Berried treasure
It’s a cinch to grow your own soft fruits and you will also be rewarded with a feast for your eyes with pretty flowers and shiny
Forget the supermarket. Imagine walking out your back door to pick the freshest, juiciest soft fruits. Nothing beats harvesting your own crop as it ripens.
And you don’t need an orchard, allotment or greenhouse – fruit bushes or small trees can fit in your borders and will thrive in containers. A lot of these plants have lovely flowers, too. Strawberries produce attractive white, red and pink flowers, as do currants. Blueberries have little belllike flowers, making them an attractive addition and good talking point. Many fruits love growing up against a sunny wall or fence. If you’re really short of space, pick dwarf varieties that don’t grow too big in terms of height and spread. Raspberries, blackberries, currants and blueberries all thrive alongside strawberries in the British climate. Redcurrants, blackcurrants or white currant bushes produce a phenomenal amount of fruit early on and are low maintenance. I like to plant all three types together. They look stunning in the garden. Most bushes cost between £10 and £20 each – cheap, given they will be producing fruit for a decade and getting bigger and better every year.
Soft fruit will grow in most soil types, but ideally it should be rich and well-drained – they don’t like heavy and waterlogged so dig in lots of organic matter if you have clay soil.
Dig over the area before planting to loosen the soil and then add a handful of slowrelease fertiliser.
Container-grown fruit bushes can be planted out at any time. But bare-root bushes, which are cheaper to buy, need to be planted in autumn or winter while they are dormant.
Always avoid putting new plants in too deep. This can smother the roots and kill the plant. Use the soil mark on the stems as a guide.
Some of these plants need pruning immediately after planting. This will help them survive the move and produce vigorous new growth.
And remember to keep new plants well-watered in dry spells for the first few months, at least until their root systems get established. So avoid planting right before you go on holiday.