I'm a first time gardener and taking on an orchard no less : o I want to plant our own trees and have decided that espaliating them would be our best option. Does this look right though : 3m between rows of trees. 3m between individual trees in the rows. Can I group all the same trees next to eachother or are there any trees that should NOT be planted close to any others ? Also, we have clay soil so I will mix in gypsum with the compost and make a "doughnut" of straw around the raised base. Anything else you can think of ?

Brilliant idea! I am also a beginner gardener and have planted many fruit trees recently. Some of the tips I can offer are: Make sure there is easy walking access to each tree/area. See if you can stagger them with smaller ones at the front and larger ones at the back so they all get good sun. Even consider some of the dwarf varieties (they still produce full sized fruit) for the front. I also have clay soil, so made sure when I planted the trees I dug extra deep holes and put in some pebbles for drainage, and a good helping of compost before putting in the trees. I have also heavily mulched around them with a deep layer of autumn leaves topped with peastraw to stop the leaves blowing away - but in a doughnut shape so the trunk of the tree is not covered. I put down a bit of blood and bone under the mulch - apparently this helps the leaves to break down faster and stops too much nitrogen being extracted from the soil while they break down. Once they do break down, they will add all sorts of goodness to the soil - I hope! The other advantage is that the mulch is helping keep them "warm" through our frosty winter, and will help reduce evaporation over summer, so reduce watering requirements. The downside of fruit trees is that over summer you need to be really vigilant for pests, and treat them accordingly - I went through dozens of bottles of homemade garlic spray! The trees I planted are lemon, mandarin, grapefruit, fig, pear, apricot, peach and almond - so far so good, hoping for a first crop of fruit this summer! Hope this helps, good luck!

I was thinking maybe a pergola so that you can still enjoy the sun when necessary but have a small area where you can just relax with your family. What were you thinking?

I have many tree ferns in my back garden, I have a 10 foot fence and its very shady. Some of the tree ferns are now growing higher than the fence and are becoming straggly as the high ones get too much sun. Can I pinch the tops to promote less height and more shrubbyness? I have one that doesnt grow in height but has lots of fronds on its sides and it looks great.