Outside my sun-room, facing South, is a hedge of 5-6 Spira (spiraea jap.) bush. They attract bees and butterflies and it has been maintenance free.
But recently one plant just died. It leaves an empty space. It is about 7’ wide. The window is about 5’ tall. So we need to fill this space.
I can buy another spira to replace. Or I can dig a small (root) offset from another plant, but it will be very slow to get established.
Or I can fill the space with a edible tree, like a fig tree. It is South facing and in front of the structure. But my main concern is the height of the fig tree. This is an idea area to get a strong fig tree. It could outgrow the height. Not sure severe pruning can control it.
I’d say you can try it and then dig it out if it gets too big, but by that time digging would be a lot of work, if not impossible.
It will want to block the windows for sure, and probably try to smother the spireas. How much room is in front until there is a walkway or something like that? I think you’d have to do aggressive summer pruning to keep it within 7’. And you probably want to plant at least 4’ from the wall to make picking and pruning easier.
The entire South side is open lawn, with neighbor in the far distance. I’ll be reluctant to dig since utility wires run from that side.
Right now I do have other areas to plant more fruit (fig) trees. Just thought this spot is idea for a fig. But low maintenance is clearly a main consideration.
What about a Japanese horizontal fig cordon with pruning vertical growth back to the cordon each year? I am planning to try that along the side of the house next season.
Some figs seem to have less vigor. Dalmatie is one that seems to stay around 4-5 feet tall. It doesn’t ripen as early as some which is important for shorter seasons. However, I managed around 100 large fruit from mine last year, and it looks like it’ll repeat that this year.
