When I started my garden (decades ago!), I wanted fruit. Fruit is expensive to buy and it is much tastier to eat what you grow. I raised some alpine strawberries from seed (for fun)and planted them in a trough on the patio - in the autmn I planted them around trees, under shrubs etc and now years later, I forage all summer for fruits for my yogurt - so delightful!
Autumn raspberries are the best - no netting required, you get so much fruit over a long period and a doddle to prune. Joan J is great, my fav. I also have Polka but hate the spines, lol. You might try boysenberries - they taste like winey blackberries (but you must not pick them just because they are black - make sure they are ripe first). A lovely fruit with no spines and late in the summer so no netting.
Looking forward to the sustainable suppliers - I agree that it can be v hard to find them locally. Hopefully more will come on board when they see there is a market
I love alpine strawberries! Like you I sowed a batch of Baron von Solemacher from seed tears ago and his descendants now scramble all over the rockery in my front garden 😊 have never tried boysenberries - now firmly on my list for the vacated raspberry bed! - but have a wall of loganberries which are absolutely prolific and so easy to grow 💚
Aren’t pennard plants not far from you? I love their selection of plants and they grow peat free so they’ve been one of my favourites for years. Particularly for their unusual perennials. If you’ve got itchy green fingers and you didn’t sow B-road beans in November, I like to start the broad beans and peas in toilet roll tubes in the green house before planting and it’s mid February when I usually make a start. I do have (I think but never seen) a green house mouse so I cover with netting.
On the fruit, I found out by accident that raspberries love the shady damp bit of the garden. They kept popping up in my raised beds so I kept moving them where I had space so I plopped them there as it done where there’s always space and they loved it with the biggest fattest fruit in the whole garden.
Hi Claire, yes Pennard is wonderful isn't it? Keep trying to get to one of their open days, maybe this year 😊 it was they who ran the potato day I went to last weekend - lots of bare root fruit there 💚 even rhubarb crowns, and they're peat free for potted too. I don't wish garden centres would follow the best of the small nurseries and do more imaginative stuff like this...
I really like your diamond gooseberry idea Sally. Very impressive/clever! ……. how long have they been growing against the wall?
They're maybe 3-4 years old? I tie in the shoots each year a little further 😊 so far so good!
When I started my garden (decades ago!), I wanted fruit. Fruit is expensive to buy and it is much tastier to eat what you grow. I raised some alpine strawberries from seed (for fun)and planted them in a trough on the patio - in the autmn I planted them around trees, under shrubs etc and now years later, I forage all summer for fruits for my yogurt - so delightful!
Autumn raspberries are the best - no netting required, you get so much fruit over a long period and a doddle to prune. Joan J is great, my fav. I also have Polka but hate the spines, lol. You might try boysenberries - they taste like winey blackberries (but you must not pick them just because they are black - make sure they are ripe first). A lovely fruit with no spines and late in the summer so no netting.
Looking forward to the sustainable suppliers - I agree that it can be v hard to find them locally. Hopefully more will come on board when they see there is a market
I love alpine strawberries! Like you I sowed a batch of Baron von Solemacher from seed tears ago and his descendants now scramble all over the rockery in my front garden 😊 have never tried boysenberries - now firmly on my list for the vacated raspberry bed! - but have a wall of loganberries which are absolutely prolific and so easy to grow 💚
Aren’t pennard plants not far from you? I love their selection of plants and they grow peat free so they’ve been one of my favourites for years. Particularly for their unusual perennials. If you’ve got itchy green fingers and you didn’t sow B-road beans in November, I like to start the broad beans and peas in toilet roll tubes in the green house before planting and it’s mid February when I usually make a start. I do have (I think but never seen) a green house mouse so I cover with netting.
On the fruit, I found out by accident that raspberries love the shady damp bit of the garden. They kept popping up in my raised beds so I kept moving them where I had space so I plopped them there as it done where there’s always space and they loved it with the biggest fattest fruit in the whole garden.
Hi Claire, yes Pennard is wonderful isn't it? Keep trying to get to one of their open days, maybe this year 😊 it was they who ran the potato day I went to last weekend - lots of bare root fruit there 💚 even rhubarb crowns, and they're peat free for potted too. I don't wish garden centres would follow the best of the small nurseries and do more imaginative stuff like this...