Fruit Trees next to house?

Hi Everyone!

I need help picking out stuff for an area next to my house. I'd LOVE to do fruit trees, specifically Cherry, but googling hasn't helped me in my search.

Here are the space specs:
Zone: 9b (California Sunset Zone 14)
Facing: WEST (nothing shades that area in the afternoon/evening)
Size: 5 feet wide by 14 feet long (from fence to edge of house)
Soil: clay

Here's my plan - This fall I want to build a small hugelkultur mound to plant in and improve the soil. Next winter when my local nursery gets bare root trees I'll get them from there, along with maybe a couple small shrubs or other perennial edible. Not sure yet. I think I'll plant the trees 4 feet from my house, so the trunks don't expand onto the neighbors property.

HELP: I'd LOVE a dwarf Sweet Cherry for eating fresh, and a Dwarf Sour Cherry for making pies and what not. But, I'll be happy with anything that produces something to eat. I already have a Lemon tree, Peach tree, Mandarin tree, and Pineapple Guava tree. I have a friend who is going to give me a Loquat tree, will that work?
Pics of the space:

Nice place!
I'm in 9b a few (thousand) miles south of you, also on clay.
Loquat will do just fine in 9b. They can get large (here, like avocados, very large trees), so be aware and prune if you need to.
Mulberries will do well, and you can prune the patootie out of them if you need to to keep them small and they do very well.
If you have a space that gets nice afternoon sun maybe you could try some passiflora varieties? I have three, two normal passionfruits and one that I understand is called grenadilla in English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_ligularis). They obviously need something to climb, but if you were willing to make a fence-type trellis the flowers are beautiful (my grenadilla is all up in my carport and extending out to my front fence).
I also have a blood orange, figs, jabuticaba, yellow plum, guava.... another thing that might be nice if you like to barbecue is to let rosemary grow large, the stems make great skewers for roasting things. In my 9b I see them get very large.

Tereza Okava wrote:Nice place!
I'm in 9b a few (thousand) miles south of you, also on clay.
Loquat will do just fine in 9b. They can get large (here, like avocados, very large trees), so be aware and prune if you need to.
Mulberries will do well, and you can prune the patootie out of them if you need to to keep them small and they do very well.
If you have a space that gets nice afternoon sun maybe you could try some passiflora varieties? I have three, two normal passionfruits and one that I understand is called grenadilla in English (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passiflora_ligularis). They obviously need something to climb, but if you were willing to make a fence-type trellis the flowers are beautiful (my grenadilla is all up in my carport and extending out to my front fence).
I also have a blood orange, figs, jabuticaba, yellow plum, guava.... another thing that might be nice if you like to barbecue is to let rosemary grow large, the stems make great skewers for roasting things. In my 9b I see them get very large.

Hello Fellow 9b gardener!!
My main concerns are the rootstocks messing with the foundation of my house. If the Loquat gets big, maybe that's not a good choice for me for right there. I've been googling all day, and literally JUST found an Apple variety on dwarfing rootstock

(M-27 rootstock: extremely dwarfing rootstock for apples. Trees dwarfed to 6-8 ft, ideal for high density planting, small spaces in garden. Induces early and heavy bearing. Small root system, young trees may need staking. Requires constant soil moisture. Good for container growing.)
https://www.davewilson.com/product-information/product/dorsett-golden-apple

Maybe I'll have to switch from Cherries to Apples. Though I'm a little worried about the requires constant moisture. But, I've heard hugelkultur mounds retain a ton of the moisture given to them? I don't have any experience with them, however I backed the recent kickstarter and can't wait to dive into all the goodies, and I'll learn all about it there I'm sure.

Take a peek at these bush cherries from Edible Acres. A quick read shows 5 varieties ranging from 3 feet to 8 feet tall.

Can't tell you anything about zone 9, but I'd look at pomegranates if I did...

Joylynn Hardesty wrote:Take a peek at these bush cherries from Edible Acres. A quick read shows 5 varieties ranging from 3 feet to 8 feet tall.

Thanks!! I’ll take a look at the bush cherries! I didn’t know they came in Bush forms.