reading

This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law. Any unauthorized distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.

Published in 2010 by BBC Books, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, a Random House Group Company

The right of Alan Titchmarsh to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner.

Addresses for companies within the Random House Group can be found at www.randomhouse.co.uk

Introduction

Gardening is one of the best and most fulfilling activities on earth, but it can sometimes seem complicated and confusing. The answers to problems can usually be found in books, but big fat gardening books can be rather daunting. Where do you start? How can you find just the information you want without wading through lots of stuff that is not appropriate to your particular problem? Well, a good index is helpful, but sometimes a smaller book devoted to one particular subject fits the bill better – especially if it is reasonably priced and if you have a small garden where you might not be able to fit in everything suggested in a larger volume.

The How to Garden books aim to fill that gap – even if sometimes it may be only a small one. They are clearly set out and written, I hope, in a straightforward, easy-to-understand style. I don’t see any point in making gardening complicated, when much of it is based on common sense and observation. (All the key techniques are explained and illustrated, and I’ve included plenty of tips and tricks of the trade.)

There are suggestions on the best plants and the best varieties to grow in particular situations and for a particular effect. I’ve tried to keep the information crisp and to the point so that you can find what you need quickly and easily and then put your new-found knowledge into practice. Don’t worry if you’re not familiar with the Latin names of plants. They are there to make sure you can find the plant as it will be labelled in the nursery or garden centre, but where appropriate I have included common names, too. Forgetting a plant’s name need not stand in your way when it comes to being able to grow it.

Above all, the How to Garden books are designed to fill you with passion and enthusiasm for your garden and all that its creation and care entails, from designing and planting it to maintaining it and enjoying it. For more than fifty years gardening has been my passion, and that initial enthusiasm for watching plants grow, for trying something new and for just being outside pottering has never faded. If anything I am keener on gardening now than I ever was and get more satisfaction from my plants every day. It’s not that I am simply a romantic, but rather that I have learned to look for the good in gardens and in plants, and there is lots to be found. Oh, there are times when I fail – when my plants don’t grow as well as they should and I need to try harder. But where would I rather be on a sunny day? Nowhere!

The How to Garden handbooks will, I hope, allow some of that enthusiasm – childish though it may be – to rub off on you, and the information they contain will, I hope, make you a better gardener, as well as opening your eyes to the magic of plants and flowers.

Why grow your own?

While many people are quite happy to consider growing vegetables, the idea of cultivating fruit can seem a bit more daunting – but it needn’t be. In fact, many types of fruit are much easier to grow than vegetables – they’re less prone to pests and diseases, and once they’re established they need considerably less attention, with work being weekly or monthly rather than daily. In fact, there are almost as many reasons for growing fruit as there are fruit varieties.

Taste and freshness

Shops simply can’t compete with home-grown produce when it comes to freshness, ripeness and flavour. Think of those rock hard plums, apricots, peaches and nectarines at your supermarket. They had to be picked before they were ripe so they would travel well, and as a result their taste suffers. You might get only a dozen or so apricots or peaches off your own tree, but you can pick them when they’re at the peak of perfection, warmed by the sun and literally oozing juice and flavour. If you grow plums, you’ll have more than you know what to do with most years.

Something different

Take a walk along a supermarket fruit aisle and you’ll always see apples, oranges and bananas. Nowadays, you’ll also see strawberries, blueberries and raspberries almost every month of the year. But how often do you see blackcurrants, whitecurrants and redcurrants? What about rhubarb and gooseberries? If you happen to like these rather unfashionable fruit, you’re often out of luck when searching for them in the shops. And if you do manage to find them, they may be bruised and unattractive because they don’t really take kindly to travelling.

Depending on the amount of space you have available, you can grow as many plants as you have an appetite for, and you can try a range of different varieties – not just the ones that travel well and keep for a long time, which is what commercial growers tend to concentrate on. And finally, a very good reason for growing your own is that the fruit won’t have done stellar mileage to get to your table, which has to be good for our overburdened planet.

Many fruit trees are attractive decorative plants that enhance the garden with their leaves, flowers and fruit, even if you have no plans to eat their produce.

Deciding what to grow

Once you’ve made up your mind to include fruit in your garden or allotment, you have the fun of choosing what to grow. It goes without saying that you’ll want to include fruit that you and your family like, but beyond that there are quite a few factors you need to take into account to ensure your foray into fruit growing is as successful as possible.

Almost every garden has the space to accommodate at least one apple tree, and the traditional cooker ‘Bramley’s Seedling’ is an excellent choice, particularly if you like apple crumbles and pies. It is also incredibly easy to grow, needing little care.

Your plot

The size of your garden is a major consideration, and it’s important to tailor your ambitions to the space you have available. That said, it’s possible to fit almost all commonly grown fruits into even quite a small plot, as long as you don’t expect to become self-sufficient in them. (For details on growing fruit in a small garden, see here).

The vast majority of fruit needs a sunny, sheltered site and prefers a fertile, well-drained soil. There are ways of improving your soil to make it more suitable (see here), but if you live on the windy top of a hillside, you need to consider creating shelter. You can also choose fruit that copes more easily with difficult conditions, as far as both soil and aspect are concerned (see Challenging conditions box, here). Lack of sun is more difficult to remedy, especially where it is trees or buildings outside your own garden creating the shade, although some fruit will tolerate a little shade.

Your location

One of the aims of modern plant breeding has been to obtain more reliable crops in a wider range of growing conditions. This has vastly increased the number of fruit varieties available to gardeners, and as a result most fruit can be grown in most places nowadays. However, there are certain instances where your location must be taken into account, otherwise you’ll be in for a lot of disappointment. Apricots, for example, are happier in southern and central parts of Britain and usually struggle outdoors in northern Britain and Wales, where they are better in a greenhouse. Similarly, peaches tend to do well in eastern England, such as in East Anglia, but are much more difficult to grow in the Midlands and further north. Figs, melons and grapes may produce crops, but in many areas they require plenty of input for very little output. If you’re really keen, they’re worth a go, but you will need to work quite hard to achieve success. The A–Z of fruit (see here) will give you all the information you need, so check there before making your purchases.

Most types of fruit need plenty of sun, but soft fruit such as blackberries, raspberries, gooseberries and strawberries will tolerate dappled shade for part of the day. However, the flavour of sun-grown fruit is always better.

Your energy levels

Fruit growing is not such hard work as vegetable growing, but the plants do need attention from time to time. For instance, strawberries put out stems (runners) in summer, with new plants on the ends and middles. These need to be removed or rooted (see here), otherwise your strawberry patch or pot will end up a tangled mess of stems and leaves with precious little fruit, and what there is will be difficult to find.

All fruit trees need regular assessment for pruning, and those that are being trained as cordons, espaliers, stepovers or fans (see here, here) need more regular pruning than those that are being allowed to develop more naturally (see here). Vines, particularly grapes, will need firm treatment and keeping within bounds if they’re to be fully productive (see here, here). Then there are weeds to root out and feeding to be done, as well as other jobs that ensure your plants are healthy and happy. After rhubarb, which is satisfied with a yearly dollop of well-rotted compost or manure, blueberries and cranberries are among the least demanding fruit. Natural-shaped bush fruits are not hard work either, but even they need some pruning and tidying up. If you’re unsure of how much time you’ll be able to devote to your fruit, start with just a couple of plants and expand your collection as and when you feel like it.

Ways of growing tree fruit

Before you make a final decision about what to grow, it’s helpful to look at the different ways in which you can grow fruit, taking into account the space you have available, the amount of time you have for pruning and the look you want to create. Although fruit naturally grows on trees and bushes, and along vines and canes (see here), fruit growers have come up with a variety of other ingenious ways of training these plants so that they can perform well in a range of garden situations.

If left to their own devices, most fruit trees eventually grow tall and wide, making them hard to accommodate in the average garden and their produce difficult to harvest. However, for centuries gardeners have been looking for ways of making plants smaller. In the case of fruit, this is done using two principal methods: by raising fruit on rootstocks that won’t allow them to grow too big (see here); and by training them through pruning to stay small (see here). The training work is usually carried out by the gardener, but in the case of rootstocks the trees are already grafted before you buy them, so when choosing apples, apricots, cherries, peaches, nectarines, pears and plums you’ll need to bear the type of rootstock in mind.

In fruit growing there are two basic types of tree: freestanding and supported, and within those two basic types are a number of variations.

Types of fruit

As far as the gardener is concerned there are two main types of fruit plants: tree fruit (also known as top fruit) and soft fruit, and these are further subdivided into groups. These give some indication of fruit type, cultivation requirements and, of course, growth habit.

TREE FRUIT

Pome Apple, pear

Stone Apricot, cherry, nectarine, peach, plum

Nut Almond, hazelnut, sweet chestnut, walnut

Other Fig, mulberry, quince

SOFT FRUIT

Bedding Rhubarb, strawberry

Bush Blackcurrant, redcurrant, whitecurrant, gooseberry, jostaberry, blueberry, cranberry

Cane Raspberry, blackberry, loganberry, and many hybrids of raspberries or blackberries, such as tayberry, loganberry, tummelberry

Vine Grape, kiwi, melon, passionfruit

Freestanding trees

These trees can be grown without support after the first couple of years. Their final height depends on the rootstock and the variety. They require some pruning to keep their shape and productivity. Bush-form trees, pyramids and columns are all suitable for growing in containers. (For details on how to prune freestanding trees, see here.)

Bush form This has a bushy network of branches above a trunk that is 45–75cm (18–30in) high. The smallest bush trees are the very dwarf apples at 2m (6ft).

Candidates: Apples, apricots, cherries, figs, pears, peaches, nectarines, plums, cobnuts, filberts.

Pyramid This is like a bush, except the trunk is taller and the branches are pruned to produce a conical shape. Pyramids can be as small as 2.2m (7ft) high and 1.2m (4ft) wide.

Standard and half-standard These are usually grown in larger gardens and commercial orchards, as they grow quite tall. The trunks of standards are about 2m (6ft) and half-standards 1.2m (4ft).

Columnar With a slender trunk and very short branches, a columnar tree is bought ready trained (usually tagged as a ballerina or pillarette/minarette) and grows to 2.5m (8ft).

Free-form Several fruit trees are freestanding and are allowed to grow into their natural shape.

Candidates: Mulberries, quinces, almonds, sweet chestnuts, walnuts, hazels (though these can be coppiced if necessary).

Supported trees

Supported trees are grown on a framework of wires, either stretched between posts or attached to a wall or fence. They can be very decorative but do require a lot of work (pruning at least twice a year to maintain their shape) and tend to be shorter-lived and less productive than freestanding trees. A big advantage is that they enable you to grow fruit in a tiny area. (For details on how to prune supported trees, see here.)

Cordon A cordon usually has a single main stem. This is most often grown at a 45-degree angle, when it may be referred to as an oblique cordon, but cordons are also suitable for growing vertically. A variation on a vertical cordon is to have two main stems, which is more common in soft fruit (see here). Cordons are normally grown on a dwarf rootstock (see here). The branches may be encouraged from low down on the trunk, about 45cm (18in) above the ground, or higher up, depending on the desired effect.

Espalier Like a cordon, an espalier has a single main stem, but this is grown upright. Opposite pairs of branches growing off it are tied horizontally to wires to produce a neat, symmetrical shape; this is difficult to achieve, so it’s best to buy ready-trained espaliers. The branches are allowed to grow longer than on cordons, so espaliers take up more space but tend to be more attractive than cordons.

Fan-trained This is a bit like an espalier, in that the tree is grown flat against its support and the branches are tied in to a system of supports. However, a fan is more informal: the main stem branches are much lower and can grow more upright, and the sideshoots are allowed to grow longer and with less shaping. Fans are usually trained against walls or fences and are ideal for fruit trees that need shelter and warmth.

Candidates: Almonds, apples, apricots, cherries, figs, peaches, nectarines, pears, plums.

Stepover This is a single-tiered espalier, trained at a very low height (30cm/12in), so you can literally step over it, as its name suggests. It makes a useful edging plant (see here).

Spindlebush This is rarely found in gardens. It’s a variation on the freestanding pyramid. The trunk is supported by a stake and all the branches are tied down to keep them horizontal, to break apical dominance (see box).

FOCUS ON Rootstocks

Most fruit trees are grown on roots that are not their own. These roots are called rootstocks and there are a few good reasons for their use. Rootstocks are used to impose certain characteristics on the trees, such as height, vigour or the ability to grow in particular conditions. They also enable the trees to fruit at a younger age than they might do naturally.

As you will know, fruit varieties are distinguished by names such as ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ apple or ‘Comice’ pear; these named varieties don’t grow ‘true’ from their seed. That means if you planted, say, the seed of a ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’, you wouldn’t get a ‘Cox’s Orange Pippin’ tree. Grafting shoots or even just buds of these varieties onto specially raised rootstocks is the only way to propagate them.

Fruit tree rootstocks

Apples have six main rootstocks. For most gardens M27, M9 and M26 are the ones to choose. M27 is very dwarfing, M9 is a little bigger; both these need good growing conditions and permanent support. M26 is semi-dwarfing and will need support for a couple of years if it is grown as a freestanding tree, but it is also recommended for growing cordons and dwarf pyramids (see here).

Cherries are mostly grown on Colt rootstocks, which grow to about 5m (16ft). Gisela 5 is a more recently introduced, highly productive semi-dwarf rootstock.

Pears have three rootstocks: Quince A, Quince C and BA29. Quince A copes with poorish soils, Quince C is better on more fertile soils and will give earlier fruit, while BA29 is a little taller and more vigorous than Quince A, but is good on dry soils.

Plums have six rootstocks: St Julien A, Pixy, Ferlenain, Myrobalan B, Mussel and Brompton. St Julien A is a compact all-rounder that can cope with poorish soil; Pixy and Ferlenain are also small but need good soil. Mussel is quite compact, but can produce suckers and so is not recommended. Myrobalan B and Brompton are vigorous, so best avoided in smaller gardens.

Apricots are raised on Pixy, Torinel and St Julien A, while peaches and nectarines are grown on the plum rootstock Pixy.

The eventual size of any tree grown on a particular rootstock will vary depending on growing conditions and the sort of pruning regime it undergoes. However, this illustration gives a good idea of the relative sizes achieved by the various rootstocks three to five years after planting and their possible size at maturity.

Ways of growing soft fruit and vine fruit

The types of fruit that are known as ‘soft’ are a more variable bunch than tree fruit in both growth habit and cultivation requirements. The smallest are bedding fruit, which are compact and reasonably tidy in habit, while the largest are the vines and the cane fruit, which need careful control if they’re not to make a nuisance of themselves. Somewhere in the middle are the bush fruit, which are moderately well behaved, although they do need some pruning to give their best.

Bedding fruit

Strawberries and rhubarb are the two bedding fruits most often found in our gardens. Strawberries can be grown in the ground in a fruit garden or in containers of every conceivable design, from hanging containers (see here) to tiered tubs (see here). Rhubarb makes a long-lived foliage plant and is easily kept under control in a fruit garden, but it can reach 2m (6ft) across.

Bush fruit

Although they may look quite similar, the various bush fruit are grown in quite different ways.

Multi-stemmed This is where the shrub either naturally produces several stems, or is encouraged to produce multiple stems by planting about 5cm (2in) or more below the depth it was in the pot.

Leg The bushy shape is created above a single bare stem about 15cm (6in) tall. Branches that start to grow on this length of stem are removed back to their base.

Standard The bush fruit has been grafted onto the rootstock and stem of a more vigorous variety, resulting in a long, bare stem up to 1m (3ft) tall, with bushy growth at the top.

Long ago it was found that the most productive way to grow grapes was by the double Guyot system. This will appeal to neat and tidy gardeners, but you can also get a reasonable crop with a more relaxed approach, for example by growing them on a pergola (see here).

Cordon Bush fruit cordons are similar to tree fruit cordons (see here), but the main stem is usually upright.

Cane fruit

As far as cultivation is concerned, there are two key ways of growing cane fruit: upright and horizontally. Both need a strong system of supporting wires, which can be set up in the open garden or against a wall or fence.

Upright Raspberries are grown vertically, tied in formally to their canes to produce a hedge-like arrangement of stems. Blackberries and their hybrids can also be grown vertically and informally, on arches and other decorative supports.

Horizontally Blackberries and their hybrids can be woven around wires or tied in to produce a fan.

Vine fruit

As the name implies, vine fruit grow on climbing or scrambling plants. These are mostly very vigorous and must be kept strictly within bounds, otherwise they become very untidy and produce masses of greenery and growth at the expense of the fruit. They can be quite attractive.

Cordon This is similar to a fruit tree cordon (see here), except that the main stem can be grown vertically or horizontally, or both – for example, vertically up the post of a pergola and horizontally along the pergola joists. Vine cordons may also have two main stems.

Double Guyot This is the way most grapes are grown outdoors, including all those acres of grapes grown for wine all over the world. The vine is grown on a single trunk or leg at the top of which each year two shoots (rods) are trained horizontally, and from both of these three vertical stems are allowed to grow (see here). The appearance is not as beautiful as a cordon vine grown over a pergola but the fruit production is much better.

Informal Melons and passionfruit are often allowed to grow naturally with their stems being tied in or woven around supports as needed.

Planning your fruit garden

By now you’re armed with all the information you need to plan your fruit garden. If you’re going to devote a particular area to fruit, it pays to think carefully about how you site your plants within it. Most fruit-producing plants remain in one place for their whole life, so you want to put them in the best possible position to begin with. In fact, the same goes for plants that are going to be integrated into the garden.

A dedicated fruit garden

The plus side of having a dedicated fruit garden is that it’s simpler to create shelter for the whole area if necessary, and easier to provide protection from birds, too, in the form of a fruit cage for example. In addition, if you’re starting from scratch, you can dig over the area or at least part of it, remove weeds and incorporate plenty of well-rotted compost (see here), to ensure your plants get off to a good start and continue to benefit throughout their lives. You can group together plants that need similar growing conditions and you can also plant pollinating partners (see box) near each other to improve your chances of getting a good crop.

Planning and choosing fruit

To begin plotting your fruit garden, you need to know the eventual height and width of each of your chosen plants and their preferred spacings. This information is given for the recommended plants in the A–Z of fruit directory (see here) and you should also be able to get it from the label on the plants you buy. However, it’s worth doing the planning before you make your purchases, so be prepared to spend a little time at the nursery or garden centre doing some research beforehand. This also gives you the opportunity to discuss your requirements with staff, who should be able to advise you on the best varieties for your area (see here), and to see what’s available, as well as order anything you fancy.

If you’ve got the space for a number of plants, it is easy to plan for a succession of fruit, as many varieties ripen at slightly different times. For example, it’s possible to pick apples straight off the trees from late summer into early winter without having to think about storage. And if you have storage facilities, you can go on enjoying them until late spring the following year.

Pollinating partners

For flowers to produce fruit, pollination must take place. Luckily, the majority of fruit plants are self-fertile, which means that the flowers can pollinate themselves or other flowers on the same plant. However, there are some very important exceptions where the plant must have pollen from another variety of the same fruit in order to produce a crop.

In suburban areas, it’s likely that a garden near you will have a pollinating partner for whatever you choose, but it would be a terrible disappointment if it didn’t, as you simply wouldn’t get any fruit. So, when you buy apples, pears, plums, cherries and kiwi fruits, you need to check whether the variety you choose requires a pollinating partner; some are self-fertile. The people who raise fruit plants for sale know that this is a bit complicated for the average gardener, so the label should tell you all you need to know. (The A–Z directory also indicates where pollinating partners are needed and which plants are suitable, see here.)

Planting in the right place

It’s important to position taller plants, such as larger fruit trees and nuts, somewhere where they won’t cast too much shade on smaller plants. Next come the larger vines and canes, then the bush fruits, and finally the strawberries and rhubarb. If you plan to erect a fruit cage, these can all be housed within it, although the rhubarb needs no such protection. Tender fruit, such as figs, peaches and melons, need to be grown beside a sheltered sunny wall or fence or in a greenhouse. Fit in more plants by lining paths with stepovers or espaliers and clothing arches and fences with vines and cane fruit.

Challenging conditions

Fruit does best in easy growing conditions with plenty of water, shelter and fertile soil. However, it’s possible to have fruit in less than perfect situations, although you may not get as much and you may have to work a bit harder for what you do get.

COLD AND WINDY SITES

Cold and windy sites are very difficult for fruit, because the flowers need pollination and pollinating insects are discouraged by wind. Cold winds when the flowers appear can result in frost damage too. Choose low-growing fruit, such as cranberries, blueberries and strawberries, and provide protection (see here) during cold and windy spells. Hazels, cobnuts and blackberries will succeed on windy sites, although they’re happier with some shelter.

DRY AND HOT SPOTS

seehere

DAMP SOIL

Very damp soil should be improved with the addition of plenty of organic matter and grit (see here) before you attempt to grow fruit, unless you’re trying to grow cranberries or blueberries, both of which really like these conditions, just as long as the soil is acidic. To grow a wider range of fruit, you’ll need to improve drainage or make raised beds.