The new fruit plants – 2 blueberries bushes, 1 blackberry bush, 5 summer fruiting raspberry canes and 2nd strawberry plants have all performed extremely well this year with regular harvests from Early July (we are in the UK).

If anyone is thinking of getting some berry bushes or fruit canes, do it, you won’t regret it. We weren’t sure whether we would get any fruit in the first year and we have loads.

Top Tips for Growing Fruit at Home

Raspberries – We bought bare root plants as they are cheaper. Plant them in garden soil mixed with compost, they are currently growing in our flower borders successfully. A few of our canes have got to about a metre tall and could do with a cane to prop them up as they are not growing up a fence or wall. They are in full sun.

Blackberry Bush – we bought this in a pot from an online outlet so received it in the post. It came with planting instructions so we followed those and it is also planted in a flower border with garden soil and multi purpose compost mixed in to the border soil. It is growing up a fence but has become a little wayward because we haven’t pinned it to the fence. It definitely needs some hooks on the fence and twine to keep it growing horizontally across the fence.

Blueberry Bushes – we bought these as potted plants, they were literally twigs. We planted them in a slightly larger pot than they were delivered in and used acidic compost (called Ericaceous compost) to grow them in. Put the pots in full sun and water with rainwater if possible as they don’t like the chlorine in tap water.

Strawberry Plants – we bought our plants bare root as they are a lot cheaper. Plant them as instructed into pots or raised beds. Depending on varieties, some fruit in the first year only giving you a small harvest, don’t worry the second year, you won’t know what to do with all your strawberries! We bought the ever-bearer variety which means they fruit once in June and once in August/September which is great for extra fruit harvests.

If you do have children, fence off your raspberries or move them up higher in a raised bed where they don’t have easy access to them. Very rarely have we tasted a raspberry in our garden due to our little one finding red ones all the time off the snack bush. On the upside we don’t have to venture to the kitchen for snacks, just open the back door and let her feed herself!