Feb 7th, 2011
Raspberry Taming
Give Raspberries a few years and they will start to take over. You’ll find their runners popping up all over the place. I found one last year on the ‘other side’ of the path to where my Raspberry patch was. With a small garden such as mine I have to keep them under control or run the risk of them taking vital nutrients from other plants.
In the Summer I was inundated by Raspberries. I tried everything to get rid of them. While I agree that Raspberries are indeed yummy and yes I can freeze them, I feel forced to cull them this Winter, if only in an effort to claw back some precious growing space.
So as part of my annual pruning of Autumn Raspberries I also dug up every other plant. I dug up any runners that had strayed too far from the patch, tightened the wires and straightened the supports.
Hopefully this Summer we’ll be back to more normal Raspberry production. But I’m sure in a few years I’ll be doing the same thing all over again.
The raspberry canes arrived at last (10 Autumn Bliss and 3 free ones from Grow Your Own Magazine). I must admit I was beginning to give up on them and preparing to write a stern letter but then, as if by magic, they appeared. I put them straight in, in one row roughly 60cm apart. Now they’re all holed up in their new home and settling in nicely ready to fill my freezer with yummy fruit next Autumn. I also made a literary purchase this week, Delia’s Kitchen Garden. I couldn’t resist. It was on eBay and I won it for a very stingy £8.50 (normal price £20). It’s a great book, full of the usual Delia-style recipes, gorgeous photos and a month by month gardening calendar. To be honest I know most of the gardening advice already (me being the next Monty in waiting and all…) but it’s still great to have something new to read during these long winter months.
