A grove sounds grand. In a back garden it means something modest and satisfying: five or six fruit trees, planted with a bit of thought, cropping for twenty years or more. Get the siting and the soil right and most of the hard work is done in a weekend. Get them wrong and you will spend the next decade watching trees sulk in the shade. This guide works through the decisions in the order they matter — where to plant, how much room you really have, and how to get an apple, a pear and a plum into the ground properly.

Pick the sunniest, most sheltered spot you have

Fruit trees want light. Aim for at least six hours of direct summer sun, and more if you can get it — plums and pears need warmth to ripen properly, and sugar comes from sunshine, not from feeding. Morning sun matters more than evening sun, because it dries the dew off leaves and fruit early in the day. That single detail does more against scab, canker and mildews than any spray you might buy.

Shelter is the second thing to check, but you want the right kind. A hedge or a fence with gaps lets air move through; a solid wall can create gusts and eddies that rock young trees loose. What you really need to avoid is the lowest corner of the garden. Cold air slides downhill and settles there on still nights, and a pocket of frost in late April will take your blossom and with it the year's crop. A gentle slope, even a slight one, is better than a hollow.

Drainage is the last test, and it is quick. Dig a hole a spade deep, fill it with water, and come back in a few hours. If it is still full, you have heavy ground. That is not a deal-breaker: plant on a low mound of improved soil, or put the trees into a raised bed. Standing water around roots in winter kills more young fruit trees than cold ever does.

Work out how much room you actually have

The single most useful thing to understand before you order anything is the rootstock. The variety gives you the fruit; the rootstock gives you the size. A 'Bramley' on a dwarfing rootstock is a small tree you can pick from flat-footed. The same variety on a vigorous one becomes something you need a ladder for. Nursery catalogues list the rootstock next to the name, and it is worth reading.

As a rough guide, in decent soil and a reasonable climate:

• Apple M27 — very dwarf, roughly 1.5m. Needs permanent staking and suits a large pot or a tiny plot.
• Apple M9 — dwarf, around 2m. Ideal for cordons and small bushes.
• Apple M26 — semi-dwarf, around 2.5–3m. The sensible middle ground for most gardens.
• Apple MM106 — semi-vigorous, 3.5–4.5m. One for a bigger garden or a grassy orchard corner.
• Pear Quince C and Quince A — the smaller and larger options; pears are generally a little less compact than apples.
• Plum Pixy and St Julian A — Pixy for a small garden, St Julian A for a proper tree.

Space bush trees three to four metres apart on dwarfing rootstocks, more on vigorous ones. If your garden is narrow, train trees instead of letting them bush out: cordons along a fence at 75–90cm apart, or espaliers and fans flat against a south- or west-facing wall. Trained trees crop surprisingly heavily for the ground they occupy.

Prepare the ground before you plant, not after

If you can, deal with perennial weeds a season ahead. A year of smothering couch grass or bindweed under cardboard and compost is far easier than fighting it around a young tree, where you cannot dig without cutting roots. Fruit likes a soil that is slightly acid to neutral, well drained, and open enough for roots to travel. It does not need to be rich.

Improve the whole planting area rather than just the hole. Fork over a patch a metre or so across for each tree and work in well-rotted manure or garden compost. Do not sink a pocket of pure manure at the bottom of the planting hole; roots will circle in it and the tree will sit stubbornly in the same spot for years. On heavy clay, fork in grit and plant slightly proud of the surrounding soil so water drains away from the trunk.

One warning worth repeating: avoid ground where an old fruit tree or a rose has recently grown. Such spots tend to leave young trees stunted for no obvious reason, and there is no reliable cure once they are in.

Choose varieties that will pollinate each other

Apples and pears generally need a partner that flowers at the same time, so check the pollination group before you buy. A crab apple covers a wide range of apple varieties and earns its space by feeding the bees as well. Most plums also want company, though 'Victoria' is reliably self-fertile and forgiving, which is part of why it is so widely grown.

Buy bare-root trees if you can, from November to March. They are cheaper, there is far more choice, and they establish faster than potted stock because the roots go straight into garden soil. Choose varieties you will actually eat, and stagger the ripening: three apples that crop in August, October and December give you a long season instead of one frantic fortnight of windfalls. A local nursery will tell you which varieties do well nearby without constant spraying — local varieties have usually survived there for a reason.

Planting day, step by step

1. Stand the bare roots in a bucket of water for an hour. Trim any roots that are broken or badly torn with clean secateurs.
2. Dig a hole wide enough for the roots to spread out fully. Check the depth against the soil mark on the trunk — the graft union must end up well above ground level.
3. Drive the stake in first, on the windward side, so you do not pierce roots afterwards. Dwarfing rootstocks need a stake for life.
4. Set the tree on a cone of soil so the roots drape naturally downwards, then backfill in layers, firming gently with your heel as you go.
5. Water heavily — several gallons, even if rain is forecast. This settles soil around the roots and matters more than anything else you do that day.
6. Mulch 5–8cm deep with well-rotted compost or bark, pulled clear of the trunk. Keep it clear for the first year, too.
7. Tie the tree with a soft tie in a figure of eight so the stem can move without rubbing.
8. If you have a tall bare-root whip, cut it back to around 60–75cm to encourage branching — but only apples and pears. Leave plums alone at planting and prune them in summer instead.

The first two summers decide everything

Water young trees properly in dry spells: a good soak of twenty litres a week is far better than a daily sprinkle, and sandy soil will need more than clay. Keep a metre-wide ring free of grass and weeds, because grass competes hard with a young root system for both water and nutrients.

Do not overfeed. Too much nitrogen produces leafy growth, few flowers, and soft shoots that aphids adore. A spring mulch or a balanced general feed on poor ground is plenty. Prune apples and pears in winter while dormant, and plums and cherries in summer rather than winter, which reduces the risk of silver leaf infection getting into the cuts. Thin heavy crops of dessert apples in early summer, leaving a fruit every 10–15cm, and the remaining fruit will be bigger and the branches less likely to break.

Keeping it going

Expect little in the first year and a decent picking by the third or fourth. Walk the grove with a cup of tea in winter and look at the shape of each tree: remove crossing branches, keep the centre open, and aim for a goblet rather than a thicket. Keep a note of what crops when and what actually tastes good, because in five years you will have forgotten which plum was the disappointing one.

If you rent your home, or the garden sits under a covenant or within a conservation area, it is worth checking before planting anything that will grow into a substantial tree near a boundary. Small stakes, clear records and a little patience are all a back-garden grove really asks for — and the first bowl of fruit you carry indoors in late summer makes the whole thing feel like a very good decision.

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