Anyone who has ever tried to landscape their own backyard knows that it can be a time-consuming, back breaking, expensive labor of love. The best advice anyone could offer is to take things slow, and delight in the treasures of your plants and trees, and in watching everything grow and take on lives of their own. If you’re into fruit trees, and you have the space for it, why not consider propagating your own? Fig trees in particular are so hearty that you can grow your own orchard in just a few years.

Make sure you have the space for it if you are eventually going to grown them in the ground, as fig trees can be trained to grow quite large. Consider shaping the overall tree to grow straight up with little divergence at the base from other branches. As the tree grows, you’ll be able to shape the canopy to whatever size you like, keeping the branches contained within your yard, or along the path if you create an entire orchard.

Propagating fig trees is as simple as cutting a hearty branch node off at the point where it joins up to a larger branch, preferably the trunk of the existing tree, and sticking it in its own pot. For added security in helping the plant to successfully take, dip the end of the cutting into a vitamin b plant solution, which will allow for a faster generation of roots. It might be best to collect some of your one gallon nursery plastic pots for the first year, after which you’ll need to move the plants up to a larger size. After about three years, you should have your first fruit, even if they are potted and not in the ground, and then after five, you’ll have a nice sized tree with a significant yield of fruit.

It is best to take your cuttings and to do your transplanting to larger pots in the winter, or just before spring. The fig tree will remain dormant in the winter, until the spring when you’ll begin to notice green leafy buds spring from several places along what looked like a dead branch for several months. Summer will produce broad, green leaves, and if you live in an overly hot climate, you will need to adjust the plant’s location to provide for partial to full sun, and more shade if there is a heatwave.

(Image Credit: Matty Byloos)