Grow Your Own Luscious Fruit!
Children love to pick fruit, eating raspberries or strawberries as fast as they fill a basket! Although it is a good idea to rotate veg around several beds – it prevents the build up of disease – you can devote a bit of ground to permanent plantings of fruit. There are summer and autumn types of raspberries and, by growing both, you can pick over a long season. Autumn fruiting canes are the easiest as these are cut back to the ground in Februar y. For summer types you take out the fruited canes after harvesting.
Strawberries are a must in my garden! There’s nothing better than picking juicy scented fruits and eating them straight away with cream. I also grow Japanese wineberry for its melon tasting fruits and blueberries in large containers because these need acid compost.
If you have the space, then gooseberries and currant bushes produce lots of fruit for pies and jams. Grapes can be grown in a polytunnel and a wall is a good place for training trees: apples, and pears or apricots and nectarines if you live somewhere warm and sheltered. With fruit, vegetables and lots of herbs your garden can be a place of delight and healthy food.