How Big shall I Make My Fruit Bed?

[bonniethomas06]

Over the moon that I have a tonne of muck arriving at the weekend. I am determined to get bare root fruit in this autumn, even if I have to get up stupidly early during august to dig before the sun gets hot.

I roughly paced out my fruit patch last night, and I recon the site I have in mind is about 3m x 10m. I would like summer and autumn rasps, gooseberries, currants (3, one of each), rhubarb and strawbs.

Do you recon that is a good size? Looks massive but I like to give things space.

[Green Aura]

Sounds huge, Bonnie, but I've no idea how to size these things - we just fit stuff in where we can. One thing that springs to mind though is make sure you have access up the middle for weeding/picking etc - there's no way you'll be able to access it from the edge.

[diggernotdreamer]

if you have a space 3m x 10m, you could put up posts and wires all along the back and put all your cane fruits along there, then put a path in about 1 meter wide and then put your currant bushes in front and your rhubarb. Strawberries, I would maybe find something like an old bath or old water tank or something to put them in so as they are off the ground and so as you can change the soil regularly and replace the plants. That way, you have good space between the cane fruits and bush fruits and places you can pick both in front and behind

[Odsox]

Can't help with the planning bit as all my garden just "evolved", even though I started with an empty field.
But, if you've never grown raspberries before ... they do spread a lot. Their roots travel for yards (metres) underground and then throw up strong shoots where you least expect them. Don't grow summer and autumn fruiting raspberries next to each other or they will end up all mixed muddled up together.
Concrete paths won't stop them, but if you have a grass path you can keep them sort of under control by mowing off the soft shoots as they appear.
I have healthy raspberry canes 10 feet from where they were originally planted.

[bonniethomas06]

Thanks, good points about picking access, not something I had considered. I think I will run a mowable path down the middle, so I have two 1.5 x 10m beds instead. Glad I asked, thanks all :-)