My small orchard needs a home, which leads to some questions

The last few days whisper reminders that winter hovers nearby:  frost, a biting morning wind, and diminished sunlight.   Yet, there remains an illusion that there's more time than there is - the pleasant coat-free afternoons and my general sense of denial!

There are still a few chores left to do in the garden.  Habitually, I make several desperate bursts to clear the yard like put away the patio furniture (unlike my neighbor who did it last week), bring in the herb pots (usually while getting poked by the blackened decaying stalks in them), and unhook the hose.  

Last spring I bought two dwarf apple trees, two dwarf peach trees, and three blueberry bushes.  I thought it would be cool to have a small orchard and berry patch, especially since there is space and sun for them.  In my typical fashion, I bought first and considered when I'd plant them second.  They spent their first summer in too small pots and always on the verge of being burned to death by neglect, by lack of water and by the summer sun.  What small fruits the trees promised withered with my lack of husbandry.   I have plenty of room for them, but since I never articulated a plan to my wife,who would have agreed to it without issue,  they have remained in their pots and homeless.  

Besides planting the new ones, several trees need to be cut down.   I hate the idea of altering the landscape, despite my passion for growing food.  Yet, both trees, a red maple and a twenty-five foot pine, are problems.  The maple is rotting.  The pine, which was placed too closely to the garage some twenty years ago, has grown so large it is a hazard.  All I can see when I look at that pine is a day when there is too much water held in the poorly drained soil that helps topple it.  When that tree falls in the yard, it will be heard because I guess about a third of the garage would go with it.

Now their demise is not only for, God forbid, safety purposes.  The open area would provide a perfect home for the fruit trees and blueberry bushes.  

I have known this for six months and have not acted.

How many other pines do I have in my life?  What other fruit has withered from my lack of care?  Will I do what is necessary to ensure a better bounty next year?