This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
how to prepare garden for fruit
Warthog 321
Posts: 4
in Fruit & veg
Hi, I have a fruit cage at the end of my garden, it's pretty big. I haven't done anything with it since buying the place and need to do some prep work to grow some fruit. It has stinging nettles to one side, how do I remove and stop them from going back? What is a fairly easy fruit to grow? I back onto a fruit farm growing berries so I'd imagine the soil would be fairly good.
0
Posts
Nettles are pretty easy to clear as they have thick yellow roots that can be pulled or dug up. It takes some work, but you can get most out unlike some other weeds. Lots of berries are easy to grow, but need good feeding each year. Currants are easy and lovely. The main problem I had with my red currant bush was picking and cleaning them as I had so many.
I have quite a bit of success with currants. I've got blackcurrant, blueberries, red currant, cranberries, and a gooseberry bush...all are very easy (even I can manage it!) ive also shoved some strawberries in my fruit cages. I'm going to try raspberries next year as I've been told they're simple too. Whatever you grow it will taste miles better than anything in the shops
Lucky you with an already made fruit cage! ?
As others have said, most soft fruit is not difficult to grow. I would say measure your space carefully and plant as much variety as you can to avoid gluts that turn the whole thing into a chore (Unless you eat jam with everything or have a chest freezer for all that coulis!) Most order companies offer strawberry, currant, raspberry collections with several varieties. If you still have room left, you could put weed membrane down for now and plant trained fruit trees when you're ready for a new challenge.
And good luck with the nettles!
Last edited: 23 May 2016 14:05:19
OK thanks for the info. I have young fruit trees already, 3 bramley apple trees, a pear tree and an ornamental cherry tree. I'll try soft fruits. I'm going to grow tomato's, peppers and Chili's in my green house also.