What is Backyard Orchard Culture?

About this episode

The episode discusses Backyard Orchard Culture and its approach to maximizing fruit harvest in small spaces.

This is a free preview of a paid episode. To hear more, visit gardenbasics.substack.com 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.

People in this episode

Host: Farmer Fred

Guest: Ed Laivo

Topics covered

• Backyard Orchard Culture
• fruit varieties
• summer pruning
• home gardening
• prolonged harvest

Keywords

• backyard orchard
• fruit trees
• summer pruning
• harvest
• home gardening

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Dave Wilson Nursery

More episodes of Beyond the Garden Basics

• Your Garden vs. Summer Heatwaves · June 12, 2026 · 23 min
• Other Vegetables That Love the Heat · June 5, 2026 · 11 min
• A Deep Dive Into Citrus Containers · May 29, 2026 · 49 min
• Your 7 Favorite Beyond the Garden Basics Newsletter Editions · May 22, 2026 · 16 min
• The No-Turn, Easy Compost Pile · May 15, 2026 · 16 min
• Is This the Longest Lasting Cut Flower? Perhaps. But, Beware. · May 8, 2026 · 8 min