Nature's candy store: Which fruits are easy to grow? - Gardening with Brendan

Speaking of myths, there is a lot of conflicting information out there about what you can and can’t grow where, and while your unlikely to ever be harvesting bananas or plucking fresh oranges from a tree in your back yard here in Ireland, there is a surprising number of fruits you can get a bumper crop from.

In fact I was wondering if it was there was an opportunity to make out region famous for a particular fruit – the Champagne of the north?

Fruits are also super versatile- you can eat then raw, bake them in pies and cakes, create fruit salads, cook and decorate with them, make drinks (not advocating home brews here though!) create jams and preserves and even use them for making perfume concoctions.

So what am I growing and why?

All experts agree fruit and vegetables are an excellent source of vitamins and minerals and as a vegan with a few bad habits, crisp sandwiches and frying pans among them, those are pretty important in my diet. You’d probably need a big farm or at least a few fields to be completely self-sufficient but growing some things yourself is rewarding and it’s nice to think you ar doing a little bit for the environment by cutting out food miles and also knowing there are no pesticides or preservatives in what you are growing.

Strawberries

The only fruit I’ve started from seed this year have been tomatoes and Alpine strawberries, a small fruited hardy variety. They are growing… well, sort of. Just very, very slowly. So slowly in fact that I considered throwing them into the brown bin and reusing the tray for something else. But they’ve come on a tiny bit in the last few weeks so I’ll let them be.

Last year I picked up two varieties of strawberry plants already in flower at a garden centre and this is a great option as the hard part is done for you and strawberries tend to fare very well in Ireland’s rainy and relatively mild climate. The small plants took off in no time once transplanted to bigger pots and I ended up with maybe around 100 fresh strawberries last summer. After being left out all winter they have come back with a bang this year with and with some tomato feed watered into them they are now dotted with dainty white flowers - flowers which will soon drop their petals, change colour and turn into strawberries.

You really can taste a difference too between fresh strawberries and shop bought varieties which may have travelled hundreds of miles over several days and may also have preservatives in them.

Homegrown strawberries don’t last long when plucked though so picking as you go is best.

As an added bonus with strawberries is they don’t need deep soil to grow as their roots tend to be shallow, making them more versatile. They grow very well in pots and in the ground, though in the latter their shoots can quickly spread and take over a large part of your garden – great if you want more strawberries, not so great if your other plants suffer as a result.

Gooseberries

The little-celebrated and under-rated gooseberry would be my top recommendation for anyone who wants to try their hand at growing fruit. It’s a ‘stick it in and leave’ bush that needs next to nothing to thrive as the rain takes care of the watering. I’ve had one growing in poor clay soil in one of the windiest parts of my garden for years and without fail it produces masses of fruit. Just be careful of the prickly thorns when picking. As an added bonus, they also grow easily from cuttings.

You’ll know when the fruit is ripe as all the little hairs fall away and it is soft on the stalk.

Tomatoes

It came as something as a surprise to learn you could grow tomatoes in Ireland no problem, even here in the very north of the island. I found that out about 20 years ago when a friend handed me a carrier bag full of them courtesy of his father’s greenhouse. Inspired, I got some seeds and set about trying it myself back then with great success.

I’m sure the neighbours at the time in Derry city centre probably though there was something suspicious going on as I ended up with dozens of large tomato plants in big pots all over the concreted yard. From a distance they looked a bit like another type of plant altogether….

But I didn’t get a single tomato because what I didn’t know then was you have to sow them early – in February- as they need a good few months of warmish weather to grow and for the fruit to mature. They are best grown in a greenhouse, by a window or behind glass doors if you can but there are some varieties that will thrive out in the open too. Just do a bit of research first.

I’ve gone with Moneymaker and cherry varieties and they are already flowering now in late May three months after they were sown so i should get at least some fruit this summer.

Blueberries

These are an unknown for me. I bought a few slips in a discount store and they are growing very slowly. The one thing about blueberries I didn’t know until I looked them up is they need a different type of compost – ericaceous - as they are acidic soil loving plants and they need special plant food too so they are a bit more of a hassle than the others but hopefully worth the effort in the years to come.

Fortunately almost all if not all garden stores sell ericaceous compost and food for these fuss pots.

Blackcurrant and redcurrant

I’ve had a redcurrant bush for years next to the gooseberry bush in the same poor soil, and like the latter it is a great producer of little bunches of red berries every year with no special treatment needed. I’m growing a blackcurrant bush in a pot for the first time at the minute too and it is thriving, so both seen to be low maintenance options.

Pear tree

I have a pear tree in my garden for years next to the redcurrant but it has never fared well in the clay, shallow soil and although I have had a few pears from it, it probably needs a richer, deeper spot with less wind so I may dig it out this year. But it shows pears are an option as are apple trees of course (just don’t eat the seeds!)

Blackberries

Growing wild behind my fence and constantly poking through are blackberries brambles. These are widespread across Ireland and as kids we used to roam the back roads of Galliagh with my parents and my da’s greyhounds collecting them from the hedgerows in little tins. Blackberries are abundant everywhere in Ireland, taste great and best of all they’re free!

I’m sure there’s a lot more fruit growers with other ideas in what works well out there. If you’ve any tips let me know at [email protected]