As you may know we have a Raspberry Patch and in it I placed, lovingly I might add, a whole array of raspberry bushes and carefully labelled each one. These labels then disappeared... every one. And I was left with a sea of raspberries, unknown to man nor beast. This didn't matter year one as I had no need to prune but now the time has come to separate Autumn from Summer fruiting. I need to prune Autumn and leave Summer alone (basically).
So today I stood amongst my bushes and torn fruit net and flattened support poles - yes, the raspberry patch was a mess, apparently vast quantities of snow on a flimsy net makes for turmoil. And when your dad says "you'll need to knock the snow off that net or it'll squash everything" he's right - so do it! But I made my choice about which were which and have pruned accordingly...
I will let you know what occurs and whether I was right... cross what you got people!!
In other news the old potato patch is weed free still (how does it do it) and the garlic I planted there last autumn is coming through. The five remaining brussel plants are still there Brusselling away but I will need to lift them, we have not been short of sprouts! This bed is to become the beans and peas bed and the new bed to be dug will take over potatoes, cabbages, sprouts and carrots.
I have placed my seed order today so you will be seeing all the same again plus onions, celery, cabbage, string beans and I may even have turnips as I seem to have two packets of seeds... where'd they come from... answers on a postcard! Oh yes and soon I will plant out some winter lettuce seeds I have discovered... ah the seed tin....
Strawberries will return and I am going to try my best to encourage the blueberries and blackberries (brambles) this year to do more than a polite fruiting.
When we moved in we had wild raspberry bushes growing everywhere on the property. Who knew that goats and sheep loved to eat them. They are almost all gone, I wish you luck keeping yours sorted out and safe from critters.
ReplyDeleteI wish you luck with all your planting and plans...i am hoping for more fruit this year...i hope that every year as my bushes mature a little more!!!
ReplyDeleteKeeping everything crossed for your raspberries!!
That reminds me - I haven't pruned mine yet. Mine are a late winter variety that are easy to prune - you just cut them down to the ground.
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