Planting a traditional apple orchard in a small garden

Start with the sunniest patch you have

An apple tree is a long-term neighbour, so it pays to spend a fortnight watching your garden before you spend a penny on a sapling. Apples want sun — a minimum of six hours a day through the growing season, ideally more. A south-facing border against a fence or wall is ideal, and the residual warmth held by brick or stone will nudge fruit ripening along by a week or two in a cool year.

Look for the frost pocket too. Cold air slides downhill and settles in hollows and at the bottom of slopes, and blossom caught by a late May frost will simply drop off. If your only open spot is a hollow, plant there anyway but choose a later-flowering variety so the blossom arrives after the danger has passed.

Think about roots as well as branches. Apples are shallow-rooted and resent competition from thirsty hedging, mature conifers and greedy lawn. Keep two metres clear around each planting position, and remember that a tree planted near a boundary will eventually lean over it — check with your neighbour before you dig, and keep the trunk at least a metre inside your own line.

Match the tree to the space: rootstocks explained

The single most useful thing a small-garden grower can learn is that the rootstock, not the variety, decides how big the tree becomes. Traditional orchards were planted on vigorous stock and spaced ten metres apart; you are not doing that.

• M27 — the smallest, a true dwarf. Reaches roughly 1.5–1.8 m. Needs permanent staking and rich soil. Good for a patio or a 1 m border.
• M9 — dwarfing, about 2–2.5 m. The classic choice for cordons, espaliers and small gardens. Also needs staking for life.
• M26 — semi-dwarfing, 2.5–3.5 m. Forgiving, crops early, tolerates poorer soil. A sensible default for most gardens.
• MM106 — semi-vigorous, 3.5–5 m. Fine for a larger plot, a half-standard or a small traditional orchard of six or eight trees.

A trained form is often the better answer than a free-standing tree. A cordon takes 60 cm of ground; an espalier along a fence gives you several varieties in a single run and looks handsome even in winter. If you have room for three or four trees, choose two on M26 as standards and two on M9 trained as cordons, and you will have fruit over a long season from a surprisingly modest patch.

Prepare the ground properly

Autumn planting is best in most of the UK — the soil is warm and moist, and roots establish before the spring push. Clear perennial weeds first; couch grass and bindweed will out-compete a young tree and are far harder to remove later.

Dig a hole roughly twice the width of the rootball and the same depth. Break up the sides and base with a fork, particularly on clay, but do not add a thick layer of rich compost at the bottom — the roots will circle within it rather than reaching out. Mix a couple of handfuls of garden compost or well-rotted manure with the backfill instead.

If your soil is heavy clay, plant slightly proud, mounding soil around the base, so water does not sit in the planting hole through winter. On thin chalk or sandy ground, dig in plenty of organic matter over the whole bed the season before. Aim for a pH near neutral; if you garden on very acid moorland soil, a dusting of garden lime worked in a few weeks ahead will help.

Choosing traditional varieties that work locally

Local knowledge is worth more than any catalogue. Ask at a farmers' market, a community orchard or an allotment site which varieties crop reliably within a few miles of you, and buy from a nursery that grows its stock in a similar climate.

For a small garden, prioritise varieties that are partially self-fertile or that flower over a long period, since you may only have room for two trees. Good traditional choices include:

• Ashmead's Kernel — an old Gloucestershire apple, russeted and intensely flavoured, keeps well into the new year.
• Egremont Russet — compact, reliable, good in the north and west, with a nutty flesh that improves in store.
• Keswick Codlin — a hardy northern cooker, ready in late August, excellent for pies and chutney.
• Bramley's Seedling — a triploid, so it needs two other varieties nearby to pollinate it; grow it only if you have space for a trio.
• Discovery — early, bright red, best eaten within a fortnight of picking; a lovely garden apple for the south.

Check flowering groups — a variety in group 2 and one in group 5 will barely overlap. Pick varieties within one group of each other, or accept that you will rely on a neighbour's crab apple down the road.

Planting day and the first few years

Soak bare-root trees for an hour before planting. Set the tree so the old soil mark sits level with the ground, spread the roots over a cone of soil, and firm in gently in stages with your heel. Stake dwarfing trees immediately with a stout stake driven in at 45 degrees or upright on the windward side, and tie with a soft rubber tie that you check each spring.

Water generously through the first two summers — a full watering can every few days in dry spells, not a daily trickle. Mulch 8 cm deep with well-rotted manure or bark, keeping it clear of the trunk. Remove the first flowers in year one and the second year's crop entirely, so the tree puts its energy into roots and framework. It feels brutal; it repays you threefold later.

Train cordons and espaliers from the first winter, tying in shoots and cutting back the rest to three buds. Free-standing trees need little beyond removing crossing branches and keeping a clear, open centre. Expect a proper crop from about year four or five — and thirty years of blossom, fruit and cider to follow.