A friend of ours planted an orchard 14 years ago just after he moved into his house.
In his orchard he has different varieties of apples (eating and stewing) he also has a plum tree, a cherry tree and a pear tree. Some trees do better than others, some trees look plump and full of fruit as for others they don’t do as well. It could depend on the soil or the weather, his plum tree had fruit last year but none this year.
His orchard is in a corner of the garden away from being hit by footballs or hurls. His hens are free to roam around the orchard.
He planted the orchard because he wanted to help the environment and to attract bees. It’s a nice addition to a vegetable garden and a soft fruit garden.
He uses his apples and fruit for different things such as, stewing them, apple tarts, eating them, apple jelly and gives some of them to friends and neighbours.
The problem he has in autumn is wasps! The reason the wasps look for the apples is the sugar of the fruit, they drill little holes in the apples and go inside the apples, so you have to be careful when you pick apples.
Ewan