My garden

Hi,

My experience of gardening is minimal.

Yesterday I was in Home Base and saw they had a special on berry trees, £12 for three, so without thinking it through I bought a blackberry, blueberry and gooseberry bush.

So I have a small to medium garden and think I may have gone overboard on the berry bush buying now as I see these things grow to 2m and not only would they take a lot of space, they would potentially block out sunlight.

Also apparently the chances of getting hold of any berries before the birds do are minimal.

With regular pruning do you think I could keep them manageable? Any chance of actually eating any berries? At the moment I am thinking not to bother, but I feel kind of bad letting the little guys die

Any thoughts?

 

Hi there CD!

You musn't let them die! Give them away for adoption.

But first, consider. I don't think they will all get to 2m and I think you may have room - especially if you like berries, which I guess you do.

1.Blackberry. This is potentially very big, but I have a huge one in my snall-to-medium garden. It grows long and lanky and is best trained over an arch which is space saving, though it could be stretched out along a wall or fence. Well worth growing, the best of the bunch IMO. Left unchecked, this does produce very long growths but they can be shortened and still produce fruit and if draped over an arch (or even some sort of obelisky thing) the highest it will be is the height of the arch.

2.Gooseberry. I have one that is as high as a fence but this is because it's on the north side and is constantly stretching up to reach the sun. The 4/5 year old ones on the allotment are a perfectly manageable size, no more than 3'x3'. They can be kept under control by pruning, in any case. Depends a little on what variety it is, but I've never heard of a 2m gooseberry bush.

3.I've not got a lot of experience of blueberries, but some were planted in the school garden and seemed very slow-growing so it'd be years before it got anywhere near 2m and I don't believe it can in any case.

For more info, don't read the label but try googling each plant individually.

But don't just let them die. They were £12 after all!

 

Thank for the reply much appreciated.

That's interesting regarding growing the plant over an arch, I just happen to have such an arch waiting to be given a purpose in life. Also I see they can also be grown in containers.

After doing some research I see you are correct about gooseberry bushes not growing very big, so everything is working out quite nicely. I'm glad I posted here.

I wouldn't really have let the little guys die, I am sure somebody at the allotment down the road would have given them a happy home but hopefully that won't be necessary now.

Thanks again.