Send help, cannot stop thinking about potential gardening plans

[luzula]

I don't move into my new place until mid-September, but it's hard to stop thinking about what I could grow there! Right now I'm mostly reading about trees and shrubs for fruit, berries and nuts. I absolutely love picking and eating fruit and berries as they are, or for making jam and cordial. I don't eat a lot of nuts right now, but I'd still love to grow them and incorporate them in food.

What there is already:
- There is one fully grown apple tree already, and three newly planted ones, so that'll be fine. Alas I don't know what kinds yet, except for one newly planted Discovery.
- There's a fully grown cherry tree, which is great, because I love cherries. Also a newly planted morello cherry.
- There's an old, dying plum tree and a newly planted plum tree.
- There are two gooseberry bushes and two currant bushes, but I don't know what kind yet.
- There are some cultivated blackberries.
- I can tell that there's plenty of lingonberry and bilberry in the woods nearby.
- There are huge amounts of acorns from the oaks. I have friends who grind acorns and leach the tannins from them to use in cooking, and it would be interesting to try it.

What I could plant:
- It's temperate enough for walnuts and chestnuts! : D Also hazelnuts, of course.
- It seems like it's also temperate enough for a mulberry tree?
- A pear tree or two would be nice, of course.
- A quince tree? OTOH, perhaps one does not consume quince in large quantities. There's also flowering quince which is just a shrub, but which also has fruits...
- I've never eaten blue honeysuckle berries, but it seems easy to grow and they are said to be good! Has anyone tried them?
- Definitely sea buckthorn, I love those berries for making cordial.
- Apparently one can grow delicious minikiwis in Sweden; they're a vine. Awesome, I somehow thought kiwis needed a tropical climate. : D
- There are also some types of grape that one can grow in my zone.
- Has anyone eaten Ribes odoratum (buffalo currant)? They do sound interesting, and the flowers seem to be great for insects...
- I do like Aronia melanocarpa (black chokecherry) for jam and cordial, and it seems to be easy to grow.

I do absolutely have space for all this, but perhaps I shouldn't aim to do all of it at once, ha ha. ETA: Do share if you have additional ideas, or input about my ideas!

Comments

[regshoe]

Aww, this all sounds amazing :D I love picking berries, but have never had great variety—my favourites are bilberries and wild strawberries (how common are those where you are?). Mini kiwis sound like great fun!

[luzula]

Wild strawberries grow commonly all over Sweden, but they don't always carry much berries. A good place is usually along the side of a gravel/dirt road in the countryside, which gets some sun. There are also cultivated varieties of wild strawberry (this sounds like a contradiction in terms, but what I mean is, they are smaller than "ordinary" strawberries).

But surely you must have a lot of brambles/blackberries in England? And how about wild raspberries?

I also think mini kiwis sound like a lot of fun! : D

[regshoe]

Yes, brambles are very common, and blackberries are by far the easiest wild berry to find in large quantities.

Ooh, those look quite different to typical kiwis (and they don't seem to be furry, which I thought might be a bit impractical with much smaller fruits).