by Sammy Stein

Created on: February 20, 2010

Your back yard can become not only your haven from the world but also a place of great productivity. By choosing perennial fruit and vegetables, you can have a back yard that gives back almost as much as you give it. 

Whatever lay out you choose, whether you use traditional fruit and vegetable beds, a small bed system, raised beds or containers, make sure the lay out suits you, the site and that you can easily acess the area to maintain it.   

Choosing fruit for your garden means checking varieties and root stock. This determines the vigor, size and disease resistance of the tree so choose wisely. Your fruiting type will be on the scion and thisis the cropping variety. Suitable root stocks for limited spaces include the M or MM series for apples, Quince A for pears and Pixie for plums. Also ensure you know which pollinators are needed nearby for some varieties or use family trees (trees with several varieties on one root stock). 

Fruit trees can be grown in their natural shape or you can train them in espalier, cordon or double fans. Use spur bearers for trained varieties as tip bearers will lose fruit buds when you prune the tree to shape.

Fruit can also be decorative. Many have lovely flowers such as blackberries and hybrid berries and you can trained over a fence or arch. Keep growth contained and avoid allowing thorny shoots to overhang pathways.

Strawberries can make a lovely perennial crop for your yard. They need to be moved every 3 years to avoid pest build up but with care and attention, the plants will re-grow for many seasons. You can also try growing them in strawberry barrels or towers which hold lots of  plants and give a long supply of fruit. Containers save mud, rotting and the crop can easily be protected against pests. It also means the fruit are more difficult for slugs to reach. Potato tower pots are similar and good to try in limited space for along crop of potatoes..

When planing perennial crops, they will be long term members of your garden community so plan for this and include measuring the site, marking out the plantings, and ensuring good horticultural practices are put in place. Use plant spacing, and companion plantings for pest control.

Rhubarb and other perennial crops can provide foliar interst in the garden as well and provide established growing sites. This method of potaging has been practiced for many centuries and is a great way to

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