Fruit shopping

[jacey]

Went fruit shopping with a vengeance this morning. Bought three apple trees (2 eaters, 1 Bramley for baking), 1 pear tree and a plum tree - all espalier trained to go next to the new fence which now divides the lawn from the vegetable garden (i.e. keeps the dog from digging up the nice soft earth in the raised beds). Delivery tomorrow. Ground already prepared.

Introduced dog to the new fence today. Over the weekend the fence was up but the gates (one at each end) weren't, so it didn't restrict him. Now, suddenly the gates are up and bolted and he can't quite work out why his world has shrunk. The top end of the garden is so exciting. It has grass sods which

Anyone here grow raspberries? Any tips? How thorny are they? Are they as bad as brambles to control? I love raspberries, but BB doesn't want anything that throws of suckers and spreads like the plague. From what i rmember of raspberries they're nowhere near as bad as blackberries in that respect. (And I don't actually like blackberries anyway.)

Going to grow some blackcurrants, too. Yum. My absolute favourite.

Debating the value of installing a greenhouse. What do you grow in yours?

Comments

[anghara.livejournal.com]

The top end of the garden is so exciting. It has grass sods which


...yes... yes...? WHich what? WHY is the top end of the garden exciting, dammit?...

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Sorry - how did I lose half a sentence?

Grass sods which need killing of course. Shaking like rats to crack their grass-soddy spines and then rending their little grass-soddy bodies into shreddy-soddy remains; shredding, tearing, rending with shiny, sharp teeth until they are grass-sods no more and all danger is past, until they have gone to meet the grass-soddy maker of all grass sods.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

Wow, when you buy fruit, you buy fruit. Usually I just go to the farmer's market. Sorry, I can't help you re: the greenhouse, since usually (not today, because why should the first day of spring have warm, springlike weather?) things are sunny and warm.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes, sadly we can't grow the sort of things in Yorkshire as you grow in California. I'd love to grow peaches and nectarines, lemons and limes and oranges, but sadly can only manage apples pears and plums. I'm now looking at soft fruit: strawberries, raspberries, blackcurrents. I've found a very interesting thornless dessert gooseberry on the web and a cross between a blackcurrent and a gooseberry - again thornless = called a Casseille. Also varios raspberry crosses like Jostaberry and Tayberry. We should be able to manage them.

[klwilliams.livejournal.com]

That all sounds delicious. Mmm... And honestly, I prefer apples and pears to citrus.

[caper-est.livejournal.com]

I don't have a greenhouse, and it's been years since I last considered one. Lot of gardening ahead of me this year, having neglected things a bit for some time now. I must look into that casseille. Gooseberry is my favourite unfashionable fruit, and I do love a good blackcurrant bush!

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Raspberries are easier to control if they're summer-fruiting ones. I find some autumn-fruiters are more likely to get invasive.

A good summer-fruiting raspberry has more crop and better flavour as well. Thorns aren't a big problem. Summer-fruiters often have no thorns, and autumn fruiters have small thorns that don't really attack you (this difference may depend on variety, but works for the ones I grow)

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Thanks, I thought it might be quite nice to have both summer and autun fruiting ones. With autumn ones we'd get a crop this year and unless I've misread, we wlouldn't need to stake them, but with summer ones we'd plant now for next year and would need stakes. I've found thornless ones for both summer and autumn presuming there are stocks left when I actually make the order. I'll probably only get six canes of each for starters.

What about propagation. Do they take care of themselves or do you have to deal with suckers or layering?

[watervole.livejournal.com]

They maintain their numbers year and year and generally manage a gradual increase in canes as long as they're well fed. New canes in well prepared soil will often double/triple their number.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

Main raspberry tip - check the soil ph and add sulphur chips if it is alkaline. Reapberries like it really acidic.

Grass clippings are a great way of keeping weeds down around raspberreis when used as a mulch and may possibly help reduce the incidence of rust.

Add manure or compost every winter.

Cut stems to ground after they've fruited.

Tie them to wire supports when tall enough as the weight of fruit can make them sag badly.

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Thanks. Will have to get a soil testing kit. Compost isn't a problem. I'm the compost queen. What about the weeds that are in the grass clippings? Our lawn isn't exactly pristine.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

The mulch suppresses seeds from germinating as they're cut off from either soil or light, so I wouldn't worry about the weeds in the grass. Just use at least an inch of clippings as mulch.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

My legs are currently scraped to heck from the raspberry thickets I've been wading through at work. The thorns are lighter and smaller, but they still do a mean laceration!!

The fruit tastes good though!

[birdsedge.livejournal.com]

Yes, that's why we figured we'd get the thornless ones. We've gone for hawthorn hedges, but all the fruit is thorn-free. I was delighted to find a thornless goodeberry and a thornless gooseberry/blackcurrent cross.

My motto is: No pain, no pain.

[endlessrarities.livejournal.com]

That's a sound motto.