Planning the Home Fruit Garden—By S. W. Fletcher 
HOW A DEFINITE SCHEME ON PAPER WILL SAVE EXPENSIVE ERRORS 
Michigan Agricul- 
tural College 
NOW AND INSURE MAXIMUM YIELDS OF HIGH GRADE FRUIT LATER 
HE chief point in planning a garden is to 
get from the given area as large a 
quantity and as great a variety as possible 
of the fruits that you relish most. This 
means that on very small areas, the small 
fruits—strawberries, currants, raspberries, 
blackberries, gooseberries, grapes, and the 
like, torether with vegetables, will dominate 
the garden. 
There may be a few tree fruits 
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CURRANTS AND GOOSEBERRIES 
QUINCES 
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Proposed fruit garden of % acre. The fruits sug- 
gested may be replaced by others requiring the same 
space. Arranged for convenience in tillage 
of favorite kinds, especially on the bounda- 
ries of the garden, but the main body of 
planting must necessarily be of small fruits, 
which lend themselves most successfully to 
intensive culture. The man who has only a 
city or suburban lot can rarely afford to give 
any of his valuable space to the culture of tree 
fruits. Moreover, tree fruits do not come 
into bearing until three to ten years from 
planting. The home-maker can get results 
50 Rods, 
i Rows Apples. 
2 Rows eer Cherries. 
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10 Rows Peaches. 
4 Rows Sour Cherries. 
Z Rows Quinces. 
Five-acre fruit garden, bordered by grass drives. 
80 Rods. 
Suggested for the country estate of the well-to-do. 
the second and _ third with small 
fruits. 
Many people who have a little land back of 
the house which can be planted immediately 
choke it up with fruit trees, planted ten 
feet apart, and then grow vegetables between 
the trees. Nine times out of ten, it would 
have been better to have left out the tree 
fruits, for they rarely do themselves justice 
when cramped in this way. A row or two of 
currants, raspberries, and a bed of straw- 
berries, will usually give far more satisfaction 
than the three or four trees which the same 
area of ground could support. A bearing 
plum tree ought to have not less than a circle 
of soil sixteen feet across. On this same 
circle of soil can be grown to perfection ten 
currant bushes, or twelve gooseberry bushes, 
or a row of raspberries or blackberries twenty- 
eight feet long, or enough strawberries to fill 
the saucers of all the ‘family for many an 
evening meal. In the larger gardens of one- 
quarter or one-half an acre, small fruits 
should also be most prominent; some fruit 
trees may be added, especially dwarf apples 
and pears, sour cherries, plums on myrobal- 
an stock, and other compact-growing trees. 
The smilie: the garden the lamar should 
be the proportion of summer and fall vari- 
eties. Winter varieties of apples and pears 
are staples; they can usually be bought on 
the general market at more reasonable prices, 
comparatively, than early varieties. The 
quickly perishable sorts are not only more 
difficult to buy in good condition on the gen- 
eral market, but they also come at a season 
when choice fresh fruit is most appreciated. 
years 
10 Rows Pears. 
5 Rows Plums. 
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JO Rows Gra 3 Rows Currants. 
6 Rows RediRaephenres 3 Rows Gooseberries. 
6 Rows Black Raspkerries. 26 Rows Strawberries. 
6 Rows Blackberries. 
It should 
produce enough fruit to supply a dozen families 
125 
Another consideration that should dictate 
in a large measure the kinds and amounts of 
fruit to be planted, is the degree of success 
with which each fruit can be grown in the lo- 
cality. The home fruit grower will do well 
to heed the warning of fruit zones, but he 
need not be as particular about it as the man 
who makes fruit growing his business. The 
amateur can afford, for example, to give 
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A fruit garden of % acre. The apples and pears may 
be dwarfs. All the tree fruits should be early varieties 
peach trees a protection of evergreen boughs 
or even to bend the trees down and cover 
them, if for these pains he can secure a mod- 
erate crop of choice fruit when no peaches 
could be raised without such care. He can 
afford, perhaps, to lay down and cover grapes, 
to spray very thoroughly and very often, and 
do many other things that might be alto- 
gether impracticable if the fruit were to be 
grown commercially. On the other hand, 
the fruit garden of a man of moderate means 
should be more than self-supporting; and in 
so far as it is composed of tender or ill-shaped 
fruits that require codling, it becomes more of 
a luxury. 
If a paper plan is made it is easier to dis- 
pose of the various fruits so as to secure the 
greatest economy of space. On paper it be- 
comes clear that there will not be enough 
room to put in another row of pears without 
crowding the peaches or that only twelve 
cherry trees can be planted in a row and still 
leave room for turning the horse at each end. 
Then there is the great advantage of having 
in definite, concrete form, a record of one’s 
own ideas at the time of planting for com- 
parison with other ideas that may come later. 
No extended arguments are needed to con- 
vince an alert amateur gardener who is .n 
earnest about his work that he should make 
a plan of the garden, before a tree or bush is 
bought. He will have this borne in upon 
him at the very outset of his labors, as a 
means of saving time and avoiding confusion. 
Too many fruit gardens are planted in a care- 
less, hap-hazard sort of a way, and so have 
no definite and logical arrangement. 
The plan should be drawn to a scale on 
stiff paper, and inked in. It should include 
besides the location of each large fruit plant 
‘L409 
