Fruit bushes for the impatient gardener!

[GoldPaperStars]

We’ve decided to go full Good Life this year and have built planters for veg and salad. We also want to plug a few gaps in the pretty lush planting in our existing beds with fruit bushes and perhaps rhubarb.

We just bought a blackcurrant bush and I was dismayed to find that we have to plant it, cut it all back and then wait a year for fruit! I thought I was a pretty patient person, but it turns out that I’m not with the garden!

We’ll plant the blackcurrant, but can anyone recommend any fruit bushes that we can get fruit from this year?

Any other newbie tips also welcome! Many thanks!

I’m a pretty inexperienced gardener...

All fruit is slow
Strawberries are one of the few that will fruit this year if bought in pots
and possibly blueberries

veg is your best bet - come and join the 29th March thread - lots of fresh converts on there

I BOUGHT blueberries last year and they fruited in their first year. Ditto strawberries. We had some summer and autumn raspberries and tayberries but the thornless blackberries didn’t fruit at all.

Blueberries! In acid soil. Feed it compost and nettle tea for extra berries.

My raspberries, gooseberries and the jostaberry have been the fastest producers so far. Strawberries and blueberries are good too.

Just don't cut it back! I won't establishish as well but you might get some fruit out of it. You could mitigate the not cutting it back by cossetting it a bit more.

Alpine strawbs, all mine fruited asap.

My jostaberry is flowering already, and some of my blackcurrants have flowers forming. So you'd need to get a wriggle on. By blueberries are all in flower too. My white currant is a lot later - the leaf buds haven't broken yet.

What about buying a small fit tree that has blossom on it, and keeping it in a pot?

Or for max good life - foraging. Use this time to notice wild plum and cherry blossom, and also sloe and hawthorn blossom. All out now for me - I'm middle of the country.

And elderflowers will be out soon ish so you could get your first harvest in!

We used to have a blackberry bush at the end of my parents garden-they were lovely! Is that just bramble??

Thanks everyone! Really useful. Looks like I’m just going to have to be patient!

ThatDeadlyJetty What did you mean by cosseting it? I’m picturing wrapping it in a blanket and telling it that it’s pretty, but I imagine that’s not what you had in mind...

If you buy a blackberry bush get an Oregon Thornless, no prickles!

If you buy big plants (at least a 3l pot you have a much better chance of getting fruit in the first year). Autumn raspberries should fruit this year but you'll need to get planting asap. Inca berries/cape gooseberries can be grown like annuals so should give you fruit in the autumn.

My autumn raspberries fruited the year I planted them! Definitely worth while.

Blankets and compliments are perfect.
Also, maybe, if you've not already planted it, then dig it a nice hole and give it some mycorrrhizal fungi or garden compost to help it establish. Then ensure it gets watered in well, and continue watering for its 1st year. And maybe give it a nice mulch. And tie a bow on it at the weekend. And give it an Easter Egg.

ThatDeadlyJetty

Only just seen your reply. I shall try and find if there are any Easter eggs left in Sainsbury’s...