Fruit bushes on the move

For some time now I have come to realise that the bed in which I had originally planted my raspberries wasn't really fit for purpose.

Overgrown raspberries and blackberries

The bed is 2'6" wide, which in itself is OK, but it backs directly onto another bed which contains strawberries and is also 2' wide. The net result of this is that I found it impossible to reach half the fruit at the back of the bed. I have never had much fruit from the seven raspberries I planted back in 2012 anyway, so I decided that I would move them into a couple of much thinner beds between the polytunnel and the veg beds that can be accessed from both sides which I hope will help me look after them better.

It rained quite a bit through the afternoon on Monday, but it had brightened up considerably after work so I decided to spend the last hour of daylight down at the plot and get started on moving the fruit.

Last winter I had been given a grape vine but hadn't really done anything with it, just propped it up still in it's pot and basically left it to fend for itself apart from watering when it got too dry. As a result of this cavalier attitude the tiny grapes that formed over the summer didn't do much, so I decided to move this first, and put it in the middle of one of the 12' long, 20" wide beds that I have earmarked for fruit.

New Grape and Raspberry bed

The plan is that the supporting wires I will put up for the grape can be used by the raspberries that I will plant on either side of the main stem. The few weeds that had colonised this bed since I made it last September came out easily with the exception of one dock that had massive roots . I managed to cut these off about six inches below the surface, but I will have to keep an eye out for it resurfacing in the future. From past experience I know that these can be a nuisance.

The grape vine had already been trained into two main branches so I trimmed it back to a foot or so above the split and planted it in the center of the bed. I planted it slightly higher in the bed than it had been in the pot as I am intending on filling the bed up slightly when I plant the raspberries.

Now the grape was out of the way I got on with the task of cutting back the raspberries. Raspberries come in two main varieties which are either summer or autumn fruiting. Summer fruiting ones should be cut back to the ground straight after harvest but the autumn ones are merely trimmed to about 2 foot high.

As I didn't really know which varieties I had I decided to cut them all back to their base which would then make digging them out and replanting much easier. Having never been pruned back before, the whole bed was a veritable thicket, and as I also soon discovered, they weren't all raspberries!

 I had originally bought three bare-rooted raspberries from Aldi, and three bare rooted redcurrants which I thought had actually turned out to be raspberries as well but it now looks like these three and possibly one or two of the others were actually blackberries!

 As I delved further into the bed the stems at the base were nearly an inch thick, and absolutely covered in wicked thorns which went straight through my gloves. I changed into my heavy duty rigger gloves to deal with these, but even then I still got pricked a few times.

Spiky Blackberries

 I don't particularly want blackberries on my plot as they tend to take over a bit, which partly explains why this bed had become so unmanageable, so I have asked if I can replant these in the waste area against the border fence adjacent to my plot. The corner nearest to me has been used in the past by kids getting onto the allotment and I had already arranged that I could dump the spiky raspberry and brambles there as a deterrent which should make them think twice about climbing over, and if these brambles take root and thrive we will have a good blackberry harvest in a couple of years.

With the light failing I didn't manage to get too far with clearing the bed, but at least I have started. I hope to get back there on Friday to finish off, or at least get a good portion of it done at least.

Things are happening at the allotment

I will have had my plot for three weeks on Sunday, but it seems like an awful lot more.

The grass that was strimmed before my arrival is back at about 3" tall and needs doing again.

I have got about 20 square metres covered with a cardboard mulch, got a 4' square bed double dug and planted with potatoes which have been in for two weeks so far with nothing showing as yet.

My compost pile is growing and will hopefully give some decent stuff next year.

I have now got my new barrow, and the weed-suppressing fabric that I ordered ages ago was finally delivered on Wednesday.

I have had 8 tons of cow manure delivered of which about six has been moved to a holding pile on the allotment.

We are planning to rotivate the middle section of the allotment tomorrow morning, adding the remaining manure as we go to get it well mixed in.

The wood for the raised beds is also coming tomorrow morning and there will be an awful lot of it!  I will have to get a staging area for the planks set up just off my plot by the orchard so it can all be stacked there.

I am going to visit ASDA tonight and get a few bags of compost ready to top off the raised beds as they are being filled, which I am hoping will allow us to start planting out the seedlings from home - some of them are really a coupe of weeks overdue for going out, but all have been hardened off and so should be ok straight away.

The soft fruit and herb area is going to be covered in weed fabric apart from a central sectrion which will have the top few inches of soil lifted and pits dug and filled with manure to hold some rhubarb. This area will be protected by another raised bed frame.

The raspberry and blackberry canes will be planted straight into pits dug on the border of the fruit section as will the gooseberries and black currants, and once the fabric has done it's job we will be planting a selection of herbs in front of the bushes.  This is going to have to wait a while though, as the holding pile for the muck has extended right through one side of this part of the plot.

My two pumpkin plants are getting quite large now and so I think they will be set out directly into either end of the muck pile to give them their very own 'hot' bed.  Another experiment, but one I have high hopes for.

Not much to report from the home garden right now - we have picked and eaten our second raspberries of the year - only a small handful but very, very sweet.  Same for the strawberries in the hanging planter - we may have only got a few fruit so far, but there are new flowers on some of the plants.

I have used a different variety to top up the planter, these give lovely pink flowers instead of the usual white ones - we will have to wait to see how the fruit compares.

The tomatoes in the grow bag have now been staked and are setting loads of tresses, but are still less than two foot tall.  I'm not sure what variety these are as I bought them as seedlings at a plant sale.

I have had my first tomato from the bush variety waiting to be planted out - it was yellow and had split, probably due to inconsistent watering on my part , but very nice so I think it must be a yellow fruiting variety.  There are loads more coming, so we will soon find out.

I have harvested a couple more sticks from my rhubarb which we had stewed with sugar - lovely!

We have also had some chard, steamed, and lots of lettuce from the pot by the door.

This pot has been a great success as we have been picking and eating from it for over six weeks now, but it has finally started to bolt with the recent hot weather so it will be cleared tonight with the final leaves used in a salad for tea, then I will replant the pot with some 'All Year Round' lettuce seedlings from the blow away which should be ready for picking off in another couple of weeks.

One big failure is the melon plant, which has inexplainable curled up and died despite having been watered well.  One of my plot neighbours used to lecture on horticulture, and has suggested that it could have been attacked by vine weevil - I will have to look carefully at the roots later to see if there is any evidence of that.

One of my potato bags has come down with blight - I have removed all the foliage and will be harvesting this weekend.  I have already had a little furtle and come up with a decent sized potato just under the surface, which bodes well for a good harvest here.