For the Endless Plant Collector: How Much Can You Fit?

General Fruit Growing
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Morning everyone,

With never being able to scratch the itch of getting new plants each year and having the same limited space, I’m curious how densely other growers are planting their fruit trees and berry bushes. For those of you working with smaller spaces, how many plants do you have packed into your area, and how well has that spacing worked for you over time?

I’d love to hear what varieties you’ve fit in, how they’re performing, and any tips you’ve learned about managing a lot of plants in a limited footprint.

With roughly 6200 sqft. I have been able to fit:

22 nanking cherries

3 pears

5 cherries

3 apples

3 figs

3 grapes

7 peaches

13 serviceberries

5 blueberries

3 kiwis

4 blackberries

1 raspberry

1 rhubarb

1 mulberry

~150 strawberries

~20 asparagus

I think I have finally ran out of room for growing more and will have to graft onto the rest. Mine are still very young which is partially the reason why I have been able to fit so many in a small space. I plan to keep all of these at a reasonable height.

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A thread after my own heart. Lets geek out together lol

I have 7k sq feet but a bunch of that is a house ans garage. In that I have

7 bush cherries

3 paw paw

2 mulberry

2 sweet cherries

6 gooseberries

12 rubus species.

1 peach

1 serviceberry

1 aronia

5 blueberries

Some number of black Huckleberry

3 apple trees.

50 asparagus

Countless strawberries (ground cover everywhere in the backyard)

1 american persimmon

2 apricots

60ish figs in pots.

1 black walnut

1 hazelnut bush (winkler)

2 spice bush

2 honeyberry

Over 60 species of native wildflowers and grasses.

1 asian pear

5 roses

8 8x4 veggie beds

American groundnut bed

Adding 2 grape vines this spring

I think i could have room for more. Specifically I can fit some hardy kiwi on the north side of my house, i could in theory add some more apples or something on one area of my front lawn but I like keeping a full sun native flower bed near my door. I am considering trying a cara cara orange there too.

I could fit more if my backyard wasn’t 80% concrete, something I will change one day and bring it down to closer to 20% concrete

Also adding rhubarb to under my apple trees :slight_smile:

Personally Id look inti hazelnut and gooseberry for you since they both handle shade to varying degrees.

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Awesome. Please post pictures of your space here/share any ideas you’ve come up with for fitting in all your plants.

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@Stup517 @snarfing That’s impressive !!!

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This forum is such a bad influence!:rofl:

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I’m not really a collector; I just want some fruit. On 2/3 acre with a house, I got mid 40 trees. I’d have a few more but have some underground wires and the neighbor’s giant trees shadow part of the property. I gave up my garden a few years ago. I was not good at it. Planted trees where the garden was.

If I had more space, I’d like maybe 80-90 trees. And a greenhouse for some figs, persimmons and strawberries. Also, a space for egg and meat chickens.

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my place is similar, i just planted the dwarf pears and apples in between the garden rows lol

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Are you having any issue with the roots filling your garden beds? I’ve been toying with something similar but concerned about roots.

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they get in there but the “beds” are mostly just mounds of dirt in between the trees. so the roots don’t bother much

I’m putting in a group of raised beds along in there this year, the roots will probably take over the pathways between for sure

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I agree with @Eme - we need some pictures of how you’re cramming it all in there!

I have more space available than I have time to maintain it, but efficient layouts are always fascinating. An art form of their own.

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Have you considered rooftop gardens? The deer and rabbits can ‘t get up there, either.

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We are on 5 acres, but 1 acre is a pond, and a bunch of invasive honeysuckle that takes up probably another acre. A good majority of our land is set up as a shooting range, so my husband lets me use about a total acre of our open land for fruit trees and my garden. I tuck fruit trees and bushes anywhere theyll fit. I plant mostly near our property lines. I lined our chainlink dog fence in elderberry bushes to create a privacy hedge. I planted elderberries, rhubarb, and a perennial herb garden around the sides of our shed. I planted elderberry and hazelnut bushes, with a kiwiberry trellis as well, on sections near the middle of our property lines. Wild paw paws were planted on another strip near our front side property line. I have figs, gooseberries, and nanking cherry bushes in the landscaping around the side and back of my house. Currant bushes next to my chicken coop run. American plum seedlings in a line near our back property line where Im trying to create a privacy thicket. A row of golden delicious apples that the previous owner planted near the other side of our front property line. I tucked a yates and morris burton persimmon on the edge of the honeysuckle, and plan to tuck a bunch more in this year. I have two areas of orchard with peach, pear, plum, nectarine, apricot, quince, apples, paw paw, and jujube trees in front of my pond, and Im going to put another in behind my pond. I also put jostaberries, horseradish, asparagus, and different perennial herbs between the fruit trees. I have a separate berry patch where I have about 6 concord grape vines, 6 still living blueberry bushes, maybe 6 honeyberry, a bunch of currants, and a bunch of thornless blackberry. We added another grape trellis to it with a couple marquis, himrod, and canadice grape vines. I have a few serviceberry in a row about 20 feet from my chicken coop. I also spread 40,000 dandelion seeds in my yard, just to add some extra “no maintenance” edibles in our yard lol. We also have a bunch of mulberry and cherry trees scattered around. Theres a row of maple trees lining our front yard and a huge one behind our chicken coop that we just tapped this year, and already got over 3 gallons of syrup just from a very small amount of trees.

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There is a lady on youtube called Parkrose Permaculture. Shes on a 1/4 acre lot in the city, and shes got like 40+ fruit trees, a bunch of fruit bushes, a veg garden, a beehive, chickens, turkeys, and ducks, a rain barrel system, grape and kiwiberry vines. Its super inspiring to see how much she crams into her space. Shes gone off the rails with political videos now and no garden videos anymore, so she doesnt put out anything good anymore, but if you watch her old food forest tour videos from years past, its super fascinating.

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Mine is not effecient at all. If it was i could have a lot more, but i value aesthetic appeal a bit too much. If I remember one of these days ill do a video tour. Maybe ill get a Google maps shot and draw it out. Probably would give a better sense of scale

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I was feeling pretty set with 15 trees on a half acre, which is not close to high density planting, but the neighbors had to take down some big shady trees so now I need to plant 4 more :joy:

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We have 30 acres here… 27 of that is growing hardwood timber.. several varieties of oaks.. white, post, chestnut, red, black oaks.. and lots of hickory varieties.. shagbark, mocker, red and pig… tulip poplar, maple, some pine and ash, sourwood, dogwood, redbud, serviceberry, persimmon etc, etc.. lots of wild flowers… sweet william, yellow and pink sorrel, wild violets, white and red trillium, Virginia creeper, wild hog peanut.

In the woods… we hunt.. and I do some forest farming. I have ginseng, goldenseal, mayapple, bainberry, maidenhair fern, cohosh (black and blue), Solomon seal, dewberries, wild muscadines, blackberries, persimmons, etc…

There are also some nice patches of deerberry, wild azalea, mountain Laurel.

Way too much grows in the woods to name them all.

Then we have 3 acres cleared.. a home built there.. and fields that I have mostly filled with fruit trees, fruiting bushes, garden, cane fruit, vine fruit, strawberry beds, raspberry beds.

I have around a dozen varieties of persimmons.. Americans, hybrids and asians. 5 mulberry varieties, j-plums, eu-plums, sweet cherry and tart cherry, 3 apple trees, 3 pear trees, 3 goumi bushes, 2 CHE trees, 7 blueberry bushes, several illini and kiowa blackberries, 2 muscadines (oh yes, oh my), 1 concord grape vine. Fig tree, raspberries in 3 different beds… around 100 total.

I probably forgot something.. I do have room for more.. but think what we have now meets our needs well. Several of my fruit trees are 2 3 4 years old and some are just starting to produce. Once we start getting full production we are going to have way more than we need… and will share with friends and family.. possibly even sell some at local farmers market.

TNHunter

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