Raspberries reloaded

The raspberries were coming to an end and I had started to thin out the old branches to make room for next year's canes. They had given a very good crop but had been very crowded and difficult to get around when in full leaf. There were also a couple of plants and a conifer bush struggling in the corner, and a cherry tree not quite in the right position. The support canes were also a few years old and needing a lot of lashing down in high winds. So, time for a change...

 Cut out all of this year's canes, leaving next year's in place. In fact, one of them had decided to start fruiting a year early. I decided to keep this one to collect seed.May have an evolutionary development, but they can fruit on year one canes if they're happy enough.

 Dug out all the canes and stored in buckets.

 Also dug out all the surounding plants and bushes, and gave it all a good digging over to remove any stray roots.

 Made some boards with the remaining scaffolding planks and staked them down.

 Dug in two posts and added a good load of compost.

 Finally, planted the canes back in. Only used half of them because they are really heavy croppers. Also planted, from left to right: Morello Cherry, Blackberry, Gooseberry, Blueberry. There's some room on the corners for some strawberries too.

Et voila! One soft fruit bed!!! Next phase is to level the ground behind the fruit bed for a BBQ. Watch this space...

Blooming baskets

One thing that has enjoyed all the rain is the hanging baskets. This year I spent a little more on quality plants from a proper garden centre rather than the cheap stuff from Aldis. You can really tell the difference...

These two baskets at the front of the house do get dry very quickly because they are under the porch.

I finf the best way to water them is to hang them from a broom stick over the water butt to give them a really good soaking.

Tomato time approaches

The weather forecast is better for the coming week. Should get some sunshine to ripen the tomatoes. The Super Marmandes have fruited well...

 ...as has Big Boy.

 But the real winner is Bel Riccio. This is the grafted variety and you can really tell the difference in the vigour the plant has. I've had to cut out half the fruit so the trusses don't snap and after pinching off the side and top shoots the plant has started to throw out shoots from the centre of the leaves. It just wants to keep on growing!

 Outdoors the Ailsa Craig has done very well. Good pollination of the fruit and no sign of blight despite the wet conditions, though there has been quite a lot of leaf curl on all of the tomatoes, which seems to be caused by the cool conditions.

 The Tumbling Toms have done well too. Lovely fruit, quite fleshy for cherry tomatoes. Most varieties just seem to be full of juice and seeds, but these ones are great, especially when picked warm straight from the plant. Hardly any of them make it to the plate!

August chores

I thought Margaret Roach summed up the August chores quite well on her blog awaytogarden.com recently. As well as 'spot cleaning' the emphasis has been on keeping things moving as early summer crops and plants finish and later ones take their places. Given the bad summer we've had so far (only one week of serious sun and heat.) I'm seriously banking on a hot autumn, which generally starts when the holidays finish and the kids go back to school! I prisked out some Dianthus to go in the front window box which is looking a little tired now.

 In the greenhouse, the beetroot, dwarf green beans and lettuce have done their thing, and it's a little hot to start new seedlings. So, I put in a patio aubergines and cucumber 'Burpless Tasty Green' in a couple of old chimney pots I picked up from a car-boot sale either side of the butternut squash.

 Also built a little raised bench for the pots in the cottage garden. Will come in handy for next year's strawberries.

Mildew mithers

One of the consequences of a humid summer seems to be a greater prevalence of fungus problems on some of the plants. For several years now I've had terrible black-spot on a climbing rose 'Golden Showers', and this year mildew on Gooseberries, another rose Lady Veilchenblau, and scab on my Elstar apple (though the Bramley doesn't seem to be affected).

I've tried all of the usual preventative measures (good garden hygiene, good spacing and ventilation etc) which has helped to a certain extent. I guess choosing resistant varieties would have helped too, but it's too late now as I've got them all well established. So, I'm going to try some Bordeaux mixture in the winter to see if that works. It's a mixture of lime and copper sulphate which should be applied in dry weather. Just need to wait for the rain to stop now!