Allotments 4 All

Does anyone have any suggestions on other plants i can put into my edible hedge? Already have blackthorn, hawthorn, rugosa rose, june berry, cornelian cherry, hazel and wild plum; have underplanted most of it with alpine strawbs. Want it to be practical, beneficial to wild life, keep the thiving b******s from my fruit trees and most importantly edible, so any suggestions will be most grateful

how about damsons and crab apple ???

How about worcester berries ?  (That was the answer on Gardeners question time once).

Quince (Chaenomeles)? They make small fruit that's good for jellies, chutneys etc - and the flowers are really pretty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaenomeles

My hawthorne/beech hedge has somewhere in it a gooseberry bush, lord knows when it was planted there tho :-\

Maybe a bird planted it, Hyacinth? I found a blackcurrant bush in my aunt's hedge, she didn't know it was there, so perhaps it got there that way too? :-)

I don't know Helen...this is the original hedge that was planted...oooh..back in the early 1920s perhaps? when George Cadbury laid out the gardens with the aim to provide enough space for peeps to grow veggies & have fresh fruit...every garden was planted with 2 apple trees - an eater & a cooker, and it could well be that this goosegog dates back to that time. Certainly it's now an integral part of the hedge. Curious, eh?

raspberries, blueberries,honey berries and thorn less black black berries. should do the trick.

There's a gooseberry in the hedge on the way down to my site. It was originally allotments there, set up in 1840, but who knows how it got there?

sea buckthorn might be a nice one. Good for birds and as a hedge too

Quote from: Robert_Brenchley on November 20, 2008, 18:10:38
There's a gooseberry in the hedge on the way down to my site. It was originally allotments there, set up in 1840, but who knows how it got there?

My house dates from the turn of the century too....little bit of history we've got?

All sorts can happen in that time. A farm hedge is supposed to gain a species per cetnury on average, but domestic hedges must gain them far faster if they're left to themselves

Had thought about a couple of crab apples, grow damsons on the plot already. Hadn't thought about a quince, will look into that. Not really keen on sea buckthorn, and don't know anything you can really do with the berrys

Quote from: portsmouth30 on November 21, 2008, 09:17:08
Not really keen on sea buckthorn, and don't know anything you can really do with the berrys

according to Ray Mears the bushcraft guy it makes a mean fruit leather and Hugh Fearnley–Whittingstall made a desert jelly using sea-buckthorn and crab apple.

http://www.rivercottage.net/SeasonalRecipes~October/716/Seabuckthornandcrabapplejellywithhedgeberrysyrup.aspx

and i found this recipe in a quick search, google it, there are lots of interesting ones out there :):

Sea-buckthorn Ice Cream Recipe

Origin: British      Period: Traditional 

Ingredients:
700g sea-buckthorn berries
300g sugar
3 tbsp orange juice
1l single cream
1 tsp vanilla extract

Method:

Combine the sea-buckthorn berries, sugar and orange juice in a large saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Every now and then mash the berries against the side of the pan as they heat up and cook. Bring to a boil then reduce to a simmer and cook for 5 minutes.

Remove from the heat, allow to cool slightly then purée in a blender and pass through a fine-meshed sieve to remove any pips. Set the mixture aside to cool completely.

Meanwhile turn on our ice cream machine and allow the bowl to chill. Combine the sea-buckthorn mixture, the cream and the vanilla in the chilled bowl of the ice cream machine then churn according to the manufacturer's instructions until the ice cream is set.

How about a touch of exotica? A goji berry bush :D They get quite tall, and need a sheltered-ish position. Very easy to grow from seed (buy dried berries from health food shops). They are frost hardy down to -15 after the first year.

They are very good for you, lots of vits and all sorts of other stuff......s'posed to be cancer preventative too :D

Might have to put a sea buckthorn in there somewhere.
Had thought about a goji berry the other year, but its completly open to the wind and all my sheltered spots seem to have been filled up over the last few years, but might have to see if i can find another little spot!

The only problem with goji berries is that they taste 'orrible! How about a medlar tree? They seem to be coming back in to fashion and have a lovely taste.

 ;D ;D ;D The dried ones do, I haven't tried fresh ones, are they the same? I do agree on the Medlar.....good thinking ;)

Quote from: davholla on November 20, 2008, 15:21:23
How about worcester berries ?  (That was the answer on Gardeners question time once).

Can you make Lea & Perrins from these ?

That's got anchovies in it. It's supposed to be similar to garum, a sauce the Romans made from decaying herrings.