Kitchen Garden Forum

Soft fruit easy ?

Growing strawberries for me is a continuous battle against nature. Well, not growing them, that's the easy bit. Getting to eat any of them, that's the problem. I have them completely covered in that ~10mm mesh black nylon crop protection netting, supported by a frame of steel tubing. The birds have still pecked through the netting. I had a thrush inside the net one day with a sparrowhawk bombing the netting trying to get the thrush. Still, I managed to save about half of the crop before something (rodent ?) tunneled in and ate the rest. Certainly the cost of the netting (now with holes after 2 years use) outweighs the price of a few punnets of strawberries !

As for this idea of "grow enough for all" - nice idea, but nobody teaches the wildlife to share. Once they can get to it, they tend to take the lot !

I long ago gave up on normal fruit cage netting. I've built a substantial structure that has a wall at the bottom one breeze block high, then 1 metre of tough windbreak netting (the solid stuff with oval holes) then 1 metre of chicken wire. It might take a while to payback but it gets me a lot of produce. I do have to trap Voles in the Strawberries. Beneficial little birds happily get in and out without getting caught up, there has been a young Robin in there most days recently.

In reply to MiKA's queries I didn't really have a size of plot in mind. At the shows for example we will be approached by gardeners with all sizes of patch; could be a beginner who has just taken on an allotment or someone who only has a small patch in the back garden, or even a few containers.

I appreciate however that the answer will depend on which they have, but for example, I always think that strawberries are worth having even if you only have a few pots in which you can grow a taster to go with your breakfast! Same with a blueberrry. However, although raspberries will grow in pots, I'd only attempt them in the ground and with a full row of plants.

With veg in pots I guess its a case of starting small with a few lettuces or a tub of cut and come again salads. In fact I find it better to grow a few in pots than to sow rows on the allotment since we can never eat them all before they bolt.

Happy to put both fruit and veg in the equation.

In the case of value and with beginners in mind I would include both what is worth growing in terms of being easy and so less liable to failure due to weather or lack of expertise and/or what is likely to be expensive in the shops so likely to repay any cost in terms of fertilisers etc - eg raspberries.

Not sure I've made that any clearer!

You must think us a right grumpy old lot, Captain Carrot.

Captain Carrot, for your pot growers hestia dwarf runner bean is an option,
cucumbers grow quite well in pots too if grown up a cane. A lot of the seed companies do multiple value offers with veg seed suggestions most practical and suitable for small gardens / patio / pots / and even for vertical gardens

Captain Carrot

My personal take vegetables for small gardens and beginners from my experience would be to grow Early Potatoes in sacks. Provided you keep them warm with fleece if late spring frosts are around they are very easy. I dislike the taste of New Potatoes from the shops so I can choose my variety, get my favourite flavour, a good monetary value and the fun of cropping the tubers. The compost is reused to improve the garden soil so the cost is recovered there.

I have also grown Dwarf French Beans in large planters on my previous patio very successfully. Again , they are expensive in the shops and the fun of picking the beans for Sunday lunch is worth loads.

I have given up on Strawberries. I love them, but only growing a few because of lack of space makes them a poor return on investment in any way.

Purple Sprouting and Kale, easy plants, no single bit to get chomped by caterpillars, just pick a bit from each plant, great taste and useless after its been picked, packed, shipped, distribution warehouse, reshipped, and then sat on a shelf for two days or more.

Thanks guys - some really good info there and I will be sure to pass it on.

Someone once told me you were a grumpy lot Old Herbaceous, but I soon told them where to go!

ps Lady Lettuce sends her regards.

May the Lords hand weigh heavily upon me, if i ever get grumpy.