Fruit Trees Like Bramley Trees in Cottage Garden

The larger cottages of the countryside always had a Bramley seedling apple tree, even where there were no other trees. In terms of landscaping this tree had to perform all of the functions that you would expect - to give height, mass and form, and to provide shade. Many a happy childhood hour would be spent in this stalwart of the cottage garden, and its lower limbs would more often than not support the ropes of a swing.   

Bramley trees are monsters that, year after year, produce enormous crops to provide for all your culinary needs, including adequate supplies of incomparable chutney. As the year turns the apple gradually loses much of its acid during storage and, whilst remaining the perfect cooking apple, slowly takes on a dual role, becoming a dessert fruit that will last until following spring.  

This truly remarkable tree will continue cropping for sixty to a hundred years, and, should you inherit one, it should be retained at all costs, as the Bramley is without peer as a culinary apple. Do not be deceived by the relative antiquity of the variety - the production of a new variety of apple is still very much a matter of chance and we have still not succeeded (and perhaps never will) in breeding anything superior. Your Bramley tree may also be used to provide excellent support for a clematis or honeysuckle. 

The cottage garden allows for the growth of full-sized fruit trees if room permits. Not only are these better croppers but it also allows you to consider growing some of the rarer but nevertheless worthwhile fruits, such as medlars, gages and walnuts. 

An alternative approach to the growing of fruit trees is to prune them so that their total spread does not exceed  6ft (2m), and to create a small bed under the trees. Such a small spread will not exclude the light from the plants below and it is possible to create small beds raised above the level of the lawn and to plant them with seasonal subjects.