When it comes to the questions I get from beginner gardeners, edibles still often come out at the very top of the list in terms of “must haves” for new plots. They are also usually alongside the desire for low-maintenance schemes, which look great all year round and provide a haven for wildlife – something I can identify with 100%.
What is surprising (to me personally, at least) is the apparent far greater interest in growing vegetables over fruit. For every question I get on starting an orchard, for instance, or potting up strawberries on a patio, I would estimate there are easily five or more asking for advice on onions, spuds or carrots. It’s something that most of my mates who work in horticulture have remarked on at one point or another.
And it seems our experiences are not unusual. Even when it comes to gardening book sales, this same trend apparently applies, too. Several publishers have told me that the consumer interest in books on vegetable growing is easily double that of fruit gardens.
As someone who has grown pretty much every edible that you can get away with in the UK, I find this very perplexing, because vegetables are probably the worst choice of any plant if your goal is low maintenance. Most of the popular ones are annuals, or are at least treated as such. They require sowing, planting, redigging and the continuous preparation of the same beds over and over for each season. Many varieties also require being sown indoors, which clutters up every windowsill in the house each spring, not to mention the infinite potting-on.
I love growing them, but they undoubtedly also require more watering, fertiliser and shielding from pests than any other group of plants. They have, after all, been bred to be soft, tender and super tasty.
While it is true that vegetable gardens can look astonishingly beautiful at the peak of production in high summer, come the winter they usually look like a lot of bare earth and soggy garden fleece flapping in the wind.
If you are a newbie gardener keen on edibles, here’s my one essential piece of advice: simply swap veg for fruit and you’ll have suddenly tipped the balance of odds in your favourite.
Most fruit plants are perennial, some capable of producing fruit for decades after a single 20-minute investment of planting time. By and large they have attractive flowers in spring, before the satisfying harvest which adds to a long season of interest. They also help your garden’s pollinators in the process.
While people can be put off by the rules of pruning, these are actually simpler than you might think. And, guess what? Even if you don’t bother to prune at all, you’ll still get some fruit.
Compared with vegetables, fruit is also (generally) more expensive to buy, with items like cherries and specialist berries often selling for exorbitant prices. Buy a pack or two and it is close to the price of a plant that would grow them for you for free. By all means try your hand at veg, but if it’s maximum flavour for minimum labour you are after, go for fruit all the way.
Email James at james.wong@observer.co.uk or follow him on Twitter @Botanygeek
