I am looking to increase the productive space in my yard for fruit while still leaving space to increase my vegetable garden as well. I have an oddly shaped corner lot with several utility obstructions (2 electrical boxes, light pole, power pole, guide wires for power pole). The 18 acre lot across the street is currently being developed (single family residences) because of the likelihood that utilities will need to dig in my yard and the unbearably rocky clay we are blessed with in Southwest Missouri I am leaning toward growing in pots to avoid having to uproot my trees repeatedly.
This has opened up a new space that I had not considered before, the parking strip.
I have roughly 80 x 11 feet of eastern exposure on one side of my driveway and about another 16 x 11 on the other side.
Does any one have experience with growing fruit in the parking strip? Any thing I would need to consider? I also have questions about growing fruit trees in pots (probably root pouches) long term. Do you find your fruit trees are easily tipped over in the wind? I am also concerned about winterizing or protecting the trees during the winter.
In case it helps right now I have only apples and figs (which go in the garage for the winter) eventually I would like to add persimmon, jujube, Asian pear, apricot and plums.
Any advice or experience you can offer would be appreciated!
Parking strip considerations: Theft, vandalism, the need to judiciously prune to prevent fruit from falling in the walk or street. The strip is certainly wide enough and level enough that falling fruit will not travel far. Often plants in a parking strip do not get watered as often as yard plants.
In my city no fruit trees are allowed on the easement, which is what this area is called here. And they will remove the tree. Best check rules before you plant anything Emily. Technically this is city property, part of the road!
The only restrictions I can find from my utility are vague. They basically say that you can landscape/plant trees but that the utility has the right to remove them to work. It suggests giving the utility a 10 foot lane to use around permanent landscaping. The tree restrictions don’t address fruit trees at all they just say have a mind to tree height and don’t plant something the city will have to pay to remove in 15-20 years. I will admit that the reason the guideline is so vague is that they may not have run into this situation before but I don’t want to call to ask because pretty much the entirety of my lot that isn’t already utilized is a mess of utility property around electrical boxes etc. This is the main reason I’m thinking of growing in pots though. In theory, if work needed to be done and I was notified I could move the trees to another location temporarily.
Vandalism and theft are definitely things to be concerned about. Because of my corner, oddly shaped lot I also have my vegetable garden in the side/front yard (you can just see the corner of the rabbit fence in the picture) and I was very concerned about theft but so far at least it hasn’t been an issue. I think at least part of that is that no one recognizes what the food they regularly eat looks like while growing, but that’s a whole different topic, and that certainly wouldn’t be the case for fruits; they are almost universally recognized.
move all your ornamentals to the strip and plant fruit closer to the house. I have a few types a barberry and big ole little leaf Linden tree on my strip, Shade trees add value and curb appeal.
Over on the old site there was a thread about theft, which was a big problem for some people. But there’s a fine line between theft and inadvertent vandalism. Thieves pulling off fruit will damage the trees. If there are kids around, they WILL pull off fruit.
Well that is clear enough for me to say go for it, you can sight their own rules if they hassle you!
I would not put your best stuff there though! Maybe experiments and such!
Serviceberries, the ones with the good taste will make the nice hedge and most people do not recognize them as edible. The same is for honeyberries and probably many other bushes. Paw paws is said to look nice and the fruits do not look very edible too. Persimmon’s fruit are astringent, so nobody will want to take the second bite after the first one. Chestnuts or hazelnuts will also go unnoticed. Some pears which are taken from the tree before they are ripe also may work.
Persimmons, Asian pears and plums are all on my list and I think would confuse people at least for awhile.
I had the chance to purchase a serviceberry when I first moved in to my house about 4 years ago and I ended up going with an ornamental flowering crabapple instead, now I’m kicking myself! I wish I had gone with more edibles as landscaping when I first purchased my house.
I wish I had thought more about using edibles in my landscaping when I first moved in and wasn’t in this pickle now. Unfortunately, I was more focused on planting shade trees. My house was almost 7 years old and no one had done any landscaping, leaving the east and west Windows very exposed. I planted a few trees knowing that it will probably be 15 years until there is actually any cooling benefit in the house. Anyway, those plantings are now mature enough that I can’t move them easily and I don’t want to lose the money I invested in them by ripping them out. Also, the 18 acre plot across the street is being developed now and I have a feeling that my parking strip and parts of my driveway will be dug up in order to connect in to the water main for the new houses. Anything, I put there in the next several years will need to be somewhat transportable.
Emily,
Just food for thought, I tend to bend the branches of fruit trees down particularly pears for early fruiting and keeping my trees at pedestrain height.
The width of the strip of land you show is not very wide. Over the years, the sizes of those trees could get in a way of people walking. You could train your trees with the first set of scaffolds high up, but you may need a ladder to pick your fruit.
I agree with someone earlier who suggested moving shrubs and flowers there and plant fruit trees closer to you house.
Hmm, It seems the main problem is the potential for fruit to create a hazard on the street or sidewalk. I do not mind very small trees/reduced harvest because I think I am a variety person above all else. Does anyone have experience keeping apples/pears/plums in root pruning pots? It seems logical that keeping fruit trees in 15-20 gallon root pouches would limit their ultimate size/spread. I realize that would be higher maintenance for me but it may allow me to make that space usable. I guess I would also need to ask does anyone have experience overwintering trees in pots outside in zone 6b? I have garage space for figs and maybe a persimmon, but I know I don’t have space for as many trees as I potentially want.
Nice reply Drew. In my city nut trees are also forbidden. But get this. Once I discovered that, I tried to force the city to remove a large black walnut in the easement, which had killed a lot of my plants. They said no. Now I am growing sunflowers in the easement, also not permitted, there is apparently a truce on the matter and wondering if it is time to try a mulberry some distance from the BW. I also liked the reply of LarryGene, but there are ways around. Here few people like or know mulberry, Juneberry, or pawpaw. City crews would not know them either. There are other candidates, hazelnuts, seaberry (especially with seaberry you can expect very little vandalism).
In my town, the city sets the ordinance on planting in the parking. So contacting the city (unless they are the utility) is probably another thing to do for due-diligence before planting.
We can plant in the parking, but you have to pay $20 to do so and have the city approve the tree species to be planted, and it must meet a certain caliper requirement. The result of all this red-tape? Probably 1/25 houses have a tree in the parking.
They might utilize that area for gas and water mains. If so, you can bet that about the time the trees get to a point where you really care about them, the gas line or whatever will need servicing. Tree…meet backhoe, backhoe, meet tree.
