Fruit Bushes

I am hoping to dedicate and area of my garden to growing fruit bushes. I live in Central Scotland but the area I plan to use is in full sun. There is a bit of work to do first as the bed contains 10 or so very mature roses which will take a bit of getting out.

I am a newbies to all this so am wondering if my timing is right to start the project and if so what is the best way to do it. The soil is very good once you get to it through the weeds. Would building something to train plants on be a good idea and what are the best ones to go for. Looking at raspberries, blackberries etc and would love to do blueberries too. What should I be doing to get the soil prepared after I get rid of the weeds and the roses and what type of plants should I buy - bare roots or already potted up. I will have a strawberry patch seperate form this.

I will post a pic up later. Thanks in advance

 

Bare root season will be coming up, cheaper like that. Good time to get them in too.

Rasberries could do with a simple frame for support, gooseberries would benefit from a fruit cage, netted to keep Mr Blackbird off.

Blueberries would need an acid soil so raised beds or tubs there.

 

Thanks for that. Lots of good info.

 

I have goosegogs, black, red and red (but allegedly white) currants, and blueberries. I have a couple of blackberry bushes and an apple tree too but I'm not counting them because they haven't had time to really settle in yet.

The goosegogs get eaten by everything, and by that I mean the leaves. They rarely seem to get as far as producing berries.

The blueberries perform ok. They're not really well established yet but they provide a fair few berries.

The currants have done ok too. Not great, but they are fairly new.

The currants and blueberries have proven to be very low maintenance and the best bit is they are all doing fine in a patch of the garden that doesn't get much sun.

Note though, all my blueberry bushes are in containers of ericaceous compost. The oldest of my blueb bushes spent several years in normal compost, struggling along, surviving and producing a small handful of berries each year, but nothing amazing. It doubled in size in the first year after changing the compost to ericaceous, and the yield increased significantly too, so it is important.

 

Thanks Clueless. I will definately go for the raised bed with ericaceous compost then. You will have a similar climate to me so sounds like there may be an opportunity for some good crops in the years to come. We are planting at least half a dozen trees including Apple, Pear, Cherry and Plum and we are hoping that Mr Tesco will have to look somewhere else for his bonus in future years.

 

I grow them for the deep fat fryer!

 

http://gardenerscorner.co.uk/forum/threads/planting-dates-on-packets.50480/

 

When stocking up on fruit, take care to check their pollination needs. You may need to buy two of each of some things otherwise they wont have pollination partners, so no babies (fruit).

 

I have a bee hive in the garden so my little helpers should make pollination easier. I will look into pairs of plants etc. Thanks for all the advice

 

Its not just the presence of pollinators. You need pairs of plants because a lot of fruit bushes/trees are not self fertile, so wont produce fruit without a partner.

 

Cheers Clueless. I will make sure I look into it when buying.