12 Best Types of Fruit Trees To Grow in Your Backyard

Fruit trees create delicious, healthy and beautiful edible landscapes. They’re also wonderful for wildlife, feeding bees with early-season pollen, giving shelter to nesting birds and generally enhancing overall garden biodiversity. But choosing the right fruit tree to grow is vital, since many won’t survive or thrive under certain light, soil and temperature conditions. 

Since fruit trees can be a big investment of time and money, make sure to check with a local nursery or arborist for recommendations based on your region and yard specifics. When you can, consider planting a native fruit tree, which is particularly fantastic for creating habitat. This article includes several of those, and the National Wildlife Federation offers this resource for finding keystone plants by ecoregion.

Like apples, pear trees come in various shapes, sizes and flavors, but are even easier to grow. They also produce showy spring blooms and vibrantly colored fall foliage.

“They range from crisp and sweet Bartlett’s to juicy and tangy Bosc,” says Dr. Daniel A. Herms of The Davey Tree Expert Company‘s Davey Institute. “They’re great canned, baked into pies or fermented into cider.”

To learn more about the best types of fruit trees to grow in your backyard, click here.