gasdoctor wrote:

My garden is south facing, so should get plenty of sun shine
The trees will have to be free standing (not against a wall)
I want them to to have an ornamental element to them as well as
producing a crop. I love trees. (not in a tree hugging sense though)
Im only interested in desert types.
Thoughts:
- grow two apple trees (?most reliable and foolproof)
- grow two plums (?high risk of total failure)

Hi Gasdoctor,

In my small kitchen garden I'm growing four desert apples (Tydemans
Early, Granny Smith, plus 2 others I can't remember) (chosen to have
co-incident blooming periods and provide the maxuimum length of crop - 1
early, 2 mids and 1 late (or was it 1 mid and 2 lates?)), 1 victoria
plum (self fertile) and 1 family pear tree (beth, concorde and comice).

I've chosen restrictive root stocks, and have the trees firmly staked. I
have had OK crops so far for the age of tree - they were planted in
autumn 2001.

I also grow stawberries, raspberries (autumn & summer) and blackberry,
and work a vegetable crop round the fruit crops!

Sarah