Come on over and tell me which fruit trees / shrubs you would grow if you could choose any ?

[fakeblondie]

I have a lovely allotment and really want a part of it to be for fruit , but we cant plant trees which might over hang the neighbouring allotments.
I`m allowed fruit bushes or SMALL tress - i just cant decide which as we love all fruit and berries.

Blackcurrent is the only no no and i already have raspberry.

What would you plant and how many - i want something expensive and productive iykwim !.

What have you had success with .
Please share it with me cos i`m so excited about the whole thing !

I'd love a lemon tree but don't have much space. They're about £40 I think and I use LOADS of em in cooking/drinks.

I'd love a mulberry, you's need to get a mature one though AFAIK they have to be 10 or so before they fruit. They can be grown as a bush or a tree so would be ideal.

I don't know what size the trees reach but I'd love a greengage too. Delicious.

You can get miniature stepover apple and pear trees.

I'd love a cherry, for the blossom as much as for the fruit !

Blueberries aren't that big either

I'd love the space for any TBH, good luck with your research

you could always grow on a espalier or as stepover trees.

Apples and pears can be very productive as espalliers.

I'm making the same choice for our back garden atm - I love preserving so that influences my decision. So far I plan:

• 2 x gooseberry bushes, probably one red, one green, the red we had where we lived before ripened sweet enough to eat raw. Very productive & good jam
• A red plus a white grapevine, we have a south facing wall & are near the coast so picking vars carefully should be able to ripen them outside.

• Rhubarb we already have, not the most exciting fruit but I like it cos it comes so early, also good jam & the best substitute for mango chutney I know

I will have 2 x blackcurrent also, if I didn't like them I'd probably have redcurrent instead, but only 1 as they grow big & need using in a very short space of time (but then they are early compared to the other soft fruits). Will add strawberries later when the garden is a bit more sorted and de-weeded. All the others I'll plant through landscape fabric with chip over the top. I reckon it is always worth looking at what does well for others on your site, I love plums but they really don't flourish here (though funnily enough wild damsons do really well down on the coast, so I make do with them!)

if you buy apple trees ,i believe it is better to get 2 different species and then they can cross pollinate

I would love a mulberry but IME they don't fruit to any great extent without getting very big. My mum has one in a pot that I gave her years ago, it has grown fine but really doesn't make any fruit worth talking about, they are really huge grown unrestricted, not so much tall but very wide.
If I were planting apples I would choose either very early cvs to eat off the tree in August, or very long storing varieties, don't see the point in planting ones to eat in autumn when you can buy them easily (and often people are giving them away for the asking).

raspberries are easy to grow and don't take up too much space.