Everything you need to know about growing and enjoying the UK's most popular berries.
Strawberries, raspberries, blueberries and blackberries are the berries most UK gardens grow first, and this is where I cover varieties, pests and getting a decent yield from each one. New to it all? The seasonal calendar is a good companion while you plan.
Every year I get some version of the same question from a garden centre newsletter or a fellow allotment holder: "I want a blueberry hedge, but my soil's not...
Read article →Raspberries are the one cane fruit you genuinely can't struggle to find — every garden centre stocks them in season, and the range online is huge. The real...
Read article →The tayberry is half raspberry by parentage, so the comparison is a family affair — but anyone deciding which deserves the sunny fence needs real answers, not...
Read article →Alpine strawberries are the easiest fruit I grow, and the one most people overlook. They don't send out runners, they don't sprawl across the bed, and they'll...
Read article →If your only experience of blackberries is scrambling along a hedgerow in September, sleeves snagged and fingers stained purple, then a thornless cultivated...
Read article →If you grow strawberries, you've probably watched your plants throw out long, wandering stems in high summer, each one carrying a little plantlet at its tip....
Read article →The marionberry and the silvanberry are two of the lesser-known blackberry hybrids that have never quite crossed the Atlantic into British gardens — but they...
Read article →Summer-fruiting and autumn-fruiting raspberries need completely different pruning, so the first step is knowing which type you have. Cut out the spent canes on...
Read article →Blueberry leaves turn red or yellow for several reasons, and the cause matters because the fix is different each time. The most common reason by far is soil...
Read article →Picture paying five pounds for a single strawberry. In Japan, that's not unusual — a box of twelve premium berries can fetch fifty, and at the truly dizzy end,...
Read article →If you have ever spotted a strawberry that looks like it is doing its best impression of a raspberry, you have met a strasberry. These bumpy, dimpled little...
Read article →Strawberries grow best in slightly acidic, free-draining soil with a pH between 6.0 and 6.5 and plenty of organic matter worked in before planting. Get the...
Read article →Autumn-fruiting raspberries — a single row can crop for six to eight weeks and needs less structural support than summer varieties.
Yes, but only in a container of ericaceous compost — planted straight into neutral or alkaline garden soil, they'll struggle and eventually fail.
Strawberries can fruit the same year; raspberries and blackcurrants usually need a full year to establish before a proper first crop.
