Sensational Soft Fruit

An absolute must for any new fruit garden is soft fruit. Raspberries, redcurrants, blackcurrants, white currants, gooseberries... the list is endless. This raspberry bush, rubus idaeus glen moy, is a new early fruiting variety from Crocus. It has no spines, larger berries and good aphid resistance so it's a perfect starter variety.

For all fruit growing, preparation and choice of position is key. All soft fruit needs to be planted in soil that has been dug and fertilised at least a month before planting. Choose a site that's in full sun and avoid frost pockets.

Raspberries need supporting as they grow - either on wires stretched against trellises or walls, or better still against a post and wire system. This involves sinking two posts about 10 feet apart and stretching wires at roughly foot high intervals between the posts. As the canes grow, you tie the new shoots into the wires. This makes harvesting and pruning easier. They'll need protecting from birds.

An Apple a Day

No fruit garden would be complete without fruiting trees. Apples, pears and plums are perhaps best known, but you can also grow damsons, crab-apples and cherries (although these, like the berries, will need netting to deter birds).

Fruit trees come in a variety of sizes - maidens, bushes, half-standards and standards. For most people, the maiden is the best buy. You can train it into a fan or espalier, or let it grow into a normal tree shape.

Apple trees are lovely in flower beds, or if you have the space, planted as an orchard. Remember to plant varieties that will cross-pollinate - trees that are different varieties, but which flower at roughly the same time. If space is really at a premium, it is possible to buy a 'family tree' - one on which two to four compatible varieties are grafted.

This apple, Malus domestica Ellisons Orange, is renowned for its frost resistance and delicious fruit. It has pure white, cup-shaped flowers in mid to late spring. From £17.95 from Crocus.