My husband just had a big birthday. He is impossible to buy gifts for, so I took a different approach this year. We both miss our fruit trees and veggie gardens from the houses we’ve lived in in the past. We inherited mature palm and eucalyptus trees, and hedges at our current house, which is great, but there is very little space or even soil available for any more trees or even herbs to be planted.

The solution was to squeeze big pots, and I mean huge, behind a long concrete bench in our front yard. We planted beach irises behind the bench a few years ago and there’s a tall hedge at the back. These large resin pots now sit comfortably amongst the irises on concrete stepping stones and, surprisingly, you don’t really notice them. I poked drainage holes in the bottom of each planter and filled them with a couple of inches of river stones before adding potting soil.

We are now the proud owners of a lemon tree (semi-dwarf), an apricot tree (full size – will need a lot of pruning), and a lime tree (semi-dwarf) — thank you Matt, Polly, Jack & Suzie! After a few hours of shoveling and planting the young trees, I was amazed to step back and find that I still could hardly see our above-ground orchard.

The containers are so wide at the top that I’m now thinking of adding a herb garden around the edge of each pot. Limes and mint — mojitos anyone?