Fruit Guide Archives - Kitchen Garden Magazine

Grow your own: Apples

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Shop-bought apples are great, but if you have never grown your own, your choice will have been restricted to a handful of varieties chosen partly for taste, but also for their travelling and storage qualities. Yet there are so many more to choose from, all with their own unique flavours and textures. Apples are easy to grow and undemanding and…

Grow your own: Apricots

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Apricots are a favourite for drying and the nutrient-packed fruits make a great alternative to sugary sweets in children’s lunchboxes. However, the fresh fruit is delicious too and more and more popular in the supermarkets; unfortunately imported fruit which has travelled halfway around the world often tastes rather poor for the experience. But with modern varieties it is now possible…

Grow your own: Blackberries

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

A walk along any hedgerow in late summer and autumn will bring a tasty harvest of delicious blackberries from the brambles that weave their way through the undergrowth. If you love the taste of these wild berries then you will love their cousins the boysenberry, dewberry, loganberry, sunberry, youngberry and many more. These are all crosses between raspberries, blackberries and…

Grow your own: Blueberries

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Blueberries were the first of the ‘new’ wonder foods, to be followed by pomegranates, cranberries, grapes… but despite the hype, this fruit really is packed with vitamins and antioxidants. What’s just as important, when you want to get the kids to eat them, is that they taste great! Blueberries are so easy to grow and the plants are genuinely very…

Grow your own: Cherries

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

The wonderful taste of ripe, juicy cherries, whether on their own or in tarts, pies and jams, is simply mouth watering; and thankfully this is one fruit that has everything going for it as far as our climate is concerned. However, like many other fruits, the flowers are prone to frost and so it is important not to plant them…

Grow your own: Currants

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Red, white and blackcurrants might be small, but they are extremely tasty and packed with health-promoting vitamins and antioxidants. They are simple to grow, thrive in all parts of the UK and require very little attention, although if given just a basic level of care will repay you with bumper crops year after year. Pruning is simple; however, there are…

Grow your own: Figs

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Think of figs, or better still taste one, and you will immediately be transported to sunnier climes where the sun beats down all day, ripening this exotic-looking fruit to a deep, rich brown. However, you don’t need to live in the Med to enjoy the fig’s wonderful, sweet flesh – you can grow your own in many areas of the…

Grow your own: Gooseberries

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Native to Europe, gooseberries have been grown in the UK for centuries. They are extremely hardy and don’t need any protection here, except from birds who will steal the ripe berries. However, the culinary varieties can be very bitter and are not to everyone’s taste. The thorns alone can be enough to put people off since they are very sharp…

Grow your own: Grapes

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Grape vines have been grown in the UK for centuries having, like so many things, been introduced by the Romans. In more recent times our climate has only really been suitable to grow reliable crops in greenhouses in many areas of the UK, apart from favoured areas such as the south. But with the global climate warming, it is becoming…

Grow your own: Peaches

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Although peaches can certainly be grown outdoors in milder or more sheltered areas of the UK, their success is really reliant on the season. Get a mild year and peaches can crop very well, but in a cold, wet season you can expect very small crops. The closely related nectarines with their smooth skins are even less reliable and ideally…

Grow your own: Pears

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Pears are a very popular fruit in our supermarkets, but not the easiest to grow well in our gardens. This is for two main reasons – firstly, like plums they happen to flower when frosts are still common and the entire crop can be wiped out by a few cold nights. Secondly, depending on the variety, there is often a…

Grow your own: Plums

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Plums are addictive. Just plant a tree in your garden, wait for it to become heavily laden with ripe juicy fruit, as it surely will, and try to resist eating one, then another, then another… Apart from the wonderful juicy crop, plums have the advantage of needing very little care; when it comes to pruning, for example, the message is,…

Grow your own: Raspberries

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Raspberries are a mainstay of the fruit garden and no patch is complete without them. Apart from their great taste and easy-going nature which makes it so easy to grow your own, they are heavy cropping and versatile in the kitchen. They love moisture and will grow well against a shady wall, but are not good in a very hot,…

Grow your own: Strawberries

3rd March 2023 Web Editor Fruit & Veg Growing Guides

Strawberries are among the easiest and most adaptable fruits we can grow since they are just as happy in a strawberry pot on the patio or a hanging basket as they are in the soil on the veg plot. Yet they are expensive in the shops and once you have tasted a homegrown strawberry you will never want to buy…