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Soft fruit

The highest return per square metre in any garden — and the crops where pruning knowledge doubles the yield.

Growing·Crops·Trees
  1. 01
    Ripe strawberries on a straw-mulched plant with runners spreading
    Crops№ 4665 min

    Strawberries: A Hybrid Accident and a Runner Problem

    Every garden strawberry descends from two American species crossed in France — plus junebearers against everbearers, and why beds decline.

  2. 02
    Ripe redcurrants and gooseberries hanging on their bushes
    Crops№ 1155 min

    Currants and Gooseberries: Pruning Is the Whole Skill

    Blackcurrants fruit on new wood and reds on old, which is why one is cut to the ground and the other is spur-pruned — plus the rust that got them banned.

  3. 03
    Ripe raspberries and blackberries on thorny canes against a hedgerow
    Trees№ 3865 min

    Raspberry and Bramble: The Rubus Genus at Work

    Raspberries, blackberries, and their wild cousins. Cane biology, pruning by type, and bramble as a restoration species for raw ground.

  4. 04
    Ripe red currants and a black gooseberry on a pruned woody bush against summer foliage
    Trees№ 0405 min

    Berry Bushes: Currants, Gooseberries, Honeyberry, Aronia

    Cool-temperate workhorses for the cold corner where blueberries refuse. Currants, gooseberries, jostaberry, honeyberry, aronia. Pruning, yields, blister rust.

  5. 05
    Ripening grape bunches hanging beneath vine leaves on a trained cordon
    Crops№ 1946 min

    Grapes: Phylloxera, Rootstocks, and Fruiting on New Wood

    An aphid that nearly ended European wine and the American rootstocks that saved it — plus the pruning logic that governs every vine.

  6. 06
    Ripening highbush blueberries in clusters on a pruned shrub with pine needle mulch at the base
    Trees№ 0495 min

    Blueberry and Acid Shrubs: Building a pH 4.5 Garden

    Vaccinium and friends want soil most plants would die in. How to build that soil, choose the right cultivars, and keep a stand productive for thirty years.

  7. 07
    A mature espaliered pear with horizontal tiers trained against a brick wall
    Growing№ 1546 min

    Espalier and Training: Fruit in Two Dimensions

    Cordons, fans, and espaliers — how trained forms fit a full crop into no ground space, ripen earlier, and make everything easier to reach.

  8. 08
    A propagation bench with trays of rooting cuttings and young plants in pots
    Growing№ 3714 min

    Plant Propagation: Multiply Plants for Free

    Cuttings, layering, grafting, and division. Turn one plant into dozens without spending a penny.

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