Which fruit trees/bushes are your must-haves?

[kernowgal]

I have a lovely shiny new garden which is entirely turf at present. I want to plant some fruit trees and also have fruit bushes as part of my veg patch.

Current thoughts are...
Fruit trees:
Dwarf apple
Crab apple
Victoria plum or greengage

Fruit bushes:
Goosegogs
Japanese wineberry
Redcurrant
Some sort of loganberry/tayberry/raspberry

I am also tempted by some sort of cherry plum. I have a south-facing wall for a fig tree and would also consider an apricot.

I need an apple variety that can cope with high humidity as I'm down in Cornwall and quite close to the sea.

Any other suggestions??

[Rusulka]

I'm in Kent with a south facing garden and have a peach training up my outside toilet wall (peche de vigne). I'd also planned to have a kiwi running up the remainder of the back of the house so i could lean out of the window and pick ripe fruit. I've sectioned off an area at the bottom for a veg patch, put an archway in with the plan of having grape vines running over it, and run wires horizontally at 30cm intervals to the fences either sude so i can espalier train a fruit tree either side to create a fruit fence of sorts. This has worked really well with my plum beauty on one side but not my conference pear on the other. I bought my trees online though, if I'd got them from a garden centre I would have been able to choose one with branches in the right places. I have a trio of young blueberries on the patio and a redcurrant and blackcurrant in my border. Have a honeyberry but I think I might have accidentally killed mine by forgetting to water it. I have a red love apple tree but the crops haven't been awesome and it's had a lot of issues with silver stuff on the leaves. Other than that I've had good crops from my cherry, but that's an established tree and I'm not sure of the variety. Big black cherries though.

[Ifailed]

all sound interesting, though I would go for fruit that is not easy to buy, so round here that would be damsons, white currant, tayberry etc. It is still possible to buy good quality "normal" fruit from local growers who will probably do a better job of it than we can, leaving us to experiment with the more unusual.

[JontyDoggle37]

You need at least three apple trees if you have any, and they have to be of the right types to all cross-fertilise each other, otherwise no apples. Wouldn't be without our raspberry bushes they're fantastic. Just had a gooseberry self seed itself in our garden and grow to two foot high in one year - I've transplanted it to its own area, but the thorns are vicious so be be careful if you've little ones. You need to think about how long some of these take to mature - some trees are ten years plus before they fruit, so you have to be in it for the long haul....

[DoreenLethal]

Mine are:

Non spiky raspberries - so glad i bought the non spiky varieties!
Wineberry - i have these next to the fence so i can hook them round three horizontal wires to try and keep them tamed.
Grape. Mine is on two horizontal wires, in espalier fashion.
Plum
Cherry - morello as i love sour cherries
Several espaliered apples, i have 4 amelanchiers dotted round.
And i have quinces. Two proper quinces bought as trees, one french and several japanese sown from seed. And two japanese bought in - one espaliered.
And i have several others grown from seed waiting to go in, including an asian pear (glorious).
at the allotment, strawbs, the rasps, a red gooseberry, two blueberries, blackcurrant, rhubarb.

My garden is essentially a forest garden with a few non edible statement trees and shrubs, full of loads of perennial food and herbs. A garden isnt a garden without food IMHO.

[freshstart22]

My neighbour has an apricot tree and its smothered with fruit every year. Our gardens are East facing.

[kernowgal]

Very interesting... Am considering espaliered apples (and perhaps pears) to conserve space. I love cherries and am also wondering about a cherry plum.

If I get apples I need to do my research carefully (probably only local varieties) as bacterial and fungal canker are a major problem down here.

Time to start perusing a few websites!

[bookbook]

the crab apple would fertilise the apple though. I have John Downie , but the birds get to them first
This is a useful site
growing apples
I love blackcurrants , gooseberries, redcurrants and raspberries. All fruit well, and are never cheap in the shops,( its the picking that hoiks up the price) and they all freeze well , and make good jam too

[Qwebec]

My most productive: blueberry
The one SO much better than store baught: blackberry

P.s. I blaught my blueberry plants (you need to get two varieties minimum) when they were fruit bearing so I could choose my favorite.

[shovetheholly]

The humble raspberry for me. Lovely!

[DoreenLethal]

Ooh I had a Pitmaston Pineapple apple today and what a glorious apple it was. I'm getting me one of those!

[averylongtimeago]

I have a wineberry, and the fruit is tasty and the plant is vigorous. However, the description of " non spiney with bristley stems" should have read " stems covered in very prickly spikes".
I have thornless loganberries as well, tasty and prolific.

[DoreenLethal]

Oh yes wineberries are incredibly spiky.