Does growing your own fresh fruit sound appealing? Growing your own fruit can be easy. All you need is a handful of fruit bushes, and nature will do the rest. Believe me, you really can't go wrong. Fruits such as blueberries, blackberries, pomegranate, figs and raspberries are so reliable that, come the summer, you might not be able to eat all the produce yourself!
Even if you only have room for the odd plant or two, you will be amazed by how much fruit a little bush can produce once it’s settled in and flourishing.
Unlike fruit trees, which tend to need a bit of TLC, fruit bushes are easy to grow. They don’t require near the attention to insect and disease control, and they don't need perfect weather when in flower. Fruit bushes, such as blueberry, generally produce in abundance with the minimum of effort – my kind of fruit plant.
WHERE TO PLANT
If possible, choose a site that provides 6 or more hours of sun during the day. The more sun, the more abundant the crops. That being said, full sun is not essential. Blackberries and raspberries do well along a fence. Blueberry bushes can be planted anywhere in the landscape or garden. Their grey-green foliage is ornamentally attractive as well. Pomegranate and fig bushes can grow quite large, even being limbed up into small trees, so give them plenty of room to grow.
HOW MANY TO PLANT?
Raspberries form a dense thicket of a row in summer, and can be planted close together with only 14in-18in between each plant. It’s best to stick to one type of raspberry in a single row as they’re pruned slightly differently and it keeps things simple. You can cunt on about 1-1/2 poundsof fruit per 12 inches of row sace.
Blackberries should be spaced further apart as the plants can grow quite broad. Maybe space them 6 to 8 feet along a fence or wall. Blackbeerries can produce a whopping 30 pounds of fruit per plant in a good year and are well worth the space. Choose a "thornless" variety as the prickly ones are harder to handle.
Blueberries can grow quite large as well, up to 10 feet in height with an equal spread. When spacing blueberry bushes, keep in mind that you want to be able to pick from all around the bush.
GardenerDirect.com is a great place to find fruit bushes online.
