What are your favourite fruit bushes?

[SalviaOfficinalis]

I want to dedicate a small flower bed (3m) to growing soft fruit.

It’s south facing with a brick outhouse wall behind the flower bed. Clayish soil but not too wet as it’s in a partial rain shadow due to outhouse.

Hoping to fit 3 fruit bushes in. Recommendations for compact, preferably thornless, high yield fruit brushes would be much appreciated.

Thinking more raspberries/blackberries/hybrids rather than currants.

Have you considered blueberries? On a clay soil, the pH level might be low enough for them (you'd need to check first) and they'd work in that position.

We have an amazing blackberry hybrid (no idea what it is, bought it at a local plant fair & label said loganberry, but all photos I've seen of them don't match what we have!) however it is rampant! So if you want any kind of blackberry you will need to keep it in check. I have a few thornless compact Blackberries (can't remember the name - Apache maybe?) which you're are supposed to be able to grow in hanging baskets or pots but they've been incredibly disappointing, hardly any growth, got attacked by something & just aren't much bigger than when I bought them in 2020. I've slung them in pots for now.
Our Gooseberry bushes are big croppers - just bought them from Aldi years ago, both green & red varieties. I prefer the red - but they got attacked last year by caterpillars & some sort of woolly aphid.
I put in some raspberries last autumn so hoping they might be better.
Personally I find blueberries do better in pots.

Blackberries tend to take over and birds poo the seed everywhere.
Raspberries also spread but are much more controllable.
Gooseberries make the most excellent crumble and always have a place in my garden.

I did consider blueberries but heard they’re a bit temperamental. We have camellias that aren’t particularly happy so i don’t think the pH will be low enough.

Tbh we don't notice the seeds as much as the suckers from the blackberry - everywhere it touches the ground it sets off new ones - we've found them sneaking through the lawn & round the edge of fence. Blackberries, like their bramble cousins, are bully plants that need tying out to a wall or fence & pretty ruthlessly pruned etc. BUT they give amazing amounts of fruit & are great for wildlife. Ours is buzzing with bees in the summer, the birds love the berries, which is good as we can never use it all. & it provides cover for birds too. But the thorns are vicious.

I have fairly acidic soil - camellias, rhododendrons etc run riot and self seed - but found blueberries didn’t thrive, used to harvest all of 10 berries a season, so finally dug it up last year. I tend to go for things that are expensive or difficult to buy, such as raspberries and gooseberries.

All fruit bushes take a couple of years to get going.

I have a raised bed for blueberries filled with ericaceous compost and my plants are prolific, lots to eat and freeze. From start of July to mid august

id also recommend autumn fruiting raspberries. If you get a couple of varieties you can be harvesting from end of July to November.

Strawberries come in June and theoretically you could plant at the front of the bed.

I have loads of other berries but those would be my top three for successional harvests.

I found thornless blackberries tasteless compared with real blackberries.

My gooseberries are only 2 years old but were incredibly prolific last year. Ditto black currants and red currants.

Blueberries can be very prolific in pots (ericaceous soil) as long as you have 2 or 3 plants. Single plants don’t thrive, they are happier to have another to pollinate.

Raspberries. Easy to grow.

In a 3m bed you’d struggle to get in 3 of anything unless you went for currants.

Blackberries and hybrid berries grow long (up to 4m) canes which you tie in, then cut to the ground when they’ve fruited. So grow one (I’d go for tayberry for taste and quantity of fruit) along whichever edge will throw least shade on the rest of the bed. Then plant something smaller in front. Raspberries might be difficult, They’re tall and vigorous and it would be difficult to pick the tayberries behind them (you could plant a row of raspberries instead of the tayberries). So strawberries, perhaps a gooseberry. Have you considered josta berry?

Oh a few years ago we tried a Japanese Wine Berry - like a raspberry blackberry hybrid but the fruits were very small & sticky - so dug it up. Unless you've lots of room wasn't worth it.

I have raspberry bushes, they’re lovely & we (along with the birds!) enjoy picking & eating them!🍇I couldn’t grow anything, they were already here when I bought the house!

One plant I regret not bringing with us when we moved was my blackcurrant bush. It was amazing. So much fruit and I love the smell when you crush the leaves. Heaven.
I have a red gooseberry which does have thorns, but I prune it into a goblet shaped the centre is empty and that makes it much easier to get at the fruit.
What about a rhubarb? Not a bush but it is a fruit.

I could be persuaded to a blackcurrant bush.
Then perhaps one raspberry and one Tayberry.

There’s usually a lot of wild blackberries around us to collect so probably not the best use of my limited space.

Next question- is it possible/advisable to buy fruit bushes online?
The plant nursery I usually go to doesn’t stock them.

If you have a south-facing brick wall, have you thought of having an espaliered fruit tree at the back of the bed?

Lidl has fruit bushes in this week!

Tell me more about gooseberry bushes please - they have a red and green type, the green kind look a bit overly thorny but should it be okay? Do they spread like raspberries and blackberries (having just cleared an old garden of rampant brambles I am looking askance at all the species!)

Also I just bought a summer raspberry from Lidl - should I swap it for a red or green gooseberry? Looking for an easy gardenjng life really!

I wish my blackberry bushes had got that memo! I can grow excellent raspberries, blackcurrants and gooseberries, but blackberries either die on my garden, or at best they sulk. Either way, no fruit!

My soil is very sandy but I think (as with all else) that it's the brutal winds that are the problem. Although I did try growing them in enviromesh tunnels for shelter, and they still died. I think that blackberries just hate me!

OP, would you consider a fruit tree? Maybe trained against the wall? Or,as others have said, blackcurrants are usually good doers.

Do [gooseberries] spread like raspberries and blackberries (having just cleared an old garden of rampant brambles I am looking askance at all the species!)
No, a gooseberry bush is a gooseberry bush. They don't spread but they seem quite easy (i.e. I've managed it!) to propagate if you do want more

I don't know about advisable but Thompson & Morgan do fruit bushes - they have compact, freestanding ones in their 'patio fruit' range that I think would suit your situation. I've got a couple of the raspberry bushes last year and they are doing well so far.

search.thompson-morgan.com/search?w=patio%20fruit&asug=

Gooseberrries - we have a green & a purple bush & they are wonderful!

@AliceTheeCamel thanks for that link. Have sent a link to the patio cherry to DH in case anyone asks for birthday present ideas for me😊

Are the Lidl fruit bushes in now or coming in later?