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Comment by thelittleone | Hacker News Reader

A property with apple trees (and space to grow more) is seriously enviable. Hands in earth is one of my favorite therapies. I've been contemplating a move for a few years and this additional inspiration may just be the tipping point.

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If you have some space but not a lot, look up "Backyard Orchard Culture".

Practitioners have amazing yields with tiny 5' tall fruit trees. I've seen some people do things that seem crazy like 4 different trees in one planting hole and it works fine.

https://www.davewilson.com/home-garden/backyard-orchard-cult...

I have a potted miniature lime tree that spends 8 months of the year outdoors and the NYC winter indoors. It's easy to maintain and every year it produces more limes. This year I got at least 30. They taste unbelievable especially versus store purchased. Highly recommended.

the problem with trees is that it takes several years before the first fruit, and the slightest problem with weather will easily kill off all the season's batch... otherwise even more than tempting than an orchard would be an "edible forest"/"forest garden"

On a small plot especially you want lots of diversity. Plant many different species and varieties of fruit so you have something to harvest all year long. (Trying to preserve excess harvest can be fun at first but quickly becomes a time consuming chore). Different shapes and sizes of trees also allow you to partition the sunlight and soil resource more efficiently.

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