Pots of Fruit

Mixed Planting

I picked up a book in the new library in Moyross in Limerick last week called "The Edible Container Gardener" by Michael Guerra and it inspired me to come home and immediately start planting up some larger containers with a variety of fruit and other plants.  The book is aimed at people with very small gardens who want to grow loads of food organically.  For some reason it deals quite a lot with planting in the ground but there is a huge emphasis on containers so it is still very useful. 
The main idea that I have gotten out this book so far is the idea of "living soil".  The author states that the soil in small pots cannot really be said to be alive because it can't support a proper balance of insects and microbes (and possibly other things) who would normally do the job of aerating the soil and breaking down debris etc.  The book doesn't seem to explain why this is the case but I can imagine that the ecosystem present in soil needs plenty of room and possibly more constant conditions in order to be successful .  The temperature and amount of water in a small pot will vary more readily than the ground so this may make it hard to build up various colonies of microbes and insects. 

The fact that it is difficult to maintain a living soil in a small container means that normal garden soil is not suitable to use.  Because it isn't filled with enough animals to aerate the soil means that it compacts down too quickly.  This presumably means that the roots of the plant in the container will have a hard time collecting air and water from the soil and so the health of the plant suffers.  So, in a small container it is recommended to use a commercial compost mixed with your own home made compost, manure or something else similar.  But using lightweight composts means that it is harder to retain moisture and nutrients and this has its own problems.

What I got out of this part of the book was that it is a good idea to use large containers where possible.  That way you can use your own garden soil mixed in with your own home made compost.

Another interesting point in the book so far was the idea that you should plant things of different heights in some close proximity to one another.  Within a particular system (a container or a garden) there should be some tall things, some medium things and then some low growing plants.  This is based on the ideas of permaculture and presumably the different plants offer support of some sort to one another.

So I when I came home from looking after our horse I went straight out the back and looked around at what small containers could be incorporated into a larger one.  When I had chosen some plants I waded through our garage until I found a large fish box that would suit the plants I had chosen.  We found this a few years ago on a beach in the West of Ireland and it has been used for salads, tomatoes and other things that I can't remember.  It was decommissioned last year for some reason so I'm glad to get it back in use.
It never occured to me before to plant our fruit in groups and with other edible crops, but when I read this book it suddenly seemed like a perfect idea.  

I chose the following to go in....

• Fruit - Redcurrant, alpine strawberry, cape gooseberry,
• Salads - Spinach, rocket, rainbow chard,
• Herbs - Chives, sage, rosemary,
• Flowers - borage, primrose and snow drops.

In all there are twelve different types of plant in this box and the idea is that there will be a low growing cover that will almost act as a mulch, keeping in moisture and out keeping out weeds.  Then there will be a middle layer which will provide a little shade to the lower down salads which don't like too much sun.  These two layers will also keep the soil a little cooler than it might otherwise be and this suits redcurrants well as far as I know.  The cape gooseberry and the redcurrant will provide some shade too and will also hopefully support each other.  Both are prone to wind damage and so I planted them close enough together so that they will touch when they are a bit bigger and hopefully lessen the effects of wind on each one. 

I chose plants which don't need lots of fertility or too much sun so that they will all be happy in the same place.  Another thing to consider is whether they all want the same nutrients or will they each use a bit of the soil that the other doesn't really need.  This is something I don't know much about but I'll just see how this box goes and hopefully learn from that.  It seems that a mixture of plants may be good from this point of view as well.  If you plant all the one type of crop in this box there will be a larger demand for particular elements of the soil whilst other elements may go unused.

I put in the primrose so that when all the fruit are still waking up from the winter and not doing much there will be some colour in the box.  These are my favourite flowers and so I really just want an excuse to put them everywhere :) .  The snowdrops are for the same reason and there are seven of them.  I'm hoping that the borage will fall down in front of the box and blend it into the garden a bit better. 

The salads are also acting like a catch crop.  At the moment the fruit and herbs are quite small so there is space left between them.  Planting faster growing crops like salads between the slower growing ones means you get more use from your space and you also prevent weeds from having space to set up home.  These salads will get squeezed out later during the summer but I can plant more in the autumn when things are dying back again. 

Here are some pictures of another smaller planting with an alpine strawberry, peppermint, mint, spearmint, rocket, spinach and chard.  The mints might completely overtake the strawberry but again, we'll just have to wait and see. (click on the pictures for larger versions).  I turned my back on the basket that I was getting ready to plant and came back to find that Kaboodle had taken up residence there.  This caused a serious delay in proceedings as she decided to look her cutest and most forlorn so that we wouldn't toss her out.  We did in the end but not before making her an alternative bed from an old wine box.  She loves it....phew.
 

Life on a Fruit Plant

There's a lot more life on a fruit plant than just the leaves (and hopefully berries).  While it has sometimes been frustrating I've actually enjoyed watching the little insects that crawl all over our fruit.  I think I realised today that I'm going to look on all the insects that live with us as friends of a sort.  They are here to stay and they are each incredibly fascinating creatures.  I'm only just beginning to learn about them and their strange habits but I intend to make it my business to learn all about the little animals that we share our garden with.

I think I started to look on them with an interested eye rather than an irritated fruit grower's eye when I spotted two snails mating near the bottom of a strawberry pot.  I had put the pot into soak in some water and was just about to pick them off when I realised what was going on.  Well, how could I interefere with the very creation of life?  I took some photos and then left them in peace.  (If you click on the photos in this post you will see a larger version of each image) I'm sure that the thought of all the little snail eggs that would result would make most people scream but I'll just couldn't help but be pleased to have witnessed such an event. 

Another very interesting garden inhabitant is the ant and we have been watching them very carefully of late.  We are hoping that they won't devastate the cherry and blackcurrants and are waiting to see if they increase to scary numbers.  While watch a little group at the top of a blackcurrant shoot I noticed that there was actually an ant deep inside a blackcurrant flower.  I'm presuming that he was collecting nectar and he stayed in there for a good few minutes.  On looking around I noticed there was another guy doing the same.  Of course it was very hard to take a photo of them but I had a go so you might get an idea of what I saw.  It took about 30 attempts but I finally got him in a fairly good pose.  Ants seem to have incredibly bendy bodies and so this one could curl right up and fit in side ways.  I wish I had one of those tiny cameras that I could send into the flower to see exactly what he was up to. 

When I was looking at one of the redcurrant cuttings I noticed a spider had made a temporary home by pulling the two sides of a leaf together with his web.  I'm not sure what he was trying to achieve with this but I was amazed that he was actually able to do it.  He must have attached a short piece of gossamer to one side and then walked over to the other side and when the gossamer was tight he just had to keep pulling while the leaf was hoisted up.  It's incredible really.  I don't think that we humans would be able to pull an equivalent amount of weight without some help from at least a few other people if not a crane.

On my travels around the garden I spotted one of the redcurrants that has an aphid colony under some of its leaves.  They don't seem to be causing any real damage so I've left them alone.  They have however caused a blistering effect on the leaves with a wonderful reddish discolouration.  It's looks very strange but actually attractive.  I'd be very interested to know how the aphids manage to make these blisters and why  the leaf then goes red.  I've so many questions and too many internet sights to trawl through to find the answers.  I haven't yet spotted a good book where I can find those answers but one might  turn up yet. 

I can't help but be amazed at these "pests".  They have ingenious ways of trying to ensure their survival and I'm not inclined to just squish them without a second thought just because they are causing some damage to our fruit.  If my very survival depended on it then I suppose I probably would, but it doesn't.  I'd much rather watch the life on our fruit and maybe get a bit less of a harvest.  I'm sure there are lots of things we could learn from these insects if we took the time to "listen" and I intend to find out some of those things. 
I'd like to think that it is possible to grow your own food whilst also encouraging wildlife to flourish.  Humans may make lots of mistakes and cause damage to our environment but there is certainly one positive trait that we have that other animals don't (as far as I know).....we are beginning to realise that we need to be concerned about all of life on Earth and not just our own and so some people are trying to preserve habitats and ensure clean water fand air for all the animals that need it.  Humans have the capacity to help other animals that may need it and we also have the knowledge that a diverse ecosystem is key to our survival.  We are learning from our mistakes and in the end we may well deserve our self appointed title as the most intelligent life form on Earth.

Within us we have the ability to figure out how to conciously cooperate with other animals rather than being in direct conflict with them.  So I intend to do my tiny part by learning as much as I can from the guys that live on our food.  I will certainly be entertained by them anyway.

Swap Your Plants

I was thinking about what I wrote in my post on experimenting and I inspired myself to simply begin a project that I have been mulling over in my head for a couple of years now.  I plan to build a walled garden,  as part of a small holding that we are somehow going to get our hands on.  On the outside we will get another two horses to keep our first one company and also to provide all the fertiliser needs of the garden.  There will be courses on liberty training and other natural ways of looking after horses.  There might be a meadow if we're extra lucky and have space and on the inside there will be lots of vegetables, many many types of fruit and lots of scented flowers and herbs. 

The garden will be used for education, for fun, for dreaming and more.  It will be built entirely from old discarded items and will be run on completely sustainable principles.  It will use money only if all other ways of achieving something have been exhausted and so will rely on people's imagination all the way.  As the idea develops in my head I will write more about it but for now I'm going to start collecting plants.  I'm looking for fruiting plants at the moment mostly, but also perennial flowers and herbs.  Anything that you have that you can either take a cutting of, gather seeds from or donate the whole plant will find a home...soon.  If you would like to do a swap then I can give you a physalis plant, or a melissa plant.  I'm working on get some cuttings from other plants that I have so watch this space. 

I want to gather the plants now so they have a little chance to grow and be ready for planting when the time comes.  There are many other things that I will be throwing out requests for as the whole idea takes off and if you happen to have any ideas that you think I would like then please email me(link on left).
I've no idea where this will go and how it will actually work but I'm really excited to be simply starting.  Stand by for more information...

Willing to Experiment?

When I was in school I hated problem solving in maths because I never knew where to start.  By the time I got to university to study physics it became an even bigger problem and after a very long road I finally figured the whole thing out.  You've just got to start.  There seems to be a huge difference between staring at a blank page and looking at a couple of scribbles.  Once you've put something down, well, you might as well put something else down that is linked to the first scribble to keep it company and suddenly you're going somewhere.  You might have to back track or even start again, but now you're on to something.  The mind has picked a direction and that makes it easier to focus.  As a maths teacher I have been constantly amazed at how many other people are too nervous to simply start and to just try out a solution.  It seems to be asumed that you shouldn't start unless you are sure you are going to succeed.  But what is very very clear is that you definitely won't succeed if you don't start, but that you might succeed if you do. 

When originally thinking about growing fruit in pots I was constantly thinking that there were so many restrictions and that things surely would not work. Surely the experts would say, "this isn't suitable, don't be silly you can't grow grapes in Ireland in a little pot."  Out of desperation and no other choice I tried anyway, but still with some lingering doubts and little voices saying, "this is silly, you need acres and acres of ground for this".  But the other day it dawned on me that even though conditions are not perfect for our fruit and even though I know only a tiny amount of what I should know there is no reason for me not to enjoy having a go anyway. 

It struck me that a lot of people may be slow to grow a fruit tree or bush just because they don't know anything about them. But we should throw caution to the wind and just have a go, put a blackcurrant in a pot, and see what happens.  Watch it grow and develop and learn a little something along the way.  Give it a little water and we might be surprised that it produces some fruit all by itself.  A year later, what have we lost?  Nothing.  What have we gained?  A lot more than just fruit.  And even if the worst came to the worst and the bush died....awe...what have we really lost?  Maybe €5.  What have we gained?  A pot, some soil, a stick for the fire or the runner beans, some fresh air and maybe enough knowledge to have a better go next year.

When Chris, my boyfriend, decided to plant some seeds from some cape gooseberries that we bought from a supermarket something was telling me that it surely wouldn't work.  All the way along something was telling him to just have a go.  And lo' and behold they actually worked.   We got fruit, ate most of it and saved some for seeds.  Now I am watching the second generation of seeds coming up in the greenhouse.  I'm still amazed.

From now I'm determined to just try things out even if they sound ridiculous.  I'm going to take the top off a pine apple and plant it in a pot and all I know for sure is that I'll enjoy telling everyone all about it.  I'd guess that it will at least grow leaves and if it decides to grow a full blown fruit, well that would be great too, but I will thank it anyway for teaching me some interesting lessons if it doesn't.  I don't think it is possible to fail at growing fruit if we at least give it a shot.  It just depends on how you define failure and success.  After three years I still haven't gotton a single fruit off our redcurrant bush but I've discovered that I love propagating new plants and that I might even like to open a fruit nursery sometime.  That sounds like a positive outcome to me. 

So I'm sending out a challenge.  Will you grow something that you would normally think just wouldn't work?  Something that you think would melt your brain if you read all about it and tried to extract the right propagation methods, something that you think wouldn't work in a pot, in your climate or your shadey position?  Just have a go and see what happens.  Have a laugh if it all goes pear shaped, have a huge smile if you actually get even one fruit. I'd love to hear your stories of the silly things you've tried and I'll make a page specially for them here on this blog.  If you have photos or simply words send them into me.  We don't have to be experts, we just have to be willing to have a go and enjoy the experiments.  Who knows we might actually discover something very useful along the way....and it might even be about fruit. 

Heres why We're Growing Fruit in Containers

Good fruit that tastes great is hard to get in Ireland, and good fruit that has been grown naturally is even harder.  So, for us, the obvious solution to this problem was to grow our own fruit.  This way we would be sure to get fruit that actually has a taste whilst also knowing that it is good for us.

Growing lettuce and tomatoes takes less than 6 months from sowing to harvest and so it's easy to requisition a bit of ground without needing to commit to it for life.  But it takes a bit longer for fruit to provide some kind of return.  Sometimes you will begin to harvest within about 8 months of planting but in order to get any reasonable amount of fruit you've got to wait till the next year when the bush or tree is a bit bigger.  Some trees take 5 years to even begin to fruit and so if you are renting a house or apartment you will probably have moved on before you get any results. 

About three years ago, shortly after we moved into another rented house, I decided that I wasn't going to wait any longer. We bought a raspberry cane which was promptly put in a pot.  We would be taking this little fella with us if and when we moved house again.  To this we added a blackcurrant bush which still lives in its first home - a large tyre. Our little fruit collection has grown steadily and now we have 16 differnt types of fruit, all in containers in our little suburban garden.

Another reason to grow fruit in containers would be if you happened to live somewhere where there was no soil at all. For example a garden that was paved or an apartment balcony or terrace. 

Also, there are geniune advantages for some varieties of fruit if they are grown in containers. Figs, for example actually need to have their roots restricted in cooler climates so as to help them set fruit.  Cherry trees can grow up to 60feet tall and so restricting them in a container makes more sense if you actually want to harvest the fruit without a crane.  Some fruits like oranges, cape gooseberries etc would be damaged by frost and so need to be taken indoors during the winter.  This is obviously only possible if they are in pots.  Other fruits do well to be taken indoors during the summer in order to ripen the fruit but they benefit from being outside during the winter. 

The soil in each container can be tailored very easily to the specific requirements of each variety of fruit.  For example the blueberries need acidic soil and so we have made up a special concoction for them that should do the trick. Added to all of these reasons to grow fruit in containers is the point that while a pear tree might end up being small and therefore produce less fruit, it will be easier to look after the fruits as they are developing and so a better quality of fruit may be obtained.

Gradually I realised that there is something wonderful about growing fruit. Your blackcurrant bush will still be there next year when all the lettuce and tomatoes have gone.  There's no need to sow more seeds, to pick the right sowing time or to plant on the seedlings.  Every year, the little bush grows bigger and so a bit more fruit will be harvested, all going well.  Mostly, I love to watch the blackcurrants, and redcurrants, rasberries and vines develop their structures.  I love understanding how to prune them to optimize fruiting.  I love seeing them wake up again at all differnt times in the spring with all our hope of fruit waking up too.  I have developed a strong bond with the fruit in our garden and they actually seem like part of the family. Our new arrival of tayberries, jostaberries, pear, plum, hazelnuts and blueberries all have to bide their time while I get to know them and make that bond.  We all have to be a little patient.

Patience is definitely something that is cultivated when looking after fruit and an appreciation for the fruit that you harvest is obviously increased.  The effort involved makes that fruit seem like it's worth its weight in gold.  Every morsel seems like a little jewel that just can't be bought anywhere.  It seems magical that something so tasty is grown by nature. 

Now that we have our own fruit trees and bushes we can actually begin to remember what nature's fruit is supposed to taste like.  We're hooked and we're already planning to add citrus fruit to the list.  One day pineapples will be part of the family, as will peaches and god knows what else. 

Why I Began This Blog

When we decided to grow fruit in containers I decided to read as much as possible about this.  But there was a problem.  There seems to be very little written about the subject.  While there is quite a lot written about growing fruit in the ground container growing is only sometimes referred to and generally only referred to slightly.  In my naivite I assumed that there was a book for everything.  I did find one book but this was practically useless and a few references on some web sites which have been helpful but again, limited.

I am constantly trying to search for any scraps of information on container grown fruit and to bring it all together in one place on this blog.  And more importantly I have decided to research the topic myself.  I am conducting experiments on the fruit in our garden and over time I will hopefully pick up useful ideas simply by observing plants carefully and noting the results of various tactics.  This blog will be a record of the things that I learn about fruit in general and about fruit in containers.  As I educate myself I hope that a few more people will learn something new along with me as I write.  But it's not all about writing and I will be including as many photos as possible as I find that it is invaluable way to explain concepts.  It is also just a great way to learn about how particular types of fruit develop over time.

In the long run I have two aims.  The first one is to be able to grow all of our own fruit without having to buy any from the shops. The second one is that other people will also be able to do the same as a result of having the right information at hand.  With more and more people living in houses or apartments with restricted gardens the idea of growing fruit in containers is becoming more important.  If we are to gaurantee ourselves good quality food without a huge cost to the environment then very small scale food production is the best answer. On a large farm where profit is the driving force then it is expected that anything to help those profits will be utilised.  Chemicals and large scale mechanisation are obvious tools but when individuals grow their own food for enjoyment then profit is not important.  Quality is.  Time is not so much of an issue and the whole process can be seen as almost therapeutic in itself.

Imagine the benefit to society if it was common place to grow your own food.  There are many obvious ones and many more subtle ones which probably can't be quantified.  The more we each engage with nature the happier people tend to be.  Growing fruit ourselves is not about saving money it is about quality of life.  Simple things help us to improve it, all we need are a few ideas to get us going...and that is what this blog is about. 

Please let me know if you already grow fruit or are thinking of starting, and the very best of luck to you :)