Whether it’s an apartment patio, suburban yard, or commercial orchard. Just curious on how much land everyone is growing their fruits. And, on approximately what percentage of that land have you set aside for just growing fruits?
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Well, we have officially 50 acres, but most of it is hilly wooded areas. In the summer we maintain, that is, mow, weed eat, trim mow, about 2 acres. All our trees and berry plants are in that area. How much of that 2 acres is used for fruit? Maybe 20%?
More of it is used for veggie gardens, we had 3 plots last year, but have had as many as 5. We are trying to consolidate our gardens so as to be able to protect them better from deer.
Only a couple years ago did I start mowing (rider) our back “orchard”, which has 13 trees, so that added some time. With our riding mower, it takes now about 2 hours to mow our area.
We have about 3 acres of nice, cleared pasture land that isn’t being used, but I’m not planning on turning that into another orchard.
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Between the side yard, the berry patch, and the alley…I have a total of 216 sq ft…now you know why I have to be so selective…
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I grow on 3 lots, but only a few on two. Put them all together 85% of one lot, and I have over 40 cultivars of trees thanks to multi-grafted trees and backyard orchard culture. . If you count figs then over 100 cultivars. All are healthy and produce or have potential to produce fruit. Enough to last all winter. Adding more this year.
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I grow on a little over half an acre. Actually I don’t use much of it for fruit trees. I have large maple and pine trees so the sunny space is limited. I grow mostly in the back yard against two edges of the property. After the new tree additions this spring I will have a total of 13 trees again.
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A 31x14’ area for random densely planted fruit trees and berries. A 14’ row for blueberries. A 12’ row for raspberries and blackberries. Adding a 10x3’ area for espalier figs against the side of the house this year. So that’s about 550 sqft total… almost a whole 1/64th of an acre. 
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I have about 3/4 acre for growing stuff, but maybe a third of that is shaded, and part of the rest has no real soil where a tennis court used to be.
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got 1.5 acres that used to be my wifes lawn, converted a acre of it into a sort of food forest. have 35 varieties of fruit/ nut bushes and trees planted in rows and a 10’ by 20’ portable greenhouse on the property as well. a lot is grown in cedar raised beds to improve drainage. always tweaking it. last year i started pulling things that i didn’t like or didn’t preform well here and replacing with new more productive varieties. adding some more newer raspberries and cold hardy blackberries once i remove my aronias. making another raised bed for some cranberries and blueberries.
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I have two acres. I fence a small portion that has the majority of my trees. Probably 100x30’. I also have a few other fruit trees growing as ornamentals in different parts of my yard.
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Sounds like I’m in the middle of the pack here … 1/4th to 1/3 acre.
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You fit a lot on that, about all I have too, it’s working well for me. I wish I had more room to play on though. I have enough fruit though, just for experiments in breeding it would be nice to have more room.
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We have about 4 or 5 acres of cleared sunny growing area on the property. We just started planting about 3 years ago, so we only have about 20 fruit trees going so far. We also have a 1 acre vegetable garden that we share with family and friends. Since this is my first post here, I’ll try to give a photo of part of the property:
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About 2/3rds of an acre. I haven’t been able to get a great picture of the area but here’s a few that kind of bring it together. This is pretty tough to maintain throughout the year – fighting against groundhogs and deer, keeping up with sprays, weeding, weeding, weeding – but I still wish it was a bit larger.
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55 acres total here where I have the orchard. We are in the USDA Tree Farm program
and 28 acres of that is old growth woods. Of the 27 acres remaining I keep 12 acres as meadow for pollinator habitat. Of the remaining 15 acres I have 4,000 or so fruit trees planted with another 1,200 in my three nurseries to be planted. And am grafting 300 new trees this year so that means 300 need to get planted this Spring to make room !
Derek Mills
Hocking Hills Orchard in the Hocking Hills of SE Ohio
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We have a total of 26 acres of which 10 ish are wooded. Horses run on ~13. That leaves about 3 acres that includes house/barn/paddock. I figure we are using ~2 acres for planting. Veggie garden, asparagus beds, blackberries, strawberries, muscadines and about 80 fruit trees. I still have room for more trees. I TOTALLY ADMIRE you guys that are growing what you do on tiny areas of land. I don’t have the concept of how to do it but I have enjoyed reading of your exploits!
Katy
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I was not having great success raising fruit in our one-acre yard, which was steep and mostly sand with a lot of oak trees. I finally found a 7-acre parcel on foreclosure that is partially wooded. The vegetable garden area is former cowyard. Wonderful soil! I have a two or three acres of bushes and trees planted, but most not producing much yet. There is still a vacant pasture where I have offered garden space to friends, but none have taken me up on it, so it will remain an area for wildlife. I’m too old to keep planting more trees.
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nice property! welcome to your new addiction! id go bankrupt trying to fill that space!
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My total lot area is 1/3 of an acre (including the house), about 80% of the yard is shaded and I crammed 24 fruit trees, a small veggie garden and potted figs in the 20% that gets ~8h of sun daily. When I bought my house eight years ago, I had no idea that I will get hooked into growing fruit trees! Plan to move to a house with a bigger lot after I send the kids to college…
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I wish my land is just your size. Our lot is .84 acre total. My husband is responsible for mowing the lawn. He complains and threats that he will pull out of my fruit trees if I dig more holes and plant more. Because he got more work to do when mowing the lawn.
If 1/3 or 1/4 acre,I can just use push mower to do myself.
My fruit trees:
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