Jump to: blackberry, blueberry, currants, fig, golden berry, gooseberry, melon, melon pear, olive, orchard, raspberry, strawberry, tayberry

Tayberry

"Recently raised offspring of the raspberry and blackberry, producing large deep red juicy berries.  Delicious in pies, puddings, jams and jellies, they also freeze well."

20 Jan 2008 - I did the first two jobs of my new gardening year, one of which was planting a Tayberry bush in a giant pot.  I picked it up in Woolworth's for a bargain price of £1.99.  It's planted in a mixture of my own compost and leaf mould with some added fertiliser and topped with just a layer of bought compost to make it easier for the roots to get established.  It's a pretty spindly looking specimen so I've started by protecting it with a bell cloche considering the heavy rain we've been experiencing.

27 Jan - Second Tayberry planted in smaller pot and placed in greenhouse.  I will decide where to permanently place this when it has grown a bit more.

Currants

2007 - a few currants appeared on these new bushes but sadly not enough to harvest.

1 Oct 2006 - potted up three newly acquired currant bushes, one black, one red and one white.  They don't look much at the moment as they're in their dormant stage.  I've put them in pots as I will want to put them in my fruit cage (along with the existing blueberries), which I plan to get next year.

Olive

A free plant form gardener's world magazine.  Hope it's better than the last free offer (a bamboo) which died.  Placed in the conservatory to give it a good start, and for winter protection.

Fig

13 Sep 2006 - A new plant cosseted in the conservatory to give it a good start, and for winter protection.

Golden Berry

Golden Berry Pineapple (maybe better known as Cape Gooseberry or seen in the shops as Physalis).

20 April - two trays of Physalis Edulis seed sown and placed on the potting shed ina plastic propagator.

Blueberry

I've got three blueberry plants in pots, now in my fruit cage.  Two (a male & female) are well established and the third was new in October 2006, so 2007 is its first year.

Raspberry

20 Jan 2008 - cut back the raspberry canes.  One of my first jobs of the new 2008 gardening year.

Gooseberry

Planted in a large pot last year in 2005, this potted bush is now very well established.

Melon pear pepino

Or Solanum Muricatum to give its proper name.  I do like to grow things I can't buy in the supermarket or greengrocers.  This exotic plant is a native of South America. It has blue flowers and juicy fruits that taste like honeydew melons.  It's not a melon at all, but part of the tomato/potato family.  I've read that "the beautiful purple-striped, egg-shaped fruit of the Pepino Melon is mild and sweet with a flavour reminiscent of cantaloupe. Fruits in about 9 months from seed."

In 2007 I tried growing these from seed for the first time, but it wasn't successful.

Strawberries

I have two established strawberry troughs planted in January 2006, one trough of new plants this year, plus two troughs of alpine strawberries, grown from seed this year.

2 June 2007 - I've been cosseting my alpine strawberry troughs in the greenhouse, but they had to move out to the fruit cage today as I started greenhouse planting.

4 June 2007- my first strawberry harvest and there is nothing like a warm home grown strawberries which have never been chilled.  They are so, so fragrant, juicy and tasty.

26 April 2008 - I tidied up all of my strawberry pots/troughs, planting the new runners I made last year.  Then I planted 24 new strawberry Ostara plants in a raised bed in the tunnel and one leftover in a hanging basket. 

Blackberries

We have wild blackberry bushes in our paddock and wood.

Orchard

Existing fruit trees

We inherited five fruit trees with the house:
a cooking apple, an eating apple, a conference pear, a cherry plum and a greengage.

24 July 2006 - a walk around the fruit trees revealed the following progress:

Established eating apple tree	Established cooking apple tree	Pear tree	New Jonagold apple	Cherry plum	Greengage?

New Fruit tree planting

In January 2006, we planted 5 new fruit trees:
a Cox's Orange Pippin apple, Jonagold apple, Elstar apple, Victoria Plum and Cherry Summer Sun.

Sadly, the rabbits got the Elstar and stripped the bark before we could protect it with wire.  I painted it with Prune & Seal to try to help protect the damaged bark, but it did not survive.

Hopefully, we'll get some fruit from the remaining four trees this year.

For a reminder of previous year's exploits - see 2007 fruit garden notes and  2006 fruit garden notes.