Jackie French's tips on growing dwarf fruit trees

But big trees need space. If you have a small backyard, forget plans to have a bunya forest. Spreading chestnut trees need village smithy-sized spaces to house them.

Ditto walnuts, though you can get away with pecans by pruning off all the lower branches and making it tall and sticky till it's at least six metres tall and sunlight can peer under the (eventually) spreading branches (although you then have a tree that, if it requires any attention at all, is going to require really tall ladders or the hire of a cherry picker to deal with).

Smaller fruit trees mean you don't need a ladder to pick them, though if you are as short as me you still need to tempt a passing longer-limbed male to harvest the top stuff. (Note: the crumble recipe below makes an excellent bribe.)

The past 20 years have been good for fruit growers with small gardens, with more and more dwarf or semi-dwarf varieties. The true dwarf ones, about mid-calf high, are more novelties than trees, but the ones that grow to two metres, or a little higher, are excellent.

They even suit even patios, if you have really big pots. You also need to have an excellent memory and complete reliability in the matter of water and feeding because roots in pots don't have the chance to forage for themselves. You need to do it for them, though you can rig up an automatic watering system, and even add soluble fertiliser to it, as long as you also remember to mulch the pots twice a year so the soil doesn't turn into concrete.

And every few years, you will have to somehow renew the potting mix so make sure the pots you use as well as being large are a suitable shape for tipping out the (now fairly large) tree, removing the soil and repotting. This means that any pot that is narrower at the top than lower down is a potential nightmare and might even require breaking to remove its contents.

Dwarf fruit trees also make great hedges, along the fence or instead of a fence as long as the fence isn't used to keep out wandering livestock. You also need to acknowledge the unwritten law (at least I think it is unwritten) that any fruit that hangs over your boundary belongs to whoever snaffles it. Which means it would be a kindly neighbourhood activity to plant lots of front fence fruit trees, delicious apples (as opposed to Delicious apples that can taste of terpentene I like Jonathons best), plums, lots of bramble berries, to tempt the neighbour into healthy, early morning, fruit snacking-type walks.

Dwarf fruit trees mean you can fit more in, too. Lots of apple varieties, fruiting for a lovely six months of apple; more varieties of peaches early, medium, late and very late. They have other advantages as well:

WHICH TREES?

Apples

The most common "dwarf apples" are Granny Smith, Lady Williams and Delicious, but you can find lots of others. Go hunting on the Internet for specialist apple suppliers. Just key in "dwarf fruit trees" and see what you get or ask your local nursery what trees they can find for you.

Specialist growers grow literally hundreds of varieties of dwarf apple. There are even dwarf apple trees for tropical areas.

Most dwarf apple trees grow between two and three metres high and two metres wide, though you can prune them so they stay smaller. If space is really a problem, go for the "Ballerina" range of "columnar" apples that form just one trunk with small shoots and fruits along it.

Dwarf apple trees bear earlier than full-sized trees, but I've found that with their smaller root system dwarf apples are not quite as hardy as normal-sized apple trees in a drought. Peaches and nectarines.

Most dwarf peaches and nectarines are very small trees indeed, like Nectarzee, a yellow-fleshed nectarine, or Pixzee, a yellow-fleshed peach, growing no more than a metre high, though some dwarf peaches or nectarines grow to about two metres.

These trees have stunning blossom in spring and don't need the severe yearly pruning that the larger trees do, but their flavour isn't as good as some of the larger varieties. Go for the semi dwarf ones, and you'll have far better flavor, especially the white paradisical fleshed nectarines

Pears

Most pears are big trees, but you can sometimes buy pears grafted onto quince stock, which gives smaller trees. We've kept our nashi pear to two metres with heavy pruning each winter, mostly so it doesn't fill the gutters with fruit each autumn.

Plums

Dwarf plums exist again, hunt the internet but you might not find them at your local nursery. Gulfgold is a semi-dwarfing modern plum that is more often available.

Almonds

Most almond trees grow large, and you need two for cross pollination, but the All-in-One dwarf almond is also self fertile. Its almonds are pretty good, too. Like all almonds it is very, very drought hardy. Once it's established (i.e. after three or four years) it'll survive just about any drought. Don't panic if it loses its leaves in late summer in hot dry weather it's just going dormant early to survive.

Mulberries

We had no luck with mulberries till I planted a dwarf tree. It's not all that dwarf about two metres by two metres. The others all grew well but they didn't fruit much. Ours is a dwarf black mulberry and totally delicious, fruiting from early to late spring a good three months.

Pomegranates

Most nurseries will stock both dwarf and semi-dwarf pomegranates. Check the label to make sure your dwarf pomegranate is a fruiting variety. Some dwarf pomegranates are grown are for their flowers and stunning autumn leaves and won't ever fruit, so make sure you get a good fruit-bearing variety before you buy.

Cherries

Most cherries are massive trees. Compact Stella is not only a great-tasting cherry but also self fertile she doesn't need another variety to pollinate her. She'll also crop in slightly warmer climates than most cherries. And if your birds are cherry guzzlers like ours, a net is the only way to keep most of the cherries for yourself. There are a few other dwarf self-fertile cherries around now too, though I haven't grown any yet. Taste wise, they are yummy.

Oranges and other citrus.

Seedling orange trees can grow to about 20 metres, but the citrus you buy at the nursery have been grafted onto various rootstocks. Trifoliata rootstock produces fairly small trees and there is a very dwarfing trifoliata variety that produces true dwarf orange trees. As with many dwarf fruit trees though, dwarf orange trees aren't always available every year in the nurseries.

Chinotto trees are sometimes sold as a variety of cumquat, as their fruit is cumquat sized, but unlike cumquats, which are Fortunella, not true citrus, chinotto are really small sour oranges, and the chinotto tree only grows to about two metres high. The fruit makes great juice and marmalade, but it's pretty sour straight from the tree.

You can sometimes buy dwarf lemon trees, but the Meyer lemon (really a cross between a lemon and a sour orange) can be kept to about two metres, and works well on large pots. Tahitian limes, too, though not dwarf trees, can be kept neatly pruned to no more than two metres high.

Cumquats can grow to about six metres high, so don't depend on them to stay neat forever, unless they are in a pot, in which case they will probably slowly turn yellow as few cumquat owners feed their cumquats enough. But cumquats are very slow growing, so their owners might never realise they have a potential monster on their hands. Calamondins, often sold as cumquats, are hardier and faster growing, and will grow to three or four metres high quite quickly given good soil and tucker. Calamondins are possibly a cumquat/sour mandarin cross. Do not ever think of a calamondin as a dwarf tree, unless its destination is a pot.

Soft fruit

Soft fruits are also small fruits brambleberries that can be trained along fences, nicely thorny to increase the "Keep Out" power; jostaberries, the gooseberry/currant cross; Cape gooseberries, which don't taste of much but are fun to pick when their "lanterns" turn brown and papery and you can just see the yellow berry inside. They also tolerate shade, which few fruits do excellent for avid gardeners who are looking for something to plant as an understory.

I've found native limes to be good understory trees too, as many grow at the edges of rainforest in dappled light. And then there are blueberries think of the delight on kids faces if they can pick blueberries from your front garden on the way home from school, not to mention the blue stained fingers and school uniforms. Possibly best grown only in areas where the school uniforms are already blue. Ditto mulberries. Strawberries, can be grown in just about any climate in Australia if you choose the right varieties. Think a passionfruit, kiwi fruit or grape vines up a pole.

In other words, lack of space is no excuse not to have an orchard. No matter how full your garden is, there's a tree out there you can squeeze in somewhere. And no matter how full your life, there is time to plant it, pick it and watch the joy on kids' faces as they pluck fruit then crunch it, with true, atavistic fruit-loving joy.

Usually this is where I'd put "This week I'm ", but this week I am not doing anything vaguely gardening-like at all, except writing this and looking longingly at the apples that need picking and the bare spots I want to fill with winter cauliflowers and broccoli.

Crumbles are gloriously variable, depending what you have in the garden or can buy at a farmer's market, but apple is a good staple to add to other fruits. At the moment I'm adding blackberry-like marionberries (the fruit is fatter and the vines not as rampant).

A peach and apple crumble is a delight, especially with the fragrant late-season peaches, yellow fleshed and firm. Apricot crumble (too late alas this year) is one of the best, but we do have some apricot jam left, and this stirred into stewed apple is divine. Plum and apple; rhubarb and apple; quince and apple, all superb.

Crumble:

4-8 cups strewed fruit (see below)
1 cup self-raising flour
1 cup brown sugar
butter

NB: Do not add rolled oats, crushed nuts, muesli or cereal of any kind, or use margarine. The essence of a superb crumble is that delicate balance of sugar, butter and browned flour.

Mix flour and sugar. With your fingers rub in 1 tbsp butter, then add more slices of butter till it's all crumbly ... like soft breadcrumbs. Don't worry if you add a bit too much or too little a crumble is very forgiving.

Scatter the crumble crumbs onto the stewed fruit. Pop into a moderate oven. Cook for about 10-20 minutes till the top is just starting to turn gold. Eat with both cream and ice cream warm crumble and cold ice cream is one of the world's great delights.

Eat hot or cold... probably best is tepid i.e. pull it out of the oven as you serve your main course and it'll be waiting for you, crumbling gently, when you're ready for something sweet.

Any fruit can be stewed. If using marionberries or mulberries, make sure you remove the stems as they don't soften with cooking, and are so hard to remove that it is tempting to leave them on. The softer it is, the less time it takes to cook it. If you stew very soft fruit like raspberries too long, you end up with raspberry mush.

Remember, if you want your fruit to retain its shape add the sugar at the beginning of the cooking process; if, on the other hand, you want that lovely smooth pulpy result, stew the fruit without sugar and add the sugar at the end of the cooking time.

Always start with the firmer fruit, add as little water as possible you can always add more if it looks too dry then add the softer fruit when the first lot has softened.

Some fruit, like quinces and winter pears, need a lot of cooking. But cook slowly. if you boil fruit it goes mushy. Even the firmest fruit will all too suddenly get to the stage where it goes "squish".

Simmer as slowly as you can or cook in a casserole in the oven on about 200C. Stop cooking as soon as the fruit is almost soft. It will keep cooking in the hot syrup.

Keep in a covered container in the fridge for up to a fortnight, or freeze in syrup for up to three months.

Different apple varieties respond differently to stewing. Some stay reasonably intact in their original slices. Others, especially ones bred for cooking, will almost explode into the most wonderful snow. They need almost no liquid added, and will cook in about five minutes.