This week, torrential rain and an attack of gastroenteritis following a particularly grim set of night shifts have conspired to prevent me from doing anything much in the garden. However, on arriving home on Friday morning, I was greeted by the arrival of a trio of fruit bushes that I had ordered a week or so ago, and this cheered me up substantially.
I've not grown any kind of fruit in the garden before, but decided that as I was redesigning and re-ordering everything out there, now was the time to try.
I have already got a blueberry bush (Blueberry Bluegold) in a pot by the back door, raspberry canes at the end of the lawn (Raspberry Polka - an autumn fruiting variety) and numerous strawberry runners donated by my brother late last year which have successfully over-wintered in the greenhouse, but I have recently cleared a part of the garden that was previously derelict, and in it I plan to try:
1)
Blackcurrant Glen Connan (- a small to medium sized bush which is frost tolerant and resistant to powdery mildew, which will hopefully produce "large tasty fruit" from mid July onwards.
2)
Blackberry Loch Ness - a thornless, fast growing variety equally at home in a pot or trained against a wall, which fruits from mid August onwards. I'm putting these right where we used to get a crop of wild blackberries, so hopefully they will do well there.
3)
Gooseberry Invicta - a popular and easy to grow variety which will fruit in late July.
As with everything else in my garden, they must be idiot proof, and able to pretty much look after themselves, and I think that I have chosen three varieties which would suit a beginner like me. We'll see how they get on...
