Tips on how to grow cranberries for Christmas - plus, find out what else needs doing in the garden this week.

By Hannah Stephenson


Cranberries are the staple fruit of Christmas, creating the sauce synonymous with turkey or adding warmth to winter punches, relishes and jellies.

These beautiful deep red berries aren't only popular with us though, they are also adored by wetland birds, so this year, Wildfowl and Wetland Trust wetland centres all across the country are holding their first ever Craneberry Fest - a celebration of the famous wetland fruit and an iconic wetland bird, the crane, after which cranberries are named. From November 30 until January 26, WWT Wetland Centres, supported by Ocean Spray, will be showing visitors how to make beautiful cranberry decorations for the tree and cranberry bird feeders.

The plant was first named by early European settlers in America who felt the expanding flower, stem and petals resembled the neck, head, and bill of a crane. Most cranberries are still grown in boggy areas of North America and eastern Europe. They're not widely grown in this country, although specialist fruit nurseries may offer a few types and the RHS also sells them.

"Cranberries like boggy soil conditions and it's quite difficult to create an environment in which they thrive in the UK,' says Leigh Hunt, principal horticultural adviser with the RHS. "But we can control the moisture and soil type by planting them in containers."

The plants do have some visual worth, as they are evergreen and low growing, with pink bell flowers.

Cranberry 'Pilgrim', for instance, available from the RHS (www.rhs.org.uk) is a low-growing, evergreen cranberry with small, leathery leaves on lax stems that have an arching habit. Its attractive shape can be best admired when planted in a container so it can cascade over the sides of the pot. The tiny pinkish-red flowers appear in spring and are followed by tart dark red berries, a regular superfood packed with nutrients and vitamins. 'Early Black' has a spreading habit, evergreen leaves and large dark blue, fairly sweet fruit.

If you have problems with drainage in your garden, the cranberry might actually be for you. They need extremely acidic soil, with a pH of less than 5, and semi-bog conditions. They prefer sun but will also withstand light shade.

If you're planting them in the ground, dig a hole 40cm (16in) deep and line the base and sides with plastic sheeting. Fill with an ericaceous compost and mulch with 5cm (2in) of sawdust or wood shavings. Punch a few small holes in the sides of the plastic just above the bottom to allow water to seep out. If you can, use rain water to thoroughly wet the compost and trample it like grapes until the soil is soaking.

"Keeping them well watered is really important and early to mid-summer is critical," adds Hunt.

"Most days you will need to check the pot. They have a shallow root run so a pot 12 inches deep would be sufficient and ideally you want a pot which is wide but shallow."

In spring, feed the plants with sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of potash and bonemeal and top-dress with ericaceous compost.

If you are growing in pots you can control the conditions more effectively by spring planting in peaty ericaceous compost enhanced with around 10% lime-free grit. You'll need to keep the plants really wet, so stand the pots in wide saucers that remain topped up with water, particularly rainwater, as tap-water contains too much lime.

Feed the plants every week during the growing season with a product specifically formulated for acid-loving plants and you should be harvesting the berries in September and October. They will keep in the fridge for a good few weeks or you can freeze them or pop them on a tray in the oven on its lowest setting for a few hours to dry them.

Once the dried cranberries start to look like raisins, they can be added to bird feeders, while the fresh ones can be made into festive tree decorations, using floral wire and threading cranberries and craft beads through it to form circles.

You can also make snowflake decorations using a foam ball in the centre. Thread 5in pieces of wire through it to form the spokes of a snowflake shape and thread cranberries on to the wire, gluing a craft bead at the end of each wire spoke, to secure the berries.

To make a pine cone bird feeder, tie one 24in ribbon length to the end of each pine cone. Coat each pine cone with lard and sprinkle with soft, dried cranberries and bird seed. Hang by the ribbons on tree branches.

For more details of the Craneberry Fest, go to www.wwt.org.uk


Best of the bunch - Laurel (Prunus)

Many varieties of prunus, including flowering cherries and plums, are deciduous, but the evergreen types are excellent for screening and hedging, as their large glossy leaves and dense growth hide ugly views and deter intruders. Meanwhile, the smaller varieties suppress weeds, providing a display of white flowers in early summer, followed by berries. To keep it tidy, prune bushes in late winter and trim hedges in late summer, using secateurs not a hedge trimmer and dispose of the clippings, as laurel are poisonous.

Among the best types for tall hedges is the common laurel, P. laurocerasus, which will reach 4.5m (15ft) or more if left unchecked. Small white flowers appear in April followed by red berries in September which later turn to black. Other good varieties include P. lusitanica 'Variegata', which is a better choice for alkaline soil and if you want a smaller hedge or if you want the shrub to be trimmed into a formal shape. Laurels thrive in sun or partial shade in any well-drained soil.


Good enough to eat - Lamb's lettuce

This tasty, reliable rosette-shaped lettuce is easy to grow through the winter undercover, ideally on a windowsill. Sow seeds thinly from September to March in cold frames or a soil border in a cold greenhouse, or on windowsills indoors. If sowing indoors fill a shallow windowsill trough with compost, sprinkle seeds thinly over the surface and just cover them with a thin layer of horticultural vermiculite or compost. Water in gently, then again when the soil starts to dry out at the surface. When the seedlings are big enough to use, remove them for baby salads, while mature plants will be ready a couple of weeks later. Good varieties include 'Vit', a modern, fast-growing type, and 'Verte de Cambrai', a French variety.


Top buy - Electric Kitchen Garden Set

As the weather turns colder, more of us will be venturing under cover for our gardening, and there's an ideal way to start thanks to a new Electric Kitchen Garden Set, launched by Stewart Garden. Ideal for germinating your seeds, it will keep them warm, humid and protected. It features a growing tray, propagator cover, a 12-watt heater mat, five flower pots and two seed trays. The set, priced £34.99, is available in lime and mocha. For details and stockists go to www.stewart-home.co.uk


What to do this week

:: Complete the pruning of bush fruits as soon as possible, remembering to leave late-fruiting raspberries until February.

:: If you are doing any late turfing, protect the ground to be worked on and any stacked turf from frost by covering it with fleece.

:: Increase stocks of winter jasmine by taking cuttings now and putting them in a cold frame.

:: Divide polyanthus which have made good crowns.

:: When staking trees, place the stake on the side which receives the prevailing wind to ensure the stem is blown away from the stake and bark is less likely to be rubbed.

:: Plant tulips and hyacinths before the end of the month.

:: Remove dead leaves from the tops of plants to prevent pests and disease from taking hold.

:: Continue to ventilate the greenhouse on sunny days and reduce watering to a bare minimum.

:: After leaf fall, take hardwood cuttings of easy shrubs, roses and soft fruit bushes.

:: To stop squirrels raiding your bird table, mix chilli pepper powder with bird seed. Birds like the taste but squirrels don't.

:: Take hardwood cuttings of dogwood, euonymus, buddleia, spiraea and weigela.

:: Continue to harvest leeks and Brussels sprouts.