Frontyard Fruit Orchard - Design Dilema

[Girly]

My front yard (picture and drawing below) now is lawn + roses + fruit trees. I am working with a landscape designer to redo my front yard. Its 25’ * 25’ plus additional two 5’ strips

The key changes planned are

• adding a short wall (like in picture below)
• replacing lawn with mulch
• replacing sprinklers with bubble heads or drip
• replacing pathway to front door
• add many more fruit trees!
• may be add a little vegetable bed…

Need to make a decision with regards to the 5 Pluots (3.5 years old, healthy, producing plenty of fruit). What should I pick Option1 or Option2?

OPTION1 - KEEP - Design around these trees and add more fruit trees without pulling these out. PROS - I get to keep the trees. CONS - 2 out of 5 of the pluots will remain close to my neighbors lawn producing very bland fruits (his sprinklers run for an hour daily!!!)(also my garden is organic and the neighbor uses stuff that is not just non organic but also stuff that shud not even be used around edibles. )

OPTION2 - REPLACE - Remove the 5 pluots and put in new bare root trees. PROS - Can plant the new trees higher and farther away from the neighbor to avoid watered down fruits and keep it organic CONS - I lose the trees and there is the risk that the new ones may not do well

Front yard

Proposed mini wall design

Current Layout

Also any ideas to squeeze in more fruit trees - Highly appreciated!!!

Thank you!!!

[David_DeafGardening]

I got bullied in another post for not wanting scions that had chemicals on it, so I hope nobody lashes out or mocks your free choice to try to be organic here.

That said, have you already tasted the fruit last year and it was watered down, or is it assuming it will be? Have you tried asking your neighbor to not run the water or poisons in that location, and offer in barter a deal of free tree fruits when ripe you will basket up for his troubles?

I hate to see any good fruit tree pulled. It would be hard to transplant and recover.

I do like that lighted mini wall design!

[Bradybb]

To me,that’s quite a few fruit trees for that space and they’re going to get bigger.Maybe consider some smaller fruiting bushes to add to the scenery.
Pulling the the two trees near the neighbor’s yard,maybe be an idea.
So the wall,if built,will be along the border,between the properties?bb

[Uygi]

Depends on your rootstocks and soil… what’s going to fit?

With your keep vs. toss question, is it possible to map your new layout as if you were pulling them out, but only plant the new trees that don’t conflict with the old one right now? In a few years when you’re getting fruit from some new trees, then replace the older ones and fill back in the rest of the new design? That would be my vote if possible, it’s hard to go without fruit!

As far as having cultural control of your trees, if I were you I’d want to at least move in the direction of controlling anything that goes onto or into your trees, organic or not. Nothing would be worse than having your tree perfectly come into full, mature bearing and suddenly get hit with a lawn chemical that ruins/kills it.

[Ahmad]

For the trees close to your neighbor, I’d leave them for a few more years to have a good assessment of the effect of his lawn water on them. I read here before, that pluots are more tolerant of over watering than other fruits like nectarines for instance. For his chemicals, I doubt they will reach your fruit, as he is applying them to his lawn, not trees, right? In the meantime, I’d add a few similar trees in 25 gal pots and allow them to grow so that if you need to change the place if your current trees, you have a mature, fruiting, replacement (you wouldn’t have a few years with no fruit).

[rayrose]

You’ve said nothing about your back yard. Assuming you have room,
why not move the trees bordering your neighbors to your back yard,
and replace that space with the roses, thereby building a type of hedge between the two yards. The roses will love the extra water.
You already have way too may trees in your front yard. It may not seem that way now, but in a few years, when they get much bigger, you’ll realize what you’ve done.

[mrsg47]

Your current plan if left alone, the trees will create an enormous amount of shade. Think of the canopies.

[Mycorneroftheearth]

Yeah. I would agree with some of the others here. Pull the two trees by the neighbor. Put roses, A bench, and maybe a bird bath or a shade tolerant fruiting bush closer to your house. Those trees are gonna get big. You also need something to break up the symmetry. Its a bit of an eye sore on the aesthetic side of the design department.

[ltilton]

What rootstocks are these existing trees on? How much larger are they going to grow?

Have you checked municipal zoning regulations? Where I live, the parkway area is controlled by the municipality, which determines what trees are allowed to be grown there.

[David_DeafGardening]

Interesting. In my city unfortunately there is vagueness in who owns the sidewalks, curb cuts, and patches of land between them and the road. It means until this fall there was a section near a bank in the busy city without a sidewalk, and a Deaf elder in a wheelchair who had to go into the street and up where it started again to attend community events feared being hit by a car. It took me contacting the mayor, a neighborhood association president, and another man who plans roadwork and about 9 months more of the city and bank arguing to get that sidewalk built. It would be so much easier if parkways and sidewalks were all owned by and maintained by our city.

[ltilton]

It would be a shame to plant new trees there and be told you have to rip them out

[Stan]

@ltilton

What rootstocks are these existing trees on?

Rootstocks for most of the trees are indicated on the drawing in the opening post.

[Girly]

Thank you all!!! Here are the answers -

@Stan - Thanks!

@David_DeafGardening That is surprising, most of my knowledge on organic gardening was gained from this site, everyone is very patient and helpful!!! My neighbors are really nice people, more like family. They will do whatever I ask them to, that’s why I don’t want to impose on them.

@Bradybb - Yes the mini wall will be built on 3 sides of the front yard (drawing below)

@Uygi, @ltilton - All on Citation except 2 on Myro. Kept heavily pruned at 6-7ft. Yes trees on the parkway have approvals and not changing anything with the trees there.

@Ahmad - Yes its only the lawn that gets fertilized, no trees there except mine.

@rayrose, @Ahmad, @Uygi - Backyard is full of fruit trees as well - nectarines, peaches, apricots, apple, pears, berries, citrus, Plenty there for fresh eating, but no space to add more.

@rayrose @Mycorneroftheearth - Love the idea of roses! (Its in option2 below drawing)

@rayrose, @Bradybb, @mrsg47
I hear you and your right - its too many fruit trees!
Irrespective of option1/option2 whichever I pick (drawings below) Is the no# of trees (7) reasonable or do I need to cut down more? I plan to wait until bare root season to begin the work - so have a few months to decide.

Of the 5 trees

• 1 tree has crown gall but looks very healthy and no visible issues
• 1 tree I do want to replace with another variety
• 2 trees get too much water from neighbors sprinklers. Brix is lowest on these 2 trees < 10 due to over watering and not enough thinning. I will be aggressively thinning and reducing water this year to see if it improves brix.
• last one is fine, no issues

Option - 1 Keep -

Option - 2 Replace - seems bullet proof for all my issues - I actually like option2 but I am feeling guilty about ripping it all out…

above drawings are to scale 1 box is 1sq.ft - 6 feet spacing around all trees

[Stan]

I personally do not see a problem with the number of trees. With our California sun, shade is a plus. Also, trees start fruiting here very early and once they do vegetative growth is limited and can always be controlled via summer pruning.

[Girly]

Not related to fruit growing but I was also planning on replacing the old wood fence a white vinyl fence. Anyone have those? Are they good?
Thanks!