Garden jam-packed with summer berries

URBAN FARMER:BERRIES, berries and yet more berries – at the moment, the OPW's walled kitchen garden is just jam-packed with them. There are fat, inky blackcurrants, giant, juicy blackberries, sweet strawberries and ruby redcurrants the size of small gemstones. And then there are plump, purple-skinned gooseberries, blood-red raspberries and loganberries as well as white currants, with skins so tender and transparent that you can see the tiny seeds within. There are even Goji berry bushes, although these are so recently planted (late April) that the fruit won't appear until next year.

“And we’ve also got tayberries, worcesterberries, loganberries, even jostaberries,” Meeda adds, holding out a juice-stained hand full of ripe, sweet fruit.

Almost all of the soft fruit plants growing in the walled garden were sourced bare-rooted from Wexford-based English’s Nursery (Coonogue, Adamstown, Co Wexford, 053-92340984/ 9240504), except for the Goji bushes, which were sourced from Tully’s Nursery in north county Dublin (Tully Nurseries Ltd, Richardstown, Ballyboughal, Co Dublin, Ireland, 01-8433174, www.tullynurseries.ie).

“Ideally, you should plant bare-root fruit bushes while they’re still dormant (between October and March) while the ground isn’t frozen, but we were a bit later than we should have been when it came to planting some of these. Because they were bare-rooted, we made sure to soak the roots very well before planting them into weed-free, well-dug and well-manured soil, and then we made sure that they were well watered for the first few months,” explains Brian. “We also sprinkled some OSMO organic fertiliser into the planting hole to give them a head start (the OSMO range is available from White’s Agri, Ballough, Lusk, Co Dublin, 01-8438521, www, whitesagri.ie)

While some of the soft fruit bushes in the walled garden such as the gooseberries, blackcurrants, redcurrants and white currants need no supports, others, like the vigorous blackberries, loganberries and tayberries, are trained along wires that are held taut between wooden posts.

This prevents wind damage and allows easier access both for winter pruning and for picking the fruits. Meeda says “We start training the new growth in spring, tying the young shoots in tight to the wires in a kind of a fan-pattern. It’s very important that the supports are in place before planting. Remember also to leave plenty of space between the canes at planting time – anywhere from 2.5m to 4m depending on the variety.”

With all soft fruit bushes, it’s also vital to keep the ground weed-free. Avoid hoeing, however, as it’s all too easy to damage the new canes as they emerge in springtime.

Instead, in autumn, Brian and Meeda mulch the ground around the roots of each plant with a heavy covering of farmyard manure, which prevents weeds germinating and enriches the soil. “We also top-dress all the plants with a potash-rich fertiliser in spring, which helps with fruit production,” adds Brian.

For more information on soft fruit and their cultivation, pick up a copy of Dr Hessayon’s The Fruit Expert, an excellent guide to all the better-known varieties and their cultivation including details of their different pruning and training methods (these vary hugely). In the walled garden, the OPW gardeners are lucky to have enough space to grow a selection of different cultivars of each fruit, although they definitely have their favourites.

“We’re growing four different raspberries and they’re all tasty, but the nicest by far is a new autumn-fruiting variety called Himbo Top. It produces really delicious fruit with a lovely shape that doesn’t squash too easily when it’s picked. We can’t wait to eat it every year,” says Meeda.

Bred in Switzerland and introduced in 2008, the Himbo Top raspberry is the result of a cross between the well-known Autumn Bliss and another variety called Queen, and is already the new star of the soft fruit garden.

High-yielding, long-cropping (up to eight weeks) and upright in habit, making it a good choice where space is at a premium, it’s quickly usurped Autumn Bliss as the best choice of late-fruiting raspberry. The fruits also freeze well, handy if you ever find yourself in the very happy position of having to deal with a sudden glut of berries. Use the open-tray method, which is suitable for most soft fruit with the exception of strawberries. Just spread the individual berries out on a baking tray before popping them in the freezer until they’re hard, which should take a couple of hours.

They can then be transferred into a sandwich bag and put into the freezer proper. That way, you get to enjoy a taste of summer, even in the depths of winter. Yum.

The OPW’s Victorian walled garden in the grounds of the Phoenix Park Visitor Centre is open daily from 10am-4.00pm.

Fionnuala Fallon is a garden designer and writer.

WHAT TO: sow, plant and do now

Sow: Beetroot, broccoli raab, carrots, autumn mini cauliflowers, chicory, endive, kales , kohl rabi, komatsuna, land cress, lettuce, mibuna, mizuna, mustards, pak choi, spring onions, radish, rocket, spinach, Swiss Chard, turnips, winter purslane

Plant: Sprouting broccoli, Brussels sprouts, cabbages, calabrese, cauliflowers, kale, leeks, second-cropping potatoes (e.g. Carlingford).

Do: Continue sowing seed and pricking out/ thinning seedlings, watering plants, weed/ hoe beds, net young brassicas, soft fruit and fruit bushes, cover carrots with Bionet, earth-up and spray non-blight resistant potatoes with Dithane to protect against blight, pinch out side basal shoots and stake tomatoes, feed tomatoes, celeriac, celery, pumpkins, watch for garden pests.