HUNTINGTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- Looking for something to increase the quality of your landscape or make it more serviceable? I'm always looking to make my landscape more practical. It's like wanting a dog, but make it a beagle so it can go out and run rabbits and maybe have a couple for the pot.

Why not incorporate a few apple trees in your landscape, not only for their shape and color but for their fruit producing, delicious juicy apples. Probably the biggest advantage of eating apples is its taste and certainly it depends on variety.

Besides variety selection, there are many other aspects of apples to consider before ordering those special apples for your landscape. For example, there is tree size to consider. Horticulturists have you covered with this one.

By choosing the right rootstock, or that part that the upper portion of the apple tree is grafted onto, it can be a large or small tree most of its productive life. Not only does the various rootstock control the height, but they should be chosen to meet the soil conditions they are going to be grown in. For example, there are dwarf rootstock, semi-dwarf rootstock, and then there is the standard rootstock -- all of which can be chosen with your desired apple variety.

The dwarf rootstock will keep your tree short but you can get earlier production -- say after about two years in the ground. As for the semi-dwarf apple tree, it can be a very manageable size pruning wise and harvesting wise, but you can expect apples after about three years.

Now, when we talk about a standard tree, it has no rootstock and can grow as high as you let it. Usually, I don't recommend this type of apple tree because it just isn't practical for your landscape.

Start your apple tasting now and order your apple trees for your landscape as soon as possible to be planted around the first couple weeks of April. Have a good day.