How many fruit trees and bushes for a family of four?

My son and daughter in law (DiL) are looking for housing and are likely to end up in a suburban area on a relatively small lot (compared to our farm, which by farm standards is still relatively small).

That got us thinking about fruit trees, and how many it would take to feed a family. How many would it take to feed a family and have some to share with the neighbors?

Yes, this will be specific to ecosystem, but I thought I'd start us all thinking about answers to that based on where you are, and what your family likes to eat.

Our farm has 3 productive apple trees, but two are summer fruiting and the fruit doesn't last. We have two younger trees that produce later, but they didn't get the care they needed when young so are not producing.

We have 4 plum trees, but again, 2 are the same variety and produce fruit that doesn't store and it too juicy to dry. Two are good for both eating and jamming and the latest producing one is good for both jam and drying.

I have a peach tree and a baby nectarine tree. I have a fig tree that's desperate for its forever home. These fruits need to be dealt with when ripe and don't keep.

We have a cherry tree, but might as well not... the birds and squirrels harvest it long before the fruit is even ripe. I understand there is a type of cherry that may not actually be a true cherry, but that the animals aren't so keen on?

In the berry direction, we can grow strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, some grapes, currents and hardy kiwi.

My DiL would love some of the heat-loving fruit, but most of them are borderline in our ecosystem, and will require a warm microclimate and a way to protect them for the occasional year that is below average.

So what would you plant to feed a family of 4 in your ecosystem. What would only be good fresh vs easily stored? What would require processing to keep through the seasons?

In theory several trees will suffice - if they are 20 years old, standard size, and are fit for the site's soil and weather.
The reality is more brutal. I have already planted around 300 trees, 100 died, they are growing slowly and just produce enough to get a taste of the fruit. Sometimes they struggle to grow, sometimes they die after 3 years or still produce nothing after 6 years. Way not enough for overeating or any processing. I keep planting and I'm patient and there is more and more every year. That's the price of experimenting in a microclimate and planting tress on standard rootstock with long lifespan, but I like it.
So my advice is - plant as many of everything as you can fit.

I can mention our experience with bushes as the the fruit trees are too young to produce currently. Also, our current goals do not include preserving excepting freezing. One day...

There are 8 of us. 2 adults, 6 kids, 10 and under. In our climate, the strawberries fruit first, then the raspberries, then blackberries, then blueberries. When I say "make fruit" I mean that it is ripe and we can eat it and there are some fruits before and after the times I mention but they really produce during the times I mention.

Strawberries - They are in different places but if we combined them, it would be a 24'x30' patch, roughly. They make fruit in April, May, June.

Raspberries - We have about a 16" wide by 16' long patch. They make fruit in May, June.

Blackberries - We have 6 large bushes and they make fruit in June and July. Plus the wild berries around our tree line perimeter.

Blueberries - We have 16 bushes and they make fruit in mid-late June and July.

All of the cultivated bushes/patches are 2 years old. We all graze as desired when walking around the property. The kids are able to go and eat as  much as they want anytime of the day. We are intentional about using them in meals and smoothies. We freeze the excess and this will get us through until September/October timeframe.

This seems to be the right amount for us to eat as much as we can stand for 6 months per year and we enjoy the natural process of going from one type of fruit to another. I am supposing that as the kids appetite increase, time will increase the size of the bushes/patches (production) and it should be about the same but I am not certain at this time. We do not need to supplement our diet with any berries for that 6 month period, at least.

So for 6 months a year, eating mostly fresh and some frozen, this is where we are. The bushes and strawberries are comingled in with a bunch of other stuff along swales, in garden beds, medicinal plant beds, among the fruit trees and misc. vegetables we grow in the ground. The raised beds are currently dedicated to vegetables and some flowers but I would like a raised bed, maybe 12" high instead of 24" for a nice strawberry patch.

The strawberries grow year round here and get our of control without some managing. I think I could do a better job with management if they were in a dedicated raised bed. Or maybe 2 beds to keep a steady rotation going between 1,2,3 year plants.

The berry bushes seem to all be happy and we are happy with their location as they just need a little pruning from time to time. The raspberries and blackberries need more attention than the blueberries but the meat rabbits love them so they get all of the pruning's.

The gap between "enough trees" and "trees actually producing" is the brutal part. Cristobal's experience rings true - you plant what you think is plenty and for the first several years you're just watching them establish. For a suburban lot I'd focus on a few reliable producers rather than spread across many varieties. Bushes like currants and gooseberries will give you something to eat far sooner than most trees, and they don't need much space.

Black currants maintenance, taking out a third of old branches leaves enough cuttings material for exchanges. Dwarf root stock produces fruit earlier. Going for late flowering trees helps a lot with climate chaos disappointments.  There is a cherry variety that stays yellow when ripe fooling birds into thinking it's not ripe yet (might be marketing). Figs need a south facing wall, but roots can be bad for foundation. Some apples hang around christmas time, that saves looking for storage place. How about adding a mulberry?

Hello,

I would say 'as much as you can realistically manage in your climate'. My great-grandfather had around 50 pear and apple trees in a suburban garden over his veggie plots, all trimmed in goblet and espalier form, and the matching cellar to keep the fruit in winter.

You can plant dwarves. Some with real dwarves' houses at their feet for morning dew / lizards / toads.
You can plan fruiting perennials, shrubs. Climbing actinidia or grapevines on treillis.
A fruiting hedge.
Espalier along a fence or a wall, mixing varieties. Cordon-shaped trees along paths.

Just remember they will need watering during their first two years, and that rasp- and blackberries will visit your neighbours.

The more you plant, the better chance to harvest anything. What you don't eat will never be lost anyway.

Have a nice evening,
Oliver

I think it depends more on lifestyle than calories. If someone snacks on fresh fruit every day, makes jam, dries slices for winter and shares extras with neighbors, the number climbs quickly. On the other hand, if fruit is just an occasional dessert, a surprisingly small orchard could be enough. I’d also rather have a wider variety than ten trees of the same thing. Walking outside and having something different to pick each month feels like a luxury.

Our first house had an old plum tree.  One tree was enough for the two us to share with the in-laws,

Our homestead had a pear tree that was enough pears for our family of four.

Reason to have more trees would be for variety.  One plum, one pear and one peach would be a good variety.

I am a collector and I wanted to plant everything that would grow in Vermont.  I wanted fresh fruit every month of the growing season and I wanted to preserve enough to get me through the winter.  I wanted to try fruit that I'd never tasted before.  I wanted natives and non-native fruits.  It's just me, here, but that didn't stop me!  I figured I could donate the extra to the food shelf or friends and neighbors.  Now that things are growing, I'm thinking that someone unfamiliar with a black currant, for example, will not be impressed by the taste or a che by its appearance or mulberries by their keeping ability.  Oh, well.

Some things have done really well and others, not so much!  The sweet cherry, for example, is a waste of space, but I leave it for the wildlife.  Rhubarb has done well, and I mostly grow it to give away, although it does make a nice wine and it is pretty!

In anticipation, I did get a multi-shelved dehydrator, and I did teach myself to can and freeze-dry.  Many things have not yet produced, so when they start I will be inundated.  Along with fruit, I also planted 4 hazelnuts and two heartnuts, which will be most welcome as they don't take much effort in storing or pruning.  (It is brutal to have to can when it's 95 degrees out and humid.

So, I start the year with rhubarb, then strawberries, honeyberries and cherries. The serviceberries, mulberries and goumi are getting some color, so they'll be next, with the blueberries coming on and producing through October. Being I have 40 bushes, I invite lots of friends over to pick.  It's a great way to catch up with them without having to entertain.  Each day, during their season, full pails are picked, so I am thrilled that I can give so many to people while saving me the labor of doing it alone, one blueberry at a time.  I give them the ones I pick, too.  I only have so much freezer space and most of it now goes to strawberries.  Raspberries are somewhere in there.  The plums, persimmons, paw paws, che and apricots have yet to fruit, so I'm not sure about when they will ripen.

The peach fruited for the first last year, and was, in my mind, surprisingly late--Aug/Sept?  I canned probably 30 quarts along with peach salsa, peach wine and peach mustard, and of course friends also became beneficiaries. The kiwi really produced last year, and I froze a good deal of them as well as gave a lot away.  

The elderberries were gobbled up by the birds before I could get out there and harvest last year, but I just make tinctures with them anyway and had plenty from the year before. It would be nice to perhaps try some wine, but as it is, I have cases. The gooseberries were mainly eaten as fresh fruit and the currants were made into fruit leather.  

The quince didn't produce enough to say so, but it looks like I will have plenty this year to can. The Concord grapes needed a total refresh, so I won't have any this year, but next year, I will be grateful for the juice that I'll can. The bush cherries and sour cherry tree will be going into pies when I need to bring a dessert somewhere. (I avoid sugar as a general rule, although I may tinker with monkfruit and some sort of thickener.)  The two goumi bushes are loaded and I have no idea whether they will be preserved or what the best method would even be.  I'm hoping that this will be the year that the che hangs on till ripe so that I can taste them.  Most of what I grow, I'd not tasted before hand.  I actually drove an hour to the university where I knew they grew persimmons so that I could taste them prior to getting some trees.  (I now have six trees!)

The Cornelian cherries, lingonberries, pears and asian pears have yet to produce, so I don't know about them either, although I hope to can the regular pears. ( I have some old pear trees which I'd received not knowing that they were infected with stony pit disease, so they really don't count.  I know that I can donate them to the food shelf if there are more than I can contend with or need.  The medlar trees only produced a few fruits last year, and I have to work on how to blet the fruit. This year, I'm hoping to have a better idea of what they taste like; I'm hoping for good things with them.  I have a few Chicago Hardy figs; some years I get fruit, but last year, I did not.  If nothing else, they're just a pretty plant which never get too big--I need to cut it to the ground each spring.

The bush raspberries are just starting out.  Last year, I got enough to snack on during my "walkabout" but they sent out a number of runners, similar to the strawberries, so I have more than tripled the number of plants.  Hopefully, I will get enough to freeze because they are some of my favorite fruits.  Three of the four apple trees are producing, but not so many that I can't just eat them fresh.  Applesauce is welcome in the colder months and I look forward to making apple rings in the dehydrator.

I would be hard pressed to choose just a few, but I know that peaches, bush raspberries, strawberries, kiwi, grapes, mulberries, pears and hazelnuts would make the list.  I love that I'm broadening my skills and taste...although, I am still working on enjoying the aronia berries. If nothing else, they have beautiful fall color!

Jay, those juicy plums would make some nice sweet wine.

Cristobal Cristo, you might try some worms castings in your planting holes the next time around. Jack Chambers of Sonoma winery says the death rates of his grape vines dropped to 3 percent when he started using castings. I use them religiously on my tomato plants an by July, they are huge and healthy

John Duffy wrote:Jay, those juicy plums would make some nice sweet wine.

Alas, I am a *very* cheap drunk who is surrounded by tea-totalers. I have made wine in the past (Himalayan Blackberry wine is awesome.)  Considering how little of it I can drink, I would rather put my time into fruit spreads or sauces, which are *very* popular.

Well, that's a tough question to answer really, but Cristobal has the right idea: plant as many as you can for the space you have: Some crops will not do well, some will be eaten by wildlife, like those @#$%^&*&^%$#@!!! rabbits that just feasted on my prized sweet peppers, and then, there are our chickens. Remember that you pay taxes on every square inch of your property, so if you don't make it pay for you, you are losing $$$ and opportunities.
You didn't mention farm animals, but if you have some, produce all you can in the space you have, because it will not go to waste: Our old lettuce, freezer burned meats and road kills of all types get 'recycled by our chickens and will give us more eggs. In turn, their manure can get used by all the trees in the orchards. In our little pond that we can't keep from freezing in the winter, I raise as many bait fish as I can. In the fall, the pond gets emptied, the fish gets dried and gives extra protein for the chickens in the dead of winter.
I maxed out on apple trees, but I have a few plum trees, cherry trees, basswoods for the bees, maple trees, not just for the beauty but for some leaves to turn into leaf mold. (I put some in the chickens' winter run (covered). they actually eat some, turn the rest into good soil.
I have lots of small fruit blueberry bushes, gooseberries, haskaps, elderberries...
Having more than you can use also means that if you turn extra fruit into jellies, jams and wine you will have something to offer your neighbors, your kids and take care of those in-laws that are hard to shop for: Jam, jelly, maybe a bottle of homemade wine or liquor is always appreciated. It won't gather dust, so  you can repeat with another home made gift every year.
But if you are lucky enough to have any amount of land, make it pay you...

Jay, and son and DIL, please check out my post from last year at https://permies.com/wiki/272602/Permies-Poll-fruit-trees-homestead. for a look at what my small yard contains.

My area grows sub-tropical to temperate very easily, (also a few tropical if I place them in the right areas with canopy ; a few cool temperate if I place them facing north against brick or stone walls and protect them when under 3 years). I've put their Latin names for anyone who is curious as I realise some may be unfamiliar.

Of course what you choose will depend on your State/Country/local area, but the point I am trying to make is to check out varieties that can add a continuation of produce, rather than just one option and create areas with under storey shrub, vine and ground cover plantings.

I have a small (just under 600 sq mtrs), sloping suburban permaculture demonstration backyard, showcasing layering of many plants grouped in their deliberately created microclimates.

As an example my apple tree has 5 different varieties of apples grafted to a crabapple stock and grows in the coolest spot of the yard. I chose varieties that don't all mature at once giving fruit over 3-4 months. My banana varieties extend the growing season over 8 months and grow in the hottest area where they get maximum sun, by surrounding them and interplanting them with other edible shrubs and sweet potato ground cover and mulch it warms and protects the soil.

Grafting is a wonderful tool in a small backyard. I have used it on my citrus, plums, peaches, cherries and apricots. I had a few dramas early on finding which varieties were most tolerant of their positions and had to change a couple of positions to better suit my berries, but now all seems to be in sync and thriving.

My biggest challenge is climate change and water which over the years I've managed to adjust my block to, but the weather changes are fairly rapid now and it is ongoing work in progress. I have some wonderful people in our local permie group which we have formed into Permie Pods, they come to help and see how to manage small areas, even balcony growing is taught. As long as you can grow something it all helps ourselves and our communities.

I've been a permie, before permaculture really became a thing and studied with Bill Mollison in the 1980's so as you can see I'm getting on now, but I must say permies has been an invaluable place for learning new ideas, different ways of viewing a sustainable life, and meeting some pretty fabulous people along the way who share their knowledge and caring.

When you make your list of what the locals in your area, look at what else can grow on or under, you'll be surprised at how much yield you will have.

If you mentioned the climate your son and DIL are in, I missed it, but I would recommend two YouTube channels and a book: The book is Grow a Little Fruit Tree, by Ann Ralph. She tells how to make even a standard fruit tree stay the size you want it, with preference for short enough to pick without needing a ladder. The YouTube channels are David the Good (who is in southern Alabama but whose advice and growing principles can be applied anywhere), and Huw Richards, who is in Wales, but again, most of what he does can be done anywhere other than the desert.

As far as how many fruit trees and berry bushes, I would say, plant as many as you can fit on the property. With some nut trees (hazelnuts and chestnuts can be kept small like fruit trees; possibly others can, too). Then do the vegetable garden underneath the trees and bushes. Check for harvest dates. If I'm looking for apples, for example, I want to choose a really early variety, a later one, and a really late one - at a minimum. That should give you apples for several months, and if one or both of those two late ones stores well, you might be able to have apples through the winter. You can do that to some extent with almost everything. Some blueberries ripen in June (depending on your climate), and some not until September, and others fill in the gap. And so on. Some types of fruit don't have a long season - mulberries mostly ripen in the summer, not into the fall. And persimmons mostly ripen in the fall and even into early winter. So you might only want one or two varieties of those (unless, like here in Kentucky, mulberries and persimmons are the fruits most likely to thrive).

Speaking of bushes, someone up there was talking about raspberry bushes? Curious about that, because all of the raspberries I've seen grow on canes. Is there some other kind?

Anyway.

Also, I would suggest planning in some animals from the start, even if they don't intend to have any right away. Rabbits and quail take up almost no space at all. Chickens and ducks don't need much, and can be quite beneficial *if managed correctly.* All are extremely useful for turning weeds, prunings, damaged fruit, and so on, and turning it into high-quality food for humans. If they do end up on a suburban lot, there will probably be some restrictions on what they can have, but it shouldn't be too hard to find out what those are. Also, given a choice, buy in an area where the neighbors already have poultry, or rabbits, or whatever the son and DIL think they may want to have later on. Less potential headaches that way.

Another thing to plan in advance is a garden shed. Perhaps a greenhouse. Access to water. Fencing. Paths. A play area for children, if they have any or plan to have some. Sketch the whole thing out on some large graph paper, cut a few templates the size of various trees and berry plants, and use the templates to figure out where things should go and how many will fit. (Keeping in mind that the trees can be pruned to any size you want.)

Once they have a plan (which can, and probably will, change over time, but it really helps to start with a plan), they can buy the plants and put them in as they have the money and time. Don't have to do it all at once.

I live in high desert in Utah, 6B but warming, just outside the mouth of a canyon on a suburban lot that's abutted by the local irrigation canal and wilderness beyond. I'm the edge of development.

I'm on irrigation water and I water with 4 oscillating sprinklers which cover the majority of my planting space.

My lot's about 1/3 of an acre, much on steep slope.

I got started planting around 4 years ago, and I planted around 300 edibles, including strawberries, honey berries, nanking cherries, a bunch of rubus varieties, and 6 fruit trees (2 apples, 2 pears, 2 cherries).

Around 50% perished within the first two years. The climate is harsh, and we have a two month (at least) rainless season with average temps in the mid-90s & 100+ heat waves, and my land was dead and neglected when I bought the house.

However, the land has become rich and bountiful in the years since, and I just planted around 200 more edibles (in addition to the occasional additions in the time between major plantings including a mulberry, more cherry trees, some nectarines, etc and some of this stuff perished as well). These include a ton more rubus varieties including blackberries; raspberries; black raspberries; and some interesting hybrids and specimen species, a bunch of ribes varieties, ≈ 5 dozen fruit trees  and bushes including mulberry; peach; Shipova; some more varieties of nanking to improve fruit set; bush cherries; more varieties of strawberries; serviceberry; pawpaw; quince; jujube, a couple more honeyberry varieties (they've released better cultivars in the years since and I'll be adding a few more next year), the most cold-hardy varieties of Chilean guavas I could source set up in an extra warm microclimate with a solar capturing stone wall so I can zone creep 'em, and a couple dozen vines including hardy kiwi & around 6 species of grapes across ≈ 15 vines. Some more stuff too, but you get the picture.

So far, I've had a few apples and pears, a decent amount of cherries, a scattering of nanking cherries (they're vigorous, but need better pollination, hence the new varieties), a shit-ton of strawberries, a few bowlfuls of raspberries and blackberries, a lot of honey berries, and that's about it.

However, this year we had a freaky warm winter and a freaky late snowstorm and I lost, literally, every single blossom on all my fruit trees. 0 fruit this year when I was expecting my first actual harvest on a number of my trees.

Double however, that's okay. The trees are devoting the energy to growth this year and everything is looking vital and happy.

I'll have, assuming no freaky fruit-ruining weather, a good harvest of apples, pears, cherries, mulberries, and all the bush berries next year.

Within 5 years I'll be able to supply all my fruit for the year with sharing of certain fruits with the neighbors aplenty.

Within 10 years, it'll be too much and neighbors will be locking doors when they see me coming down the road with a wagon full of fruit.

I've planted super-densely, obviously, and this does impact production. However, It's my existence that you'll get more fruit than you think per plant in a crowded system, and then you can have the crazy variety and novelty that most of us end up pursuing.

Medlars, cornelian cherry, goumi, maypop, and a few others are still on my list and I'll be bringing in one more blackberry variety next year, Thunderhead, after reading about reports coming out from some breeding forums about it.

But, in answer to the actual question -

The following, when mature, would provide a long season and enough fruit to satisfy the family of 4 and have some left over for the neighbors:

- 1 multi-graft cherry
- 1 multi-graft pear
- 1 multi-graft plum
- 1 multi-graft peach
- 1 multi-graft apple
(all on dwarf or semi-dwarf)
- 2 dwarf mulberries
- 6-12 honey berries
- 3-6 each of raspberries and blackberries (or other rubus varieties/hybrids)
- around a dozen each of 5-6 varieties of strawberries
- 4 grape vines
- 4 hardy kiwi vines (1 male)
- 2 each of 4 nanking cherry varieties

I've attached a few random photos that don't really convey all that much of what I've just been talking about, but you'll get some of the picture and I'm feeling to lazy to go take better pictures right now. Heh.

Kathleen, I use the "Grow a Little Fruit Tree" method; I found the book at our library and then ended up purchasing it.  There is a video which also covers it pretty in depth.  I found it very hard to cut that first bare root tree  to knee high, but now I am very grateful that I did!  

Yes, I have "Raspberry Shortcake" by Bushel and Berry that I got from Stark Bros.  They also have blackberries and blueberries.  I love them because they really are like a soft shrub and they don't have thorns.  I wasn't expecting that they'd send out new plants so prolifically.  I've given a number of them away to friends.

Here are a few links to videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVzDKPHni_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-teXiJXm2g
Instructions and care:
https://www.bushelandberry.com/raspberry-care

Barbara Simoes wrote:Kathleen, I use the "Grow a Little Fruit Tree" method; I found the book at our library and then ended up purchasing it.  There is a video which also covers it pretty in depth.  I found it very hard to cut that first bare root tree  to knee high, but now I am very grateful that I did!  

Yes, I have "Raspberry Shortcake" by Bushel and Berry that I got from Stark Bros.  They also have blackberries and blueberries.  I love them because they really are like a soft shrub and they don't have thorns.  I wasn't expecting that they'd send out new plants so prolifically.  I've given a number of them away to friends.

Here are a few links to videos:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVzDKPHni_M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-teXiJXm2g
Instructions and care:
https://www.bushelandberry.com/raspberry-care

Well, that's cool! I'm making a note of that to get one someday! Thanks!

I started with 3 apple trees and quickly realised that wasn't going to cut it for a family of four, especially once you factor in the years when one of them barely produces. Ending up with a mix of early and late varieties made a big difference, so you're not bottlenecking everything through the same harvest window. Soft fruit like currants and gooseberries are worth having a few of just to fill gaps early in the season while the trees are still getting established.

There are so many good answers that it’s hard to think of anything to add.

The general consensus seems to be that the definition of enough isn’t so much about survival as it is just growing a substantial quantity and then storing what was possible.  My thoughts are:

Blueberries or other bush fruits could make an awesome, beautiful and productive hedge to put around the border of a backyard,  That alone might make more fruit than you could eat based on the size of the backyard and it would be ornamental as well.

My parents once grew strawberries.  After their second year (we did not eat the first year crop.  We picked off the flowers to force them to grow deeper roots), we got a very healthy crop.  By the third year we we had such an abundance that the whole family had to go out to pick strawberries before they rotted or got eaten by critters.  We had to get an extra freezer (kept in the basement, looked just like a typical fridge) to keep all the extras,  It was packed bottom to top in gallon size ziplock bags.

But there was still excess!  We ate them every day.  We gave them to neighbors.  My mother cooked them into whatever she could.  We still couldn’t keep up!  But that only lasted about 2 years.

Strawberries are amazing but they require re-planting every 3 years to keep them constantly producing,  That might mean dividing the plot into thirds.  Definitely worth a shot.

With those two covered, consider other options:

Raspberries are wonderful!  They might make a decent hedge.

Can you grow blackberries?  Blackberries are my absolute favorite.  Your climate might not be suitable, but why not at least investigate?

Then think ornamental fruit trees that are at home in a suburban yard.

Apples

Peaches

Pears

Plums

Cherries?  (I have picked huge quantities of cherries from a single ornamental tree).

The list goes on!


Eric

Omnivores Dilemma, what to eat? I say many, many trees and bushes.  Dense planting, side of the house, pots, planters, cover the lawn, who really eats grass?  Sheep, they’re in my front yard right now laying on their food.  Humans historically gathered and ate 600% more vitamin C daily than today, along with all the unknown berry and fruit bio chemicals that we don’t get today.  That’s a vastly different diet than what you see everyone eating now. The most modern I’ve become is to bring the gathering to where I live.  I like crazy fruit guavas, papaya, melons, apples, strawberries, goumi, huckleberries, josta, blueberries, goji, aronia, the list is endless, really.  I snack in the garden and around outside all day more than half the year.  
     Health is the greatest gift any parents can give to their children, I say as many trees and bushes as possible. Pass it on, to the kids and grand kids will benefit well into the future.  And maybe others will notice and quit eating from plastic bags at every meal, and save the human race…  Cheers.

"As much as possible" isn't very helpful if it's a small suburban lot; they'll have to pick and choose. Here's my advice from my own experience, in a one-acre clearing on a ridge in West Virginia, Zone 6B: some years I've had all the fruit needed for my two person household--this year I will have almost none, mostly, apparently because of a hard frost in April following some warm weather--it seemed hardly unprecedented to me but resulted in no redbud or viburnum bloom, which I never saw before, as well as almost no tree fruit--even though the apples bloomed after that frost!  The tree fruit is more iffy than bush fruit in my experience, and don't forget most need pollination partners, although a neighbor's tree might provide that. Squirrels swipe most of my tree fruit before it's ripe anyway, except the apples--probably because the apples are later, when the hickories and acorns are kicking in.
Strawberries are right up there among the most reliable crops, and will produce plenty of fruit one year after planting. I grow only June bearing as they are reportedly more productive and I like having a season--after crawling along the beds harvesting every other day for a month, I'm ready for that season to be over--and I have lots in the freezer by then, as well as jam if I don't already have too much.Then the goumis kick in (except this year, because of that freeze--and the only thing I've found to do with them is make syrup, be cause of the pits, but that syrup thickened on a cheesecake under a chocolate ganache...and the goumis are pretty, fix nitrogen and need virtually no care. Then there are the wineberries, an invasive I have cultivated. And blueberries, I should have gotten serious about blueberries sooner as I have macular degeneration, AND it seems the one fruit my husband is likely to eat much of. Blueberries need little care IF you established them in a good bed to start with, which means two things_ VERY acid soil--the use of peat moss is the only way I've found--and screening out the birds. The best way to do that is to create a fence with one-inch-mesh chickenwire, six feet high. Then you only need to throw the netting over the top during the season, and snakes won't get caught in it. If you use T-posts, put a tennis ball on the top of each to avoid tearing the netting. I put mine on a hugelkultur. I have thornless blackberries but have had all kinds of problems with these. Currants and rhubarb seem to need a lot of shade here. The last berry is raspberries--I have a red everbearing raspberry, unfortunately I don't know the variety as I got my starts from a neighbor who doesn't pay attention to that--he bought them decades ago and mentioned that a farm partner said he paid too much for them. I don't know what he paid but she was wrong, as he got fruit from them for decades, mine have fruited heavily for over a decade, and I have given away quite a lot. They may produce a small harvest in June, on old canes, but the main harvest starts in August and goes till it frosts, in November these days. These are good for freezing, and jam. I also have two large wild persimmon trees that usually bear a lot of seedy fruit, and several grafted ones that produce bigger, nearly seedless fruit. And five apples, three peaches, four pears, some of them not bearing yet. That includes one standard apple I just planted last year--I was determined to get one in, in my lifetime, to pay back the unknown strangers who planted four big trees on my former land, from which we got many great harvests.