Pretty and productive fruit tree for a back yard?

[1Bee]

After a long battle trying to keep a lilac tree happy in a pot, it's toppled over, cracked the pot, and I've realised I don't really NEED a lilac tree there.

However, I would like to continue to have a nicely shaped small (6 - 8 foot?) tree in a pot in about that place, so looking for ideas and variety recommendations. The backyard is basically a sandstone barn with the roof off. It gets sun from 11 till 5ish, and when it does its very warm indeed. It's sheltered but occasionally breezy, will catch the occasional Friday, but stays approx 3 degrees milder than elsewhere. In winter it's just very damp and more shady.

Ideas?

Thank you!

[1Bee]

The back yard...

[fishpond]

One of the ballerina's as a 1st thought?

[veggiechicken]

The pot doesn't look big enough for the lilac and you'd have to have a much bigger one for a 6-8' fruit tree.
Is there anywheree you could plant one in the ground to future proof it?

[nickdub]

Well if it was mine and I could do what I fancied, I'd take one of the flagstones up next the wall and plant either a plum or an apricot there and fan train it to make the best of that position. Grown in the ground trees are much more resistant to drought and they definitely wont blow over, though you would have to water it in dry spells in the summer.

[1Bee]

I'll check that out fishpond, thanks.

VC, the pot was keeping the lilac to a reasonable size, but it rooted through the bottom into a pile of sand and got too big for its boots... I'll get a bigger one for its successor.

We've lifted a few flags to create small beds, and I've always hankered after a fan trained something on the sunny wall, but we do want something in that location because it stops the yard just looking like a box with untidy corners...

[veggiechicken]

What about a fig - they like to have their roots contained - or a grape against the wall?

[Snoop Puss]

Yes, agreed, fig or vine. But for prettiness, you can't beat a quince tree.

[veggiechicken]

Think big, 1bee - turn it into a walled garden, with fruit trees and vines on every wall.

[Dynamite]

I would say a fig too. Real nice leaves and foliage.

Kind Regards.............Rob

[1Bee]

I'd like to put more things on the walls, but I'm really looking for something with a classic 'tree' shape, only smaller, as a focal point and divider. Patio quinces do look rather lovely...

[1Bee]

So, I thought I'd clear away the lilac and tidy up the spot where the old (now rusted) BBQ was, in front of the old wash copper. This was the starting point.



And while I knew the lilac was hopelessly pot bound, the pretty patterns of the root ball were quite something. It had also grown roots the thickness of my thumb through the drainage holes and into the sand (and then brickwork and sandstone!) it was standing on.

[1Bee]

And then I got a bit carried away.



Well, I thought, it's about time we cleared away this crumbling brick work and rusty wash tub, I wonder if I could shift it?


Oh. Apparently I can. (And someone is coming to buy it, remarkably, tonight).

And THEN my demolition team moved in. "What are you doing, Mummy?" "I'm knocking down the old laundry wash tub [short lecture on washing in past times]." "Oh. Can we do some bashing?" "Um. Yes?"



They are remarkably efficient at demolition. Which, seeing as their favourite activity is breaking things, shouldn't surprise me.

[1Bee]

And the current state of play... Popping out for rubble sacks later.

[1Bee]

...and on the fruit tree front, I know what I'd LIKE, but I don't know if it's practical. I'd like a Mirabelle in a pot, and an espalier or fan trained apple on the opposite wall, where a poorly performing rose has also been pulled out. Or, given that that wall gets really warm, maybe I can try something more risky there?