Room for fruit? Looking for suggestions

tmahatcher

We are moving to a new home and I have space for a garden and would like to add some fruit- small dwarf tree, blueberry bushes, and/or raspberries. The garden will be 32X32 with raised beds for veg and herbs. The perimeter is undecided. I'd like to fit in some fruit- thoughts??  THANK YOU!

pansyface

Er, 32x32 what? Metres, feet?

tmahatcher

pansyface said:

Er, 32x32 what? Metres, fee

Sorry- feet

pansyface

The scheme looks very formal. You would need to choose your fruit carefully in order to keep it looking like that.

Raspberries are wayward, spreading, straggly things.  Not really suited to such a system.

raisingirl

There is a raspberry called 'Ruby Beauty' that might suit. There are also naturally small blackcurrant and blueberry bushes (the former in the ground, the latter in a pot with ericaceous compost unless you have strongly acidic soil). There are some naturally dwarf fruit trees, like the dwarf mulberry 'Mojo Berry' - search for patio fruit trees and you'll find loads.
As the post on your other thread, there are fruits you can grow against a wall or fence to take up less ground room. 
You can also grow strawberries and there are now a few blackberries (Dart's Black Cascade is the one on the RHS site but there are others) in hanging baskets.

robairdmacraignil

I like growing strawberry, raspberry, blueberry, gooseberry, black currants and red currants and some other fruit. Slugs really like strawberry so if you can keep the fruit off the ground you can get a better crop. Raspberry is a bit wild in the way it spreads. Gooseberry thorns are sharp so you will need to learn to be careful around where they are planted. Red currants are very attractive for birds so some years it may be difficult to get much fruit before the birds do. Blueberry like acid soil and tend to crop better if they can cross pollinate with different varieties grown together. It might be worth building a fruit cage that you can walk in and keep your soft fruit protected from birds and avoid the trouble of using loose netting for deterring birds from eating your crops. Plant varieties you like to eat and ones that crop at different times of the year to expand your harvest season.

tmahatcher

Thank you.  I'm keeping it formal not for look so much as ease of working. Thank you for the suggestions- I'll take a look at the other fruits and see what the family would eat:). I like fruit I can make jam and freeze for winter

Lizzie27

Blackberries are one of the best fruit for jam and freezing. I grow mine against a fence on a horizontal wiring system so it can be trained both left and right. Every year you just cut out the canes that have fruited and tie the new ones in. Make sure you buy a thornless variety. Gooseberries I also grow against the fence on a double cordon i.e. a short leg then pruned to create two upward stems only. 
Good luck.

raisingirl

Redcurrants are very good if you're a jam maker. On their own they make redcurrant jelly which is a very useful condiment base for sauces etc. They are very high in pectin so also really good to mix with, for example, raspberries or blackberries or with herbs, to make it set. They are quite big bushes, though you can prune them to keep them in check, and I doubt you'll need more than one as they are extremely heavy cropping once they get going.

I should have said earlier, if you're going for space saving, always look for self fertile varieties so you don't have to have two

valerieroberts

How about those step over fruit trees, apples and pears that Monty has, and put them around the edges. Val

treehugger80

step overs or short espaliers would work, alternatively you could do a fruit archway with a fruit tree each side maybe 4 feet wide then take it up to the top and meet them in the middle.
maybe not quite this long, but you get the idea