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.

Fennel, Chicory and Manchester Carrots!

I had a quick visit to the plot tonight to finally get most of the seedlings into the ground.

These have been waiting in their pots for far too long, so I decided that I would have to squeeze them in wherever I could.

Fennel

I stuck my seven Fennel plants into my square foot bed planted one per square.

I have never grown this before, so I am looking forwards to seeing how it develops.

Italian Lettuce

Also in this bed are some Italian lettuce and also some Chicory.

I purchased a few seeds from Seeds of Italy this year, the plan is that most of the crops grown in Italy come from the Northern regions where the climate is similar to ours here in the North West of England.

Chicory

Chicory is another plant that I have never grown before, I believe it can be harvested through the summer for it's leaves to add to salads, but if the root is lifted and kept in the dark over winter it will form the chicory 'chicons' that we see in the supermarkets.

I'm really looking forwards to trying this out.

Little Gems

The Little Gem lettuce that I planted out about four weeks back have finally started to bulk up a bit.

Until very recently these plants had been shaded by some perpetual spinach and some chard that I had let go too far - the lettuces' progress seems to show that I made the right decision when I pulled up the giant plants to give these some more room.

Nantes Carrots

The Nantes Carrots have suddenly grown to a tremendous size, the fronds are now almost 2 feet high.

At one point I thought that I wouldn't be getting any as they took ages to germinate.

I also planted up loads of Manchester Carrots last night - hopefully these will not take as long to show.

Rocket with two rows of Celery in front

The Rocket I planted at the same time as the Celery has not responded well to the hot spell we are having - virtually every plant has bolted and produced a flower.

I have pinched out all the flowers and given them a good soaking - hopefully this will let me keep them a bit longer.

The Celery plugs in front of the Rocket are also doing well but are still growing slower than I had expected.

Nearly Ripe

Some of my strawberries are now ripening - I have had nearly 1.5kg so far over the past week, with probably ten times as many still to come as the various varieties I have ripen.


I think that I will be making strawberry jam this weekend.

\My first grapes

All of the fruit on the plot is at varying stages of ripeness.

Only one of my raspberry canes has ripened whilst the others are still at the tiny green berry stage.

The grape vine that I was given last year has loads of tiny bunches showing, and the gooseberries have lots of fat berries which are starting to change from green to red.

Black currant berries

Even the tiny black currant bushes have loads of fruit.

White Currant

Red Currant

The white and red currants that I was given last year have masses of fruit on them which is nearly ripe.

This is the first time that I have grown these, and as it was so easy to propagate from cut stems last year I think that I will probably have a few more this time next year.

Onions and shallots

The onions and shallots are swelling nicely, but some of the yellow onions have started to flop over which normally means that they are ready to lift.

These will be very small bulbs, but hopefully the rest will be able to grow a bit more before I have to lift them too.








Most of the shallots have split into four bulbs,but some have split into five or even six, and there are a couple of threes, but these are quite large bulbs.



I grew shallots from sets last year for the first time, but this year's offering looks to be a far better crop.

Shallots showing the split

This is probably due to the soil that they are planted in - last year they went into a bed that had been double dug, but was quite full of heavy clay.

This year they have been planted in a lasagne bed which had been used for my potato buckets last year, and so has had plenty of  compost dumped on top as the buckets were emptied.

Cara, Sarpo Mira and Pink Fir Apple Potatoes

Speaking of potatoes, this year's crop is doing well.

I have already had a few first earlies, both Red Duke of York and Maris Bard, which have been in the ground for just about 12 weeks.

My second earlies and maincrop are now outgrowing the first earlies and I am looking forwards to a good showing.


Now that I have started this season's harvest in earnest I have decided to keep a running total of how much it would have cost me to buy what I have grown from the supermarkets.

So far I have saved £16.50 - mostly on strawberries.

Mid Season Planting

The current weather has been brilliant for our crops, but unfortunately it has also been equally as good for the weeds.

Flag Iris looking good

As the weeds have grown where they wanted to, and not where we have placed them then they have an obvious advantage over our crops.

Sad reminder that nature tends to win

The natural cycle of things also cannot be stopped.  Earlier this year I planted out some swede seedlings that I had bought at the end of last season but didn't manage to get into the ground until March.  This weekend I had to admit defeat - every single swede had bolted and was producing yellow flowers which meant that they would never bulk up to produce a crop, so they all had tocome out.

I replaced them with six seedlings of cabbage 'Primo' that I had picked up at the plant sale at the Uppermill Museum a couple of weeks back, and they have joined the three surviving Brussel Sprout plants that were already in the bed.  As you can see from the picture above, one is doing really well but the other two have suffered with the slugs and are really weak.  I hope that they survive as it is a bit late to start more from seed.

On a more positive note, the white onions, shallots and Japanese onions that were planted out in April are, on the whole, doing well.

There have been a couple of casualties but I am pleased that I decided not to over-winter these.

The raspberry bed is filling out really well, and has been covered with white flowers over the past two weeks.

Now the bees from the Apiary have done their work lots of the canes are dripping with ripening fruit.

Last year some of the canes seemed to be either Tayberries or some other variant, this year I will try to look after the canes a bit better and actually cut them back after I have harvested the fruit

Grape growing wild!

The grape vine that I was given at the end of last season is doing well.  At one point I was afraid that it was dead, but just look at it now!

There are even several bunches of mini-grapes forming.

On the Beechgrove Garden TV program this Sunday they recommend pruning back the vines to one leaf past the grapes and each sideshoot to one leaf past the main stem.

I will give that a try over the next week

The strawberry beds are doing well with mostly green fruit as yet, but the ones I spaced out and planted through weed fabric look to be the easiest to harvest and best for less weeds and control of runners - if it works well I might re-plant the whole strawberry bed after the summer.






The current and gooseberry bed is looking very lush and green, but the currant plant nearest the camera has absolutely no fruit what so ever!

The leaves are different to the other currants on the plot, so I will have to wait until I get some fruit before I can identify it properly.

Waiting for a space

On my table I have loads of broad beans and peas just waiting for a space to become ready in one of the beds.

There are also a few brassicas that were originally in the poly tunnel but were attacked by a slug.  Hopefully they can recover enough to be planted out.

Cucumbers, Squash, Basil and Chives

On the stand on the decking I have got a few strawberries that were rescued after a communal tidy day a few weeks back.

They have been joined by a few  Crystal Lemon Cucumbers, Hawk Squash, Purple Basil and a pot of Chives.

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In my original square foot garden bed there are two perpetual spinach and a chard that have gone wild, and are now far too big for the bed.

I will take them out and plant up some new seedlings as they take next to no time to grow and I will try to keep on top of picking the leaves so they don't get out of hand so easily again.

Walking Onion bulbils

My walking onion (Egyptian Tree Onion) is thriving - there are loads of bulbils forming on the top of their leaves, the bulbils, leaves and bulbs are all edible, but I am leaving it to grow as it is a perennial.

Most of the long stems have been broken by something - not sure what but I hope it wasn't me.

This year I have three beds of potatoes in the ground, the varieties I am growing are Maris Peer and Red Duke of York (1st earlies), Cara and Sarpo Mira (2nd earlies) and Pink Fir Apple and Orla (Maincrop).

White Currant

Last year I was given a couple of currant bushes, one red and one white, which I stuck into either end of a bed just to give them a temporary home.

Both bushes have taken, and I am very happy to have them absolutely dripping with fruit.

Red Currant

The redcurrant bush was so large that I had to clip it down quite a lot to get it in the back of the car.

Rather than throw these clippings away I stuck them in the ground around the bush.

Every single one survived and grew on, so I will have loads of redcurrants for my wine making later this year.

Compost pile

Last year I had been using two dalek compost bins, but the amount of green waste I was producing soon filled these and more.

I was fortunate to be given a few pallets by another plotholder which I screwed together to make a compost baywhich as you can see is also nearly full already.

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.