Delicious fruit grown together! Look forward to homemade puddings worth waiting for
Fancy a family project that starts with muddy boots and ends with pudding? Get everyone together this autumn and ask which fruit they’d most like to grow. Apples for crumble? Cherries to spoon over ice cream? Pears for a sticky upside-down cake?
Those choices become your Family Pudding Patch – a shared growing space where everyone has something to look after and look forward to eating.
And “patch” needn’t mean digging up the lawn. With many of our bare root fruit trees grown on dwarfing rootstocks, you can choose suitable varieties for generous patio pots or plant straight into the garden.
Shop Bare Root Fruit Trees This Season Here!
Put Pudding To The Vote
Let everyone make their case for a favourite, then narrow the wish list to suit your space. You might settle on a couple of trees in pots, or an apple tree and a short row of raspberries.
For something that will really get children talking, consider a duo fruit tree. These have two varieties grafted onto one tree. Following each variety from blossom to fruit gives everyone something to watch, with a taste test to look forward to when both harvests are ready.
Make Room For Dessert
Choose a sunny, sheltered position, then draw a simple plan together. Mark where each tree or pot will go, leaving room to walk around and pick.
Dwarfing rootstocks help keep trees smaller but check each variety’s eventual size and suitability for containers. Check its pollination requirements too, as some need a compatible tree flowering nearby.
For patio growing, choose substantial pots with drainage holes. Remember that trees in containers will rely on you for regular watering and feeding. Give the family watering team fair warning!
Make A Planting Day
Bare root trees arrive dormant, without pots or compost around their roots. November’s leafless branches might not look much like a future crumble, so keep a picture of the fruit handy to show younger helpers what’s coming.
Keep roots moist until planting and follow the supplied instructions. Plant when the ground is neither frozen nor waterlogged. Adults can dig and fit supports; children can help refill the hole or pot and water everything in.
Put Your Names Down
Make a label for each family choice, including its variety, planting date and intended treat. “Sam’s Sunday Crumble” is much more personal than “apple tree”.
With a duo tree, label the varieties clearly on their respective branches, using loose ties checked regularly as they grow.
Follow Every Little Change
The project carries on after planting day. Take monthly photographs, spot the first buds and count visiting bees when blossom opens. Give everyone a turn checking soil moisture.
Explain that trees need time to establish and good harvests may take several years. Meanwhile, every new leaf is progress. And when that first modest picking arrives, make something together. A pudding everyone helped grow deserves a proper place at the table.
