If you plant trees in the corners of the garden, they'll shade the garden and draw a lot of water that the garden may want. You may be taking more of the garden away from vegetables than you intend.

I'm pretty sure spring is the best time for planting fruit trees.

Here are a couple of links on tree care in Colorado:
The Ten Commandments of Tree Planting
Spring Tree Planting: Do it Right
Trees

I have 30 or so fruit trees, and about 2/3 of them I ordered from catalogs that come bare root, and 10 or so I purchased locally that were rooted in pots. The potted ones do better in the first 4 or 5 years, after that it makes no difference. The commercial, potted ones cost about twice as much.

I've been having very good luck with getting bare root trees in January and potting them up myself, raising them in a greenhouse. January to June adds an entire growing season. One has to be pretty careful acclimating/hardening them off before setting them out permanently.

Hi Charlene,

I agree with bpgreen! The first thing I thought of when I read your post is that in a few years when they start to get bigger, you're going to loose a lot of the sun you need for your veggie garden. Unless your garden is a very large area, consider putting them somewhere else.

Spring is the best time for planting because they start to grow right away and if something goes wrong you're able to see what's happening and find a way to fix it. Most things can be planted in fall too, but since they go dormant almost immediately, you have to wait till spring when they start growing to to see if they made it or not. If you decide to get something in a pot, you'll probably be successful planting in fall, but if it were me, I wouldn't plant bare root in fall---and then worry about it all winter.

Here's links to two CSU Extension Service fact sheets with basic fruit tree information.

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/pubs/columngw/grfrtree.html

http://www.ext.colostate.edu/PUBS/GARDEN/07003.html

Skybird

Thanks for the info. I browsed the Starks fruit tree website today and they said fall planting is fine, but I agree with you all that it's probably safer to wait until early spring for bareroot trees. Is there another website you all like better to order your fruit trees from?

My garden is fairly big (at least to me coming from a small backyard garden previously) 60'x40' with full sun from sunrise to sunset on the south side of our three acre lot. It is fenced to keep deer out.

I was planning to plant dwarf trees in just the corners (maybe not the south western corner due to the possibility of that tree casting the most shade) using the high density planting method which I had good success with in my previous garden in Calif. I've been tracking shade and the seasons in general on our property for one year to get a sense for other planting areas too.

Right now only the southern half of the fenced garden is planted (about 1200sqft), the eastern half is empty (or full) with unlimited potential (another 1200sqft), except for a row of rasperries along the south fence.

I don't think competition for water is an issue as my veggies are in four raised beds 4' wide by 10' long. They are 5 feet away from the fence across from a octagonal strawberry patch about 150sqft. The garden is kind of potager style planted close together (hodge podge sq ft gardening) with flowers mixed in. It's lovely to me and slowly becoming my dream garden.

BUT, to throw all of that out the window, I am so interested in so many fruit varieties that maybe I should just do a small orchard next to the veggie garden but there'd be no fence around it. Will the deer eat the fruit trees? My aussie shep. mix dog does a pretty good job of keeping them away, actually it's her mission in life (w/lots of encouragement & treats from me when she chases them away:) We are on our own private well and to conserve I would like to water the trees with grey water and rain barrel water (that's a whole 'nother topic I know!).

Anyway, now that I've written a book....one more question....what varieties of fruit trees (preferably disease resistant) can you not live without?

Thanks for your time! You guys are always awesome & helpful.
Charlene

Here is a link that might be useful: high density planting

Deer love fruit trees. Fence them off, either by putting a 6 foot diameter ring of horse fence (2" x 4" steel mesh) or enclosing the entire orchard.

As for selection of varieties, choose the latest blooming varieties of whatever you go for. The 800 lb gorilla in Rocky Mt. orchards is a "late" hard frost, which can vary from April until the last week of May.

Of all the fruit I grow, the biggest difference between store-bought and home-grown is with plums. All kinds of plums; greengage, Asian, jelly, and so on. They are just so good.

David, I'm wanting to plant a plum tree in my southeast Centennial yard. A couple of years ago you complained about green gage. In hindsight, is there another plum that you'd plant instead. Note that I can only plant one (because of space), so it would need to be self pollinating. Also, what's the best location in my suburbian yard? Thanks for your opinion.