What is Backyard Orchard Culture?

What is Backyard Orchard Culture? According to Dave Wilson Nursery, the goal of Backyard Orchard Culture is the prolonged harvest of tree-ripe fruit from a small space. This means planting close together several fruit varieties that ripen at different times and keeping the trees small by summer pruning.

According to today’s podcast guest, Ed Laivo, the backyard garden is not a place for a commercial orchard, where all the fruit and nut trees are planted 20 feet apart and get 20-30 feet tall. For thirty years, Ed has championed the idea that the backyard gardener needs only to grow enough fruit to feed the family, as safely and economically as possible.