Spring is arriving and its time to plant your soft fruit
Soft fruit is expensive. It's well worth growing. You may need to net it to keep the birds off and obviously the fruit is a bit few and far between until its established. It is a planting investment worth making not just financially but the taste. Tey are not demanding plants so if you have a bit of space plant a bit of what you fancy whether it be rhubarb or raspberries!
The choice and variety of fruits is vast and this also include the newly popularised June berries, honeyberries and the trendy goji berries.
I had great success growing ericaceous requiring fruits such as blueberries and cranberries in large pots of the right compost. They are fully hardy and look pretty in pots. I am hoping for a bumper crop this year and the birds leave cranberries alone!
Pretty cranberry foliage trailing from my pot.
Tayberries and loganberries are diversification from raspberries worth considering according to your space and size of fruit you require. Raspberries are too expensive in the shops, along with blueberries (these need ericaceous compost in pots and grow better with two blueberry plants of the same flowering time, giving you bigger fruit ) and definitely worth planting if not only for that reason.
I find gooseberries an acquired taste .I am particularly partial to the gooseberries undertones tones described in a Sauvignon blanc personally but that's just me and possible not the same!
It is now a good time to make preparation and get some sensible soft fruit in so this summer you can start to enjoy your own fresh produce.
You can not beat a strawberry from your own garden picked and warm on a sunny day.
