We grow lots of fruit on our plot so I thought I'd give you a short tour of some of our fruit beds.
Our main fruit area wraps around the shed. To the left of the shed, (or behind it in the above photo), is a grassy area into which we have planted three plum trees and two greengages all of which are now fairly large trees. In the photo above the greengages can be seen just behind the shed and you may be just able to make out the plum trees behind the greenhouse. At the moment, although late, all are now in full flower.
Wrapped around two sides of the shed is the tayberry and a grapevine grows at the back of the shed. No grapes on this as yet.
On the right of the shed is a small bed containing our four blueberries which are in varying stages of development - I've trimmed off any dead twiggy bits but have chickened out of severe pruning - I'm waiting to see how Mark's blueberries respond to the pruning he did this year.
In front of the blueberries is a bed containing three pear trees. that are beginning to flower - again later than usual.
In front of the pears are a couple of beds containing a mixture of jostaberries, gooseberries, whitecurrants, rhubarb and in the case of the one nearest to the pear bed our Glencoe raspberry. I've just removed some old alpine strawberries from these beds which will be replaced with new plants that we are growing from seed.
The jostaberries and gooseberries are in flower.
On the fourth photo above you should be able to make out the redcurrant bed alongside the greenhouse and just behind the bird sown hawthorn that I shaped into a small tree. I've no idea which varieties these bushes are but they produce great fruit and are also flowering.
To the right of the redcurrants is a bed that houses three small apple 'trees' and to the right of that bed is our ancient apple 'hedge' with another bed containing one small apple tree to the right of that but out of shot. The apples are just beginning to produce flower buds.
At the 'back' of the shed is a bed containing half of our blackcurrants and a quince tree.
There is another bed similar to this on the other side of the strawberry bed that you can see to the left of the photo. These two beds are edged with lavender that I have just trimmed. There are several varieties of blackcurrant with the earliest starting to produce fruit. In the bed out of shot are also some whitecurrants, gooseberries, a couple of cobnuts and another grape vine.
Towards the back of the above photo you can see the row of summer fruiting raspberries and at the very back left hand corner of the photo you can just make out the cherry which again is flowering late this year.
Behind the raspberries are a couple of kiwis that are just beginning to produce fat buds. So far we have never had any fruit off these and I'm not hopeful this year.
The largest rhubarb bed is behind the greenhouse and we have other bits and pieces such as blackberries, a Japanese wineberry and autumn raspberries scattered around too but this describes our main fruit area. Just to explain it further I have created a small plan which unfortunately is the opposite way round so I hope it isn't too confusing. Click on the image for a larger view.
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What a superb collection of fruit! Your blossom may be late, but it is still ahead of ours! I'm intrigued by your ancient apple hedge and I want to know more. Have you posted about it before?
ReplyDeleteWe inherited a row of fairly old cordon apples, Crystal. The 'trees' are not in the best shape ever but we keep them as they supply us with plenty of apples. I've mentioned them on
Deletethis post and on my website this page
Gosh what a lot of fruit you have growing. I have a wineberry on my list for next year along with a few other things that I really haven't got the space for.
ReplyDeleteOur wineberry hasn't really taken off since we planted it two years ago, Jo so we haven't had any berries yet
DeleteWow! I wish I had so many fruit trees on my plot! Your fruit garden is very impressive.
ReplyDeleteSo far, the majority of my collection is a bird cherry (prunus padus), only because it already grew there when we bought the plot. We have 4 or 5 of them, and new seedlings are coming out. It isn't very tasty when eating the fruits raw (they taste like cherries but they're more bitter) but my husband makes fantastic wine and fruit liqueur with bird cherries).
I'd like to have all the fruit trees and bushes as you have, but my dream is to have a black mullberry tree (morus nigra), because these fruits are absolutely amazing in taste to me. I'm also very curious about the taste of amelanchier (or shadbush). Many allotment holders grow it in Poland, but I've never had a chance to taste the fruits.
Mulberries grow quite big don't they Dewberry.
DeleteThere is a children's song 'Here we go round the mulberry tree' that is supposed to have originated at Wakefield prison near to us. Thye have a mulberry tree in the exercise yard and the prisoners walked round it when they were our exercising.
This is very interesting. I didn't know there is such an old prison in Wakefield. Wikipedia states that it was built in 1594, it's a nice piece of history.
DeleteWow,it looks a big plot.
ReplyDeleteWE are lucky, David we got the plots when no-one wanted allotments!
DeleteI think you could supply the neighbourhood with that lot, what an impressive collection.
ReplyDeleteWe never have a problem eating lots of fruit, Jo
DeleteHi Sue, it was really neat to see your garden in the diagram form. Made it easy to place things in my mind as you describe them. I am so impressed with you fruit collection. It is quite extensive. Cheers, Jenni
ReplyDeleteI'll have to draw a diagram of the other parts later, Jenni.
DeleteSuch a lot of fruit - how on earth you cope with it all in a good year heaven knows. The plot is looking good Sue. I bought a tiny Loganberry plant the other day to add to my collection.
ReplyDeleteWe are very busy at fruit picking time Elaine.
DeleteI wonder if the later flowering of the top fruit this year will mean better pollination now it is a little warmer. I have hopes for my own greengage that usually disappoints.
ReplyDeleteI wonder that too Roger or whether like is happening to our magnola and camellia - the blossom drops quicker.
DeleteOur gages and plums crop biennially. The problem is that they all have the same year off!
I love fruits and berries. My orchard is now 3 years old. I hope I get a big more berry action.
ReplyDeleteWhat so you have in your orchard Bonnie?
DeleteVery impressive. Presumably you also have a large freezer...?
ReplyDeleteWE have several freezers Mark :)
DeleteIsn't it great now things are starting to pick up again! I can't wait to start looking for a bigger plot to get an orchard planned once again. Have a great bank holiday!! Chel x
ReplyDeleteIt is Chel - hope you have a good bank holiday too
DeleteThe map really helped visualise your layout - jeez, I wish my plot were as large as yours!
ReplyDeleteThe Jostaberry flowers are quite unique but how do the fruit taste?
That's just part of our plot Tanya - nowadays we wouldn't get something with as much space. Martyn rents some of it and I rent some of it too.
DeleteThe jostaberry taste is between a gooseberry and a blackcurrant. I think it is more blackcurranty but Martyn thinks more gooseberry!
Crikey, you've got a lot of fruit! I'm not sure we'd get away with that in Sheffield. The Allotment Office would tut and mutter about "supposed to be predominantly vegetables". Well, perhaps in days of yore that was appropriate but it's a different world nowadays. To be fair, they are trying hard to update their management, altho that comes at the cost of a massive rent hike!
ReplyDeleteAll put together we probably do have more vegetables than fruit, Woody but as it is we don't have the same tenants' agreement as you. Seems silly to discriminate against fruit as if you wat to eat healthily it is fruit that is so expensive to buy - especially bnerry type fruit.p
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