Sweeten up your winter
Whether you love purple, brown or green skinned figs, they’re a delicious sweet fruit to grow at home, with fruit maturing during late summer and autumn.
Figs are hardy, deciduous trees that can grow up to 5m tall or there are dwarf varieties that are around
1.5 m tall, which are perfect for smaller gardens and also pots. You can also espalier figs across a wall, so they take up very little horizontal space.
They like a warm sunny spot that receives at least 6 hours of sunshine a day. Most figs are self-fertile so don’t need another fig to produce fruit.
● Potted and bare rooted figs are available for planting during winter.
● To give your new fig a great start, enrich the soil in the planting hole with some organic plant food and water in well after planting.
● In cool areas protect young fig trees from frosts and keep the soil moist, particularly during the fruiting season.
● Reapply plant food every 6 to 8 weeks from spring to autumn to help promote healthy growth and a great harvest.
What do you get when you cross a raspberry and a blackberry? A loganberry!
They’re named after the horticulturist James Logan, who accidentally created this new hybrid. The fruit have a slightly elongated shape like a blackberry but are a dark purplish red colour, similar to raspberries.
Loganberries are soft, tangy and juicy and can be used in desserts, crumbles, cakes and drinks as well as turned into richly coloured jams and jellies. Or perhaps loganberry glazed pork chops? And of course loganberries can be enjoyed fresh with lashings of cream!
Loganberries are an ideal berry for growing at home, as they’re hard to find in supermarkets and green grocers as they don’t transport or store well. No transport issues when they’re growing in your backyard! The berries might not even make it back into the house . e. .
Loganberries grow best in cool to warm temperate zones. They are a brambleberry which grow on canes up to 1.5m tall. To make maintenance easier (and promote a better harvest), loganberries can be grown up between two wires on a T-shaped trellis. Look out for thornless varieties of loganberry, which will create a much less painful berry growing experience!
During autumn, cut back to ground level the canes that have borne fruit, leaving fresh, newer canes to grow and provide fruit next summer. Do this each year to avoid the canes getting messy and out of control.
Loganberries prefer a slightly acidic, moist rich soil. Before planting, improve the soil with a concentrated source of rich organic matter like natural blood and bone and then reapply around the root zone every eight weeks from spring to autumn to promote lots of healthy cane growth, a strong root system and lots of plump, juicy berries. Blood and bone is also boosted with New Zealand seaweed, which encourages strong root development and improved plant health.
Birds will enjoy loganberries as much as you, so some bird netting may be required to protect your developing crop.