Fruit trees, variety by variety.
"Plant an apple tree" is not advice - WHICH apple decides everything: flavor, climate, pollination, how much work you sign up for. Here are 33 variety guides across nine orchard fruits, each with its trade-offs. Growing basics live in the gardening hub; these pages pick the tree.
Apples The backbone of every home orchard - crunch, keepers, bakers.
Pears Pick them hard, ripen them indoors - the whole secret.
Cherrys Sweet for the bowl, sour for the pie.
Plums Japanese for fresh bites, European for jam, prunes and cake.
Peachs Hard pruning, hard thinning, glorious July.
Nectarine A peach without the fuzz - flavor turned up a notch.
Apricots First to bloom, first to break hearts - and worth it.
Figs No spray, no fuss - just sun, restriction and patience.
Quince Inedible raw, magical cooked - the forgotten perfume fruit.
The pollination cheat-sheet
Self-fertile varieties (Victoria plum, Stella cherry, Conference pear, all peaches and figs) crop alone - one tree, done. Apples and sweet cherries almost always need a partner blooming at the same time within bee range (~15 m). When in doubt, plant two different varieties of the same fruit - or check each profile's pollination card above.