Would need to see a pic of the area.

tj

I have many in my front yard, as long as you have the space, but I'd

stay away from the drive.

ramya, be aware that there are full-size, semi-dwarf, and dwarf fruit trees depending on the type of rootstock they are grown on. Ten feet from property lines would be a good start, dwarfing could be planted closer. Not sure if there is a dwarfing fig; some varieties stay smallish.

Fig trees are great ornamentals. Fuyu persimmon is also nice.

Asian Persimmon are very ornamental a low maintenance. Also easy to keep shorter if you want. figs will die back to ground in zone 7 some years and will grow more of a bush form. I like the look of fig bushes but my wife doesn’t

My suburban neighborhood is crawling with squirrels. They begin picking apples and pears in midsummer long before humans would. Then the partially eaten fruit is scattered around the neighborhood on lawns, on decks and in gutters. We removed our apple trees because we didn't harvest any fruit and our neighbors were inconvenienced. Hopefully your squirrel numbers are lower.

Figs are bushes in Virginia. We harvest a nice quantity after mild winters. If the winter is cold (single digits in January), there won't be many figs.

They need to be far enough away that neighbors or people walking by will not have a problem walking over and helping themselves. Persimmons and figs can serve as ornamental and should not cause too bad a mess if not harvested. Apples and pears can get messy from fruit to tall to reach.

thanks everyone for your inputs. I will share a pic of the area. Can I see any pics of the fig tree as a bush? and any of fruit trees in frontyard - just looking for ideas.

I have 10 fruit trees in my front yard that came with the house. So, depends on how big your front yard is. But I would stay away from planting close to the drive.

Hi, I'm in central NJ, too (Princeton), and have had great success with a
Kyung San Ban Si persimmon (grafted onto an American). It is at the top of my driveway. I don't do any winter protection either.

I say if you have deer you won't have a problem cleaning up fallen fruit. That said; you'll have to fence the trees till about the time they start producing that fruit. I agree; stay away from the driveway.

So I am going to mention something most others will not, it depends on how well you like your neighbors and the width between your drive and their yard. Most of our family plant citrus with thorns in between neighbors 5 foot off lot line so we get 75+ % of the fruit but its also a way to share with the neighbors, give privacy, and some security. Figs might be a good canidate if espaliered or heck any espaliered fruit trees. Depends on HOA's and like john said above deer etc. You can train a fig however you want. I have two 40 year old celeste figs that are bushes and just keep the central leaders hammered.

You might also consider "Autumn Brilliance" serviceberry. The tree and fruit is beautiful. Some say the berries are better than blueberries, but apparently the birds love them, so you might be hard-pressed to get any for yourself. They have beautiful, white blossoms in the spring and lovely fall color as the name indicates. While they don't require pruning and do stay fairly small (20'), they do tend to sucker a bit around the base, but that takes five minutes a couple of times during the growing season to remedy. There really is no maintenance required other than this. I planted one in my front yard, along with apples, cherries, paw paws, persimmon, medlar, quince and many, many fruiting bushes! Do you feel confident in pruning? Pears shoot for the sky...even "dwarf" and semi- dwarf ones. I assumed, in my youth, that they would stay under the 15' description, but that wasn't the case!

Jump to the present: Next to the sidewalk, I planted a hedge of 'Regent' serviceberries, to serve as a leaf barrier, (the neighborhood's leaves all landed on my property because it is the lowest, and during any windstorm they would all blow and settle here.) privacy, color, food for my neighbors and me and the birds and to help with traffic noise and dirt when sitting on the porch. My hope is that they will provide a transition into the permaculture "food forest" I've planted with every manner of fruit tree and bush, herbs and groundcover (strawberries), although I do draw the line with anything thorny or unruly/invasive: no blackberries or raspberries! I have an arbor that I will be putting in the middle of the 120' garden. I've ordered some fragrant pink thornless climbing roses that I'll plant there, and it will offer a friendly 2nd entrance into the front yard. I already have large bluestones as a walkway which the arbor will straddle. I have hazelnuts planted out back, along with elderberries, asparagus, rhubarb, hardy kiwi, grapes, blueberries, apples, pears and cherries, but I'm thinking that hazelnuts might be an option for out front. They are relatively small and can be trained as trees or can grow as large shrubs; either way, they are attractive plants that will produce food that is easy to harvest and process with minimal effort on your part. My revelation with permaculture was that if I'm going to plant something, wouldn't it be wonderful for it to not only look good, but offer up food that I can have all year long, saving me bucket loads of money in the long run?!

I hope I've given you some "food for thought!"