Fruit bushes/trees (?) for front garden by busy road

[porterlizz]

Hi

I have a dry front garden that is next to quite a busy road. It's about 6m x 10m with a yew tree and some lavender in it, and a fair amount of empty space. At the moment I feel it's wasted, and I was thinking of putting a load of bee/butterfly attracting plants in there. The soil is reasonably clay-based, but I have just have a big delivery of horse manure.

It occurred to me today that perhaps I should think of putting compact(ish) fruit in there (either bushes or trees) as well as flowering shrubs, but am not sure what might work well in this situation. Preferably something that doesn't get TOO massive, as i don't want it cutting out light. I was wondering about a thornless loganberry?

Has anyone found themselves in a similar situation, and if so what did you do?

Thanks for any advice, Liz

[arpoet]

Personally, i would never eat fruit from a garden right next to a busy road.

[porterlizz]

Ideally I'd agree, but I live in the centre of Bristol and it is unavoidable. Most of the greengrocers are also next to busy roads, so I figure it can't be too bad (in that i'm still alive)

[veggiechicken]

A thornless loganberry would need supporting - wires or summat. Do you want that in your garden?
http://www.growfruitandveg.co.uk/gra...rry_22332.html
In my front garden I have a fig tree (huge - but can be cut back as required) an olive tree and a rhubarb in a big pot. Other stuff too, cordylines, camellias, hardy geraniiums

[porterlizz]

ah.. thanks.. the loganberry isn't the answer then.

[muddled]

there's been a conversation in the fruity forum about blueberries which apparently grow rather well in pots (and aren't always blue )

Physalis might be a good idea if your front garden is very sunny. Their delightful paper husks might offer protection from some of the pollution and the bushes don't get overly large.

What about hazlenuts? They are a very useful crop.

[Scarlet]

Hazelnuts are thugs, they will need quite a bit of cutting back to keep under control - if I turn my back on mine they grow another foot!
What size plants are you looking for? How much sun does it get. Will your yew tree shade any of the new plants. I'm assuming you are just trying to use the space rather than trying to create a screen from the road?
Currant bushes, gooseberry are compact plants that can be kept under control.

[Kirk]

Simple one would be a couple of apples on something like M9 rootstock.
Cherries seem to get bigger same with pears.
Not sure about plums, ones I have are over 8 foot so I guess that is too much.

You could try a row or two of blackcurrants or gooseberries.

There is a column like fruit tree, they are very compact in width but do grow to about 10 foot, however they are a sort of long stick like in growth, having very short branches coming out and up. Ken Muir does a selection in several fruits. Have a look as they are different.

[FB.]

How big is the yew tree?
It might be that it will block out a lot of light (which plants won't like) and it might have roots which dominate the whole garden so other plants won't be able to establish.

You mention the garden being dry: most fruit plants need lots of water, but if you water your fruit plants regularly you can be sure that it won't be long before the yew tree's roots will come up under the plants you're watering.

I saw a fascinating front garden once, which had been remodelled a few times over the several decades since the house was built. Nearby was a large cherry, and when the garden was set for yet another reshuffle, once the top layer of soil was removed it was possible to see all the past flower bed layouts because the biggest roots from the big cherry tree had grown exactly under where each flower bed had once been, then moved on to the new flower beds after each renovation.
The cherry tree ended up being removed because there was no way to re-plant the garden without the cherry sucking the life out of everything. Some of its roots under the former flower beds were over 1ft thick!

[FB.]

Hazelnuts are thugs, they will need quite a bit of cutting back to keep under control - if I turn my back on mine they grow another foot!

Agreed.
Books will scare you by telling you how big a fruit tree might get, but if you put a hazel next to an apple/pear/plum on the common rootstocks, the hazel will only take a few years before it smothers the fruit tree.
However, if the yew tree roots dominate the garden, maybe something strong will be needed. But hazels only produce a light crop for the space they require, and you can be sure that squirrels will be watching the nuts all summer, and may take them before they are ripe.
The summer foliage of hazels is boring but the January-February catkin display (and the little red flowers if you're sharp-eyed) of hazels is impressive, especially varieties like Cosford which produce large amounts of catkins. Cosford is also one of the stronger-growing hazels and one of the lightest croppers.

[Kristen]

The summer foliage of hazels is boring ...

Not quite the same for yield, but the red leafed Hazel might be a suitable candidate for Summer foliage? Sorry, forgotten the variety name (I think there is one more worthy than just the bog-standard "Purple Leaved Hazelnut" )

[FB.]

Not quite the same for yield, but the red leafed Hazel might be a suitable candidate for Summer foliage? Sorry, forgotten the variety name (I think there is one more worthy than just the bog-standard "Purple Leaved Hazelnut" )

I planted a red-leaved hazel (Corylus maxima purpurea) but it hasn't grown very well at all compared to the commercial varieties of Corylus such as Cosford, Butler, Kent, Gunslebert and Gustav-Zeller (in approximate order of vigour). Gustav-Zeller is fairly slow-growing but the red-leaved hazel is dwarf in comparison.
I guess it's due to the red hazel not having the regular chlorophyll in the leaves, so it can't photosynthesise as efficiently.

There are also twisty hazels (Corylus avellana contorta)

[Kristen]

Thanks FB. Sorry too tired / lazy to look up the one I had heard of last night ...

"Red Zellernuss" was what I had in mind. No personal experience, but Agroforestry Research Trust's description is "Fast growing with reddish-bronze leaves and husks; fast growing and a heavy cropper. Both ornamental and a good cropper"

Useful to have had your opinion on vigour and that Cosford is a light cropper; after seeing the staggered-row planting of Hazel nuts at Sissinghurst I thought I'd try something similar here (on a much smaller scale!) and having no idea which variety I might like the flavour of I bought one of each that I could find. They've only been in [a mixture of] one & two years and I carefully nurtured my first and only nut this season ... but it was nicked by a squirrel before I got to it!


Sissinghurst - Nut Walk

My "Fruit and Nut Walk" (named after my favourite food )



Nuts on the left (they've got a 1M square of mulching fabric around them), a selection of Apples on the Right (and I plan to extend the espalier at the far end with 3 or 4 Pears)

[Blog linkl]

[whiskyman]

Have you thought about a Winter garden? Or a mix between A winter and fruit garden?

I just bought a Sarcococca confusa which flowers over the Winter months and has a strong honey scent which I am going to plant by my front door. I probably buy a Clematis cirrhosa as well, another winter flowering which I probably use to cover the shed but something you could use to climb up your chosen fruit tree so it does'nt look bare over Winter or × Fatshedera lizei(tree ivy). All of the above is perfect for pollinators.

Perhaps planting Cornus Alba sibirica RED DOGWOOD or Cornus Flaviramea YELLOW DOGWOOD, not evergreen but bright coloured stems?

[Alicante]

Personally, i would never eat fruit from a garden right next to a busy road.

I remember seeing a tv prog on the effect of street planting on the air quality inside houses on busy roads. I wish I could recall the name of it, but the result was that there was a noticeable improvement in quality inside with planting outside! They used silver birch trees in containers which "filtered" the air and these trees removed some of the pollution.