The number and variety of trees, bushes and vines that you select for your fruit garden will depend upon the amount of planting space you have available, how much fruit you want to produce and what time of year you want it to be available.

Soft fruits such as gooseberries, blackberries, strawberries raspberries, blackcurrants and redcurrants may be harvested over the period between June and September, whilst tree fruits such as apples, pears, cherries, peaches, plums and damsons usually crop between August and April. It is usually best to select a variety of early, mid and late-ripening cultivars so that you can spread your harvest throughout the season, rather than enjoying a short-lived glut. For example, consider the following apple cultivars:

• Benenden Early: fruits in August-September
• Sunset: fruits in October-December
• Ballarat Seedling: fruits in January-April

Not only will these three varieties offer you a consistent supply of fruit over the majority of the year, but as they are all group C pollinators, they will all flower at approximately the same time. This makes them an ideal choice to grow together to provide cross-pollination.