I think growing fruit adds another dimension to a garden, from beautiful blossom in spring to watching the fruit slowly mature and ripen and finally enjoying the taste of your own apples, pears and plums. From growing fruiting trees to wiring up a boundary wall or fence or putting in step over fruit, no sunny garden is too small to squeeze in some fruit somewhere.  I regularly add fruit to client’s gardens and they all enjoy it.

Trained fruit trees
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Trained fruit trees on wires on a wall in early summer

Trained fruit on a wall at RHS Hyde Hall in September 2015
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Trained fruit on a wall at RHS Hyde Hall last month

Pear tree trained on sunny garage wall
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Fruit on a sunny garage wall in a client’s garden.

Ripe apples
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Ripe apples ready for picking

If you have a glut of cooking apples below is a family recipe for a German Apple Cake which makes a lovely moist cake – just right as a treat after a busy day in the garden.

German Apple Cake
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German Apple Cake. Image courtesy of Kitchme.com

German Apple Cake:

10 oz of S.R. Flour

6 oz of white sugar

8 oz of melted butter

2 large beaten eggs.

Mix together to make a fairly runny mixture.

Filling:

1 lb of cooking apples, peeled and sliced

a little lemon juice

4 0z of sultanas

half a teaspoon of cinnamon

chopped walnuts (optional)

Sprinkle of demerara sugar.

Grease 10 inch cake tin.  Cover with half to two-thirds of the mixture.  Arrange apples, sultanas and walnuts on top.  Sprinkle on lemon juice and cinnamon.  Cover with rest of mixture. Sprinkle top with demerara sugar. Cook for 50-60 minutes at 325 – 350 degrees or 170 – 180 C.