Growing fruit on your allotment

Vegetables are rewarding, but fruit is where the real return on effort comes. A raspberry cane you plant this winter will still be producing fruit in 2040. A blackcurrant bush will outlast your tenancy. And the taste of fruit picked ripe and eaten within minutes is in a completely different league to anything from a supermarket.

Most allotment fruit is “soft fruit” — strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries. These are all hardy, all suited to UK conditions, and most will produce a useful crop within a year or two of planting.

The quickest fruit to get started with. Plant runners in spring and you will be picking strawberries by June. They work in raised beds, pots, hanging baskets, or straight in the ground. A bed of 20 plants will keep you in strawberries all summer.

When to plant: Spring (March–April) or late summer (August–September). Spring-planted runners fruit the same year. Late-summer planting gives a bigger crop the following year.

What to expect: Fruit from June to September depending on variety. Each plant produces around 200–400g of fruit. Replace plants every 3 years as yields decline.

Key tip: Net them. Birds will eat every ripe strawberry before you get to it. Straw mulch underneath keeps fruit clean and stops grey mould.

Packed with vitamin C — more than any other commonly grown fruit. One bush produces 4–5kg of berries, enough for cordial, jam, crumbles, and freezing. They are tough, long-lived (20+ years), and uniquely suited to the UK climate.

When to plant: November to March. Plant 5cm deeper than the nursery soil line to encourage strong basal shoots.

Pruning: Remove a third of the oldest branches each winter, cutting right to the base. This keeps the bush productive with a constant supply of young, fruiting wood.

Best for small spaces: Ben Sarek is compact and heavy-cropping — ideal for allotments where space is tight.

Criminally underrated. A gooseberry bush takes up about a square metre, produces 3–5kg of fruit every year, and needs barely any attention. Pick them green and tart in June for crumbles and fools, or leave them to ripen to sweet, golden dessert berries by July.

When to plant: November to March (bare root). Prune to an open goblet shape to let air circulate and reduce mildew.

Gooseberries tolerate partial shade better than most fruit, so they are useful for those awkward spots on the allotment that don't get full sun.

Why grow what you can forage? Because cultivated blackberries are bigger, sweeter, and thornless. A single plant trained along a fence produces kilos of fruit in late summer. They are virtually indestructible and will grow almost anywhere.

When to plant: November to March. Give them a fence or wires to train along — they need 3–4 metres of horizontal space.

Technically a vegetable, but everyone treats it as fruit. Plant a crown, do not harvest the first year, and it will reward you with decades of pink stalks every spring. Rhubarb is almost impossible to kill and needs virtually no attention.

When to plant: November to March. Plant crowns with the bud just at soil level.

Forcing: Cover a crown with an upturned bin or forcing pot in January. The stalks grow towards the light, producing tender, pale pink stems that are the sweetest of the year. Only force the same crown every other year.