FOOD for free! Yes that’s right, food for free from a grass verge near you! I came home on Thursday to find a middle-aged lady scampering around the grass verge and bending down out of sight every few seconds. It looked like a new form of exercise routine but then I spotted the tell-tale bags bursting at the seams with apples. The apple tree is planted in the grass verge by the pavement in a street in Woodley and it started to shed its fruit last week — making a pretty fine mess all over the path.

The lady engaged me in conversation. She was from Portugal. A long way to come for apples, I thought. “It’s free food,” she said. “I’ll cook them and reduce them down in size so they fit into the freezer and I can use them when I need them”.

What an enterprising lady. Had the locals not noticed the free supply of fresh fruit — or were they too busy or too embarrassed to pick them up?

With parts of our county now operating food banks for people in need, should we be lobbying the local council to plant more fruit trees in public spaces? Perhaps we should encourage developers of large housing projects to contribute to this supply of healthy free food. Could we put in requests to our local councillors for particular varieties of apple, pear and plum trees?

Whether planting in a public or private space there are several important factors that have to be taken into consideration. If you have a garden and can spare a little room for your own fruit tree, now is the prime time to order your chosen specimen. First you need to consider the amount of space available and the ultimate height you want the tree to reach as this can affect your ability to reach the crop and harvest the fruit successfully.

Most fruit trees are grafted on to the roots of similar plants that will control the final size of the tree. This is known as the rootstock. It is possible to obtain trees grafted on to rootstock that will create a dwarf tree approximately 1.5m to 2m high.

Increased height can be achieved by using a move vigorous rootstock. Secondly you need to know if the tree you have chosen is self-fertile or requires another tree to be planted nearby to allow for successful pollination. Successful cropping, flavour, texture and disease resistance are other considerations.

Give careful consideration to all of these factors and try to plant your tree in a sheltered sunny spot and it should give you years of pleasure. Its spring blossom is not only a beautiful sight but may sometimes be scented and the fruit may be harvested for many years. OK, you will need to clear some of the fruits that fall to the ground but these could be recycled by adding them to your compost heap.

Finally, I wish to say a big thank you to the kind lady who picked up all the windfall apples and tidied up our street. I hope your apple pies are delicious and perhaps, through your example, Berkshire could become a more fruitful county.

::  Bernadette Varilone is garden designer for Unique Gardens. Visit www.unique-gardens.co.uk or call 0118 966 6004.