Fruit Garden

Tree Surgery

If you're keen to grow pears, they're best grown against a wall, which will give them some protection from winds and frosts. They need more sun than apples and are generally more temperamental. The classic way of growing pears is to train them as espaliers. Planted in this way they will give plenty of fruit and they look very pretty too.

Plums are much easier to grow - their only disadvantage is that they might grow too well and get very large. If space is at a premium, you can grow them as a fan shape against a warm sunny wall. This has other advantages too - you'll be able to net the fruit from the birds more easily.

This Minarette Plum, Prunus domestica Victoria, produces a heavy crop of large, pale red fruit with golden-yellow flesh which can be used for cooking, canning, bottling or just eating fresh. Available from Crocus.

Fabulous Figs

Figs are one of the most exotic fruits you can grow. They are utterly delicious and to eat one fresh off the tree is an utter indulgence.

But they need careful planting. If their roots are left unrestricted, they will produce roots but no fruits. So plant them in a pot or in a pit lined with paving slabs and floored with old bricks. They are not frost hardy, so you will need to protect tender shoots and embryo fruits with a covering of straw or bracken.

They also need lots of water and may need netting in late summer to protect the harvest from the birds. The Fig 'Brown Turkey' is available for £9.95 (pot grown) from Crocus.

Feeling Peachy?

If you are lucky enough to own a greenhouse or conservatory, there is no end to the fun you can have. Peaches can be trained against a south-facing wall. You can do the same with apricots, or you can grow them successfully in pots. Either way, if you grow them under glass, you'll avoid the frosts and hopefully have a lovely crop of home grown goodies come the summer.

Buy peach trees (£21.07) and apricot trees (£21.95) from Crocus.

The Cream of the Crop

Strawberries are the ultimate luxury fruit. It's best to grow them either on a bed of straw or through slits in black polythene, in order to stop the ripening fruits touching the soil. Their other major enemy are slugs, so you will need to place slug pellets (these can be organic) underneath the straw. Alternatively, grow strawberries in pots.

This seed-raised strawberry produces more and larger strawberries than any other seed strain - and what's more they have a rich tangy sweet flavour. From only £2.49 for 50 seeds from Crocus. Now where's that cream?