Best ones to try
Elder
Both flowers and berries provide raw materials for traditional home-made drinks. Use the cream-coloured flowers for cordial or champagne and the berries for a moreish wine.
Hazel
Forget the dry-as-dust nuts that you’ll find in supermarkets before Christmas, hazelnuts are moist and sweet in autumn.
Blackthorn
Add sloes, blackthorn’s fruits, to gin to create that traditional winterwarmer, sloe gin.
Crab apple
Well worth including because its blossom feeds pollinators, who will then get busy elsewhere in the garden. Crab apples are too sour to eat, but can be used to make jelly.
Hawthorn
Quick-growing and prickly, hawthorn is the mainstay of farm hedgerows. It’s great for wildlife too, mainly because birds love its orangey-red berries. The fruit can be used to make jellies and ketchup.
Apple
If you go for M27 rootstock your apple trees will get to about 2m (6½ft) when fully mature.
Damson
Blossom in spring, and beautiful fruit in autumn; a great combination. Damson jam is good, but try damson chutney first.
Quince
Grows to medium height (up to 4.5m /15ft). Use the fruit to make quince jelly, which is delicious with a good cheddar.