

i'm 7a

Growing against a fence is a pain, but like many I have space limitations. It is much harder to get to the back of the tree. I like to airlayer off the excess branches that sprout up each year and it truly is a pain to get back there.