Fruit trees and bushes are not often grown in small gardens, as flowers, foliage and vegetables usually take priority over fruit where space is limited. Also to blame is the old fashioned view of fruit growing as needing lots of space, and while fruit is still often grown on a large scale, modern dwarf varieties and clever techniques make fruit growing accessible to everyone. So, if a pot, a wall or a hanging basket to spare, you can grow fruit.
Patio berries. Blueberries are a favourite of and do well in a large container of ericaceous compost that is watered regularly. Make sure you net them at fruiting time to keep the birds away! Dwarf Raspberry varieties have recently become available that bear short canes, making the plants a great patio subject. Traditional Raspberry canes, though not good for a pot, can be grown in the ground around a wooden stake – drive the stake into the ground, and plant 3 raspberry canes around it, tying them in around the post as they grow.
Tiny trees. Growing your own apples, pears, cherries and the like in a small garden is possible through a small amount of training and pruning. Thanks to dwarfing rootstocks, the vigour of the tree is controlled, making it more manageable and suitable for container growing. Many forms are possible, from a miniature patio tree, low growing ‘’ (great for planting on the edge of vegetable beds), as well as , cordon, and espalier trees. Indeed, given a simple support system such as wires against a wall plus a bit of patience, and you can make almost any shape – for a zig-zag, or a heart. Great satisfaction can be had from training a tree in this way!
Vertical soft fruit. Thorn-free varieties of climbing fruit plants like Blackberry, Tayberry and Loganberry, are somewhat less vigorous than the thorny types, making them easy to manage and handle, whilst also producing good harvests of succulent berries, great both for cooking and eating straight from the vines. Other berries such as Gooseberries, Redcurrants and Whitecurrants, which usually grow as a bush, can be trained to grow vertically instead, into cordons, fans or U-shaped double cordons. They will suit a shady wall as well as a sunny one, which makes them good for difficult spaces, and the straight form of fans and cordons makes for easy picking, especially if you’re growing thorny Gooseberries!
The versatile Strawberry. The diminutive nature of strawberry plants means that you can fit them in almost everywhere and they are the most accessible of fruits to grow. Pots, grow bags and veg plots, raised beds and hanging baskets – the last of these is probably the best if you’re growing on a small scale, as they are lifted high above the ground, making it hard for pests such as slugs to reach them, whilst making it easy (too easy!) for us to pick them. Choose a large basket, fill with John Innes No. 3, water and feed regularly with high potassium tomato feed as soon as the fruits are starting to form, and enjoy the fruits of your labour!
