Growing Fruit - fresh
fruit from your garden, allotment or patio gives lasting rewards
Growing fruit is so simple to do that every gardener should have at
least a few strawberries or an apple tree in their backyard or garden.
Sadly, many people are put off fruit
growing as they think it will take up a lot of space in what may be a very small family garden.
However, this need not be the
case. Here are a few
ideas on how to fit fruit growing into a family garden.
Fruit trees can be grown in the decorative area of the garden as dual
purpose flowering and fruiting specimen trees, and are well worth finding space for.
All fruit trees have superb blossom in spring that is as good as any
purely decorative species. Some also have autumn colour and good shapes making them valuable year
round attractive specimens. And with modern dwarfing rootstocks they can stay small and more manageable than many
tree grown for decorative purposes.
Trained
fruit trees come in a variety of forms making them very easy to accommodate in small spaces in decorative gardens.
Fans and espaliers look stunning on south or west facing walls. Or they could be grown on trellises and used to
separate or screen different parts of the garden.
Cordons make productive hedges or can be trained over arches or
placed as accent plants near the back of a border. And step-over trees, that is single tiered espaliers, can
be used as edging to paths and borders.
Other fruits such as blackberries can be trained over arches, against
walls and on trellis. Others such as strawberries can be grown in containers and baskets.
Red currants and gooseberries are often grown as U shaped double
cordons against a wall or trellis, and both can be grown as small standards in containers or in flower
borders.
Even if you have very limited space it's still possible to grow your
own fruit as many varieties can be grown in containers on a patio, deck or balcony. Some
fruit, particularly citrus fruit such as lemons, limes and oranges, can be grown indoors as house
plants. They make superb specimen plants when grown well in large pots. And as they are evergreen
and have wonderfully scented blossoms, they remain attractive all year round.
So by growing your own you can enjoy the taste of succulent of fruit
year after year. And one of the great joys of home-grown fruit is to be able to eat fresh and healthy produce that
is not tainted with chemicals.
To get you started growing fruit at home here's some tips for how to
grow raspberries and strawberries.
Growing raspberries
Growing strawberries
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