Trees or veggie garden?
There is something utterly satisfying about eating food you have grown, but if you don’t have room for both, consider and compare the effort and expense to set up and maintain either an orchard or a vegetable garden.
If you are short of space in a small section, you could still have seasonal fruit most of the year if you choose carefully. Generally, I would suggest food-producing trees provide a much bigger bang for your buck than a vegetable garden, and for much less effort. If you are looking to set up a small garden orchard, you could potentially produce fruit year-round.
Although I am a big fan of the veggie garden, if you had to evaluate the time versus productivity, I think the trees would win every time. A bit of TLC once or twice a year is all most established trees need, but the return on your investment can be huge. There is usually an abundance of fruit that can be preserved or swapped with neighbours and family and the fruit will taste so much better than in the shops.
A vegetable garden will need preparing, sowing, regular watering, weeding, feeding, possibly staking, insect control, and then of course just like in an orchard you will have losses.
If you are planning an orchard then it’s important to do some research to ensure you buy strong no-fuss varieties for our conditions and your situation.
A good list to cover you year-round would be a lemon, mandarin and apple x2 with an early and late variety, orange, plum, peach, and feijoa tree. Make sure you get self-fertilizing trees and you are set.
Autumn is the best time to order your trees and when the first rains come, pop them in the ground, stake them if needed for support, and mulch around the tree.
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