Make a mini orchard

Would you like to make more of idle garden spaces? Bob shows you how to turn your lawn into a mini orchard

- Bob Flowerdew

A LAWN is an excellent place for kids to play games, and as the setting for beds of flowers. Many of us also have energy-wasting 'stop-gap' lawns, cut weekly, though never planned, wanted or really used. One idea is to convert all or part of the lawn to wildflower meadows to attract more wildlife. But if you want to grow more produce, what are your options?

Well, why not turn your lawn into an orchard? Of course, unless you have a huge lawn, it can hardly become a conventional orchard that has full-sized trees (called 'standards') with branches starting at shoulder height extending into a canopy above our heads. Even the more compact semi-vigorous trees/bushes require quite a lot of space, so only a few can be squeezed into smaller lawns. But we can make more of dwarfing rootstocks which make miniature trees, often reaching no more than knee, waist or shoulder high.