[Diddy Gardener]

Hi... my hubbie of 12 years suddenley announces last night that his favourite fruit is a gooseberry (oh, really??). Me, being the dutiful wife that I am  thought it would be a nice idea to grow one.

Now, I have no room in my veggie plot (it's very small) and no other spare space in the garden. Is it possible to grow fruit bushes in tubs... you know, the big half barrel type jobs?

[BabbyAnn]

yes    Gooseberries in particular should be fine in tubs

[Trillium]

Yes, they'll grow well but do limit it to one per barrel. We get a lot of folk thinking they can squeeze in 2 or 3 but it defeats the purpose. Give the soil lots of peat or coir and compost to hold water better, even some of those water retention granules in the soil mix.

[lochnesslass]

i have 2 blueberry bushes in tubs, not that big tubs either and they do well past 3-4 yrs.
i need to refresh the compost a the end of this year tho.

[Diddy Gardener]

Excellent - thanks a lot... that's another job for the weekend then