Put a spring into your step with some berry good ideas to give you fresh fruit all summer long and into autumn

WITH spring now well and truly upon us and the sun shining, it’s the perfect time to add fruit to your garden. If you’ve never grown fruit shrubs or trees before, I guarantee you’ll be pleasantly surprised at just how easy it can be.

Many garden centres are now doing direct home deliveries or click and collect and it’s looking hopeful that they’ll be able to open for outdoor plant sales any day soon.

Currants are a great fruit bush for beginners to start with: they are as hard as nails, and not fussy about sunshine or partial shade and good or bad soil. If you get them in the ground in the next few weeks, and they have flowers which have just finished blooming, there’s a fairly decent chance they’ll produce fruit for you in early summer.

There are three types to choose from: white currants, red currants and blackcurrants, the Latin name for these plants is Ribes. (I take it that’s where Ribena gets its name from!)

There’s no need for a special vegetable patch or fruit area, unless you have tons of space. Simply plant in your borders and keep watered. You’ll be thrilled how quickly they bed in.

Likewise, raspberry bushes are easy to grow.They just need a fence or wall to lean against with some wires to hold the stems (known as canes) upright.

You can get early-, mid-season and late-fruiting varieties. Pick all three and you can enjoy fresh fruit for months on end. Keep the ground free from weeds, and water regularly. Like all fruiting shrubs, you should fertilise a couple of times a year.

Strawberries are a great fruit to get the children interested in the garden. Buy them each a grow bag and three plants so they can tend, water and check daily for the flowers that will turn into green strawberries before ripening into delicious red fruit.

If you plant them now, you could have fruit in a matter of weeks. Blueberries are ideal if you’re growing in containers or pots on a balcony.And this will not only provide fruit but also beautiful flowers and striking autumn foliage. Use ericaceous compost when planting blueberries as they prefer an acidic soil and a sunny spot will help. Apples, pears and plums are all good to plant now providing you keep them well watered during summer dry spells.These trees all give a lot of bang for their buck.The spring blossom is heavenly, picking fresh fruit from the tree in autumn is always a treat and they make a nice shapely feature for the garden, too. You can buy them in different sizes. Ask your garden centre for advice depending on the space you have available. If you’re only buying one tree, make sure it’s self-pollinating to ensure you get a good crop of fruit.

●●David Domoney is a leading horticulturist and star of ITV’s Love Your Garden