Good enough to eat

BLUEBERRIES: These delicious deep blue berries which can be added to summer pudding and other red fruit desserts are related to the wild, moorland bilberries, but form bushes rather than low, straggly plants.

Best planting time is late autumn to early spring, although container-grown bushes can be planted at any time when the soil is workable.

Blueberries thrive in well-drained, moist acid soil in a sunny, sheltered position and will grow to around 1.5m (5ft) high. You will have to be patient as bushes do take a while to start fruiting. You should get some fruits several years after planting, but by the fourth or fifth year a bush should be producing up to 5lbs of the fruit a year from mid-summer to mid-autumn, depending on the type. Remove the oldest branches in early spring when the bush is over three years old. Good varieties include ‘Bluetta’ and ‘Bluecrop’.