Random Stuff

Another day in the garden

Sunday, May 10th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

Yes another day, this time re potting and sowing a few things that I had been meaning to do for some time!

• Re potted Peppers in to individual pots
• Re potted Leeks into the trough the peppers were in.. and sowed some more in a new trough
• Sowed some sweet pepper seeds
• Sowed another 4 sweet corns – they seem to be very hard to cultivate.. but I have the seeds so will keep going!
• Planted more rocket.. The other rocket was coming to the end so I have allowed it to bolt and flower, hopefully with the intention of getting some more seed!
• Trying again with the lettuce!
• Sowed some of the beetroot seeds from the free dig in seed pack I received
• Also sowed the squash from dig in
• Sowed Broccoli

I’ve not planted any more carrots or tomatoes. I still have the Lollo Rosso Lettuce which I think I will try out a bit later. Going to give the parsnips a miss this year. Finally not sure about the Aubergine… space is now lacking considerably, especially as I will need to re pot the tomato plants very soon!

Progress so far:

Oh almost forgot… Still had lots of red and white onions left over, I didn’t think they would survive to next year so the little one and I just planted them randomly in the flower bed (not that there are any flowers in there!) also hoping the onions would put next doors cat off using it as a toilet!

Garden, Grow your own

Fruits of my labour

Tuesday, May 5th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

Well I am pleased to report that things are going well, my last garden update had me talking about my:

Rocket, I’ve been eating it and very nice it is too, need to get some more planted up though to keep the harvesting continued.

Spring onions, are doing very well as are the shallots, red and white onions, I will be planting out some more onions in the ground I think this time… and will also put some more spring onion in pots too.

Strawberries will be staying put as they are now in flower, I’m feeding them with tomato feed once a week to help them on a bit.. fingers crossed the slugs wont get to them in the pots!

Strawberries

Raspberry canes have really come along well, all except one which isn’t doing anything just yet!

Glen Rosa Rasberry Cane not doing much

I’m a little confused what to do with the others as most are supposed to be summer fruiting as such I’m supposed to cut the old cane down once the new canes come through, but some of the canes have new growth on them with flower buds appearing!

Glen Ample Raspberry cane

Glen Prossen Raspberry cane

Raspberry canes starting to flower

Joan J on the left and an unknown variety on the right starting to flower

Blueberry bushes, as I suspected in the last up date I have lost one, the other has pulled through but is still very much touch and go. The other two are coming on really well, though I doubt if there will be any fruit this year as they are so young.

Courgettes and cucumbers are still going strong, they will need to be replanted soon so I will have to give some thought to what I’m going to do with them. Not sure if I’ll go the grow bag route yet or not.

Courgettes and Cucumber doinf well

Carrots are also growing well, need to get some more planted up otherwise it will be a very small crop, still first year so I’m not expecting much!

Carrots doing well

Sweetcorn, more drama and more lost seedlings.. need to get another couple going. I’m not sure if I’m over watering but the peat pots have lots of black mould on them, this hasn’t happened with the tomatoes which are in the same kind of post.

Sweetcorn seedings on the left and three of the little ones sunflowers on the right

Tumbling Tomatoes have been re potted in peat pots, and are now looking very healthy. I re potted them up to the seed leaves so hopefully they will grow nice and strong. I’ve found what I think is a good deal on plastic lined wicker baskets so I’ll get some of those possibly at the weekend ready to plant on.

Tumbling Tomatoes

Moneymaker Tomatoes are doing nicely in the peat pots and at the end of the month when threats of frost have passed I’ll get them planted out in to either post or grow bags.

Money Maker Tomatoes

Cayenne peppers are growing well, but a little slow compared to the tomatoes that were planted at the same time. Definitely thinking it’s a bit cold for them out side so I may pop then in individual pots and bring them back inside

Cayenne Peppers

Mange Tout is doing well, climbing up the supports. I was going to set another lot going but I have decided to just have the one lot of 4 this year and see how we go.

I planted out some Dwarf French beans on the 19th April and they are now just coming through.

I also planted out my Foremost Early potatoes and my Nadine second earlies on the 19th/20th April. I still have to plant out my main crop, fingers crossed I’ll get them planted tomorrow.

Some of the out door herbs are starting to do well… little water is best it seems! The Chives have thickened up nicely. The indoor herbs are also coming along good, the parsley is starting to look like proper parsley.

Leeks need re potting I think, but I will need to have a read up on that and what to do with them. Will also need to sow some more I think as there are not many, not all the seeds germinated.

The old Gooseberry bush is coming along nicely, the new is not doing so good just yet. It has been attacked by the dreaded sawfly larvae eating the leaves. I was prepared this year and have kept an eye on it so managed to get the larvae before totally stripping the bush as they had done in previous years to the old bush. Did find a few eaten leave on the old bush too a couple of days later but again hopefully my continuous checking will keep damage to a minimum. I got some bamboo canes that I have used with some netting to help protect the bushes.

Gooseberry bushes netted up

We had some Yellow Honeydew melon the other week so the little one an I saved some seeds and planted them, I doubt they will grow but you never know!

I got some free seed packets from the BBC’s Dig in campaign, which included: Early Nantes Carrots, Boltardy Beetroot, Gardeners Delight Tomatoes, Hunter Butternut Squash and Lollo Rosso Lettuce. So I’ll be planting these out hopefully this week along with the parsnips, broccoli, Shirley F1 tomatoes, plum Roma tomatoes, Aubergine, Mixed lettuce and sweet peppers

Outside fruit and veg

You can see the Raspberry bed at the front of the decking, then from left to right you can see the Mange Tout, Herb pot, First black trough – Garlic & Spring Onion, Second black trough – Shallotts, red onions and white onions, 4 black buckets Blueberry bushes. Then in the black bags are the first early and second early potatoes. alomg the fence are the little ones sunflowers.

A new year – update

Monday, April 20th, 2009 | Environment, Life, Money Saving | No Comments

So part of my plans for 2009 was to:

Paying off debts and money saving, I have been doing various things to accelerate the paying off debts. Collecting £2 coins in a sealed jar, collecting small change in another sealed jar. The best thing though and the thing I think is really going to make the difference and I’d urge anyone in debt to give this ago, is making a payment a day to whatever it is you owe money too. In my case it’s credit card. I don’t make a daily payment direct to the card as it’s interest free so I make my daily payments into an online savings account linked to my current account. How it works for me is that I sweep any odd monies up to £5 in my current account over to the savings account every day leaving my current account at a round figure. For example if I have £398.54 in my current account I will sweep across £3.54 to my savings account leaving me with £395.00. This lets a nice amount build up and earn interest until I have a lump sum that I can then use to pay off the card. Obviously you still have to make a payment to the card every month, but it just gets you there a bit quicker and you really don’t miss the money!
Physically saving money at the moment is a bit pointless when I have debts, so my money saving is concentrating on not buying things I don’t really need. Cutting down costs by not using expensive chemical cleaners, batch cooking food, making sure food doesn’t get wasted. Sorting out my things and selling on stuff that I really don’t use any more (I have so much stuff I hold onto thinking it might come in use)

I am pleased to report that small credit card number one has been paid off in full. It was £536.19 and has now gone. I managed to pay it off firstly by not spending any more on it! secondly by paying £20 a month off and sweeping odd bits of money over to my savings account. I also transferred to my savings any extra money I had made either by working extra or selling things.

Large credit card number 2 is also doing great. I’m not using it and I’ve been paying off £100 a month and again putting any extras into my savings account to pay it off later. It started out at £1750.66 and is currently £1300.

In line with the simplifying and de cluttering I have been able to sell a few things to raise funds to pay off the card, and of course doing some extra has given me a nice little saving nest currently standing at £592.08 to make the final pay off. So as it stands I have £707.92 of debt outstanding to date.

The savings nest is also acting as a cushion, in these uncertain times it wise to have a bit of money put back just in case the worst happens!

My £2 coin collection is coming along nicely… I think I have about £78 in the tin so far.  i have no idea how much is in the loose change tin but it’s not even half full yet, for some reason I don’t seem to have much loose change, but that’s a good sign really… If I’m not spending I’m not going to have any change!

Since the new year I haven’t purchased any costly cleaning products, instead using up the old chemical cleaners and concentrating on the more friendly natural versions. I’ve not had to buy clothes washing liquid/powder for a couple of months since the liquid was finished and I started using my home made powder along side white distilled vinegard as a softner.

I’m continuing on the crusade to use up all my toiletries. I am just about at the end of my deodorant supplies, when I can fully switch over to my Tawas Crystal – a fantastic natural deodorant that will last me for 9-12 months for the wonderful money saving price of £6.50 + P&P

Toothpaste is nearing it’s end! I had lots of “milk teeth” tooth paste that was given free when the little person was little. unfortunately the little person doesn’t like mint and it had been sitting taking up space so I decided I’d make use of it before it was past it’s use by date.

Shampoos & conditioners have gone. I still, however have a mountain of moisturisers to get through. So in terms of my own personal grooming products I have only had to buy shampoo this year. I have purchased a cheap bottle and at the moment I’m finding it’s doing a better job of keeping my hair clean than the expensive John Freida I had been using!

Finally the advent of a new phone has seen my day to day phone book trimmed down, numbers and people have gone! All that it left now is to update the hard copy… I have a new book, I just need to sit down and sort it out!  my email address book has also been sorted out and streamlined.

It’s slow but it’s happening!

credit cards, debt, saving, tawas crystal

Simplifying life and decluttering update

Monday, April 6th, 2009 | Life | No Comments

This is no easy task I’ll have you know! It’s not something one can sit down and do in an afternoon… It’s a long drawn out journey, well what do you expect? It took 33 years to get this cluttered and this suffocated with life. So how has my journey been?  well not too bad to be honest but i must say it’s very frustrating at time when you feel you are not getting anywhere at all!

The bay window in the front bedroom used to be so full of stuff you couldn’t get in to look out of the window, today it was almost clear, a few things left that need a new home… this is the difficult bit, de cluttering is not about moving things from one place to another! hopefully space will come forward soon enough once other areas have cleared out.

I did start to freecycle some stuff but then thought to myself that if I could raise some extra money it would be really useful and could go towards paying off my credit card debt (another resolution!) so I’ve been down a few avenues with selling things… ebay… forums I’m a member of etc.. It’s all a big hassle though and definitely not simple packaging and posting things up. So I’ve decided to carry on de cluttering and simplifying by using the middle room as a store of all I want rid of and doing a car boot sale some time after easter when the weather is better!  The money I make will go towards my credit card and any stuff left over will either go to the dump or charity shop… that will be the end of it!

de cluttering, Life, Simplifying

Seize the moment

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009 | Life | No Comments

Too many people put off something that brings them joy just because they haven’t thought about it, don’t have it on their schedule, didn’t know it was coming or are too rigid to depart from their routine.
I got to thinking one day about all those women on the Titanic who passed up dessert at dinner that fateful night in an effort to cut back the calories. From then on I’ve tried to be a little more flexible!!
How many women out there will eat home because their husband didn’t suggest going out to dinner until after something had been thawed? Does the word “refrigeration” mean nothing to you!!
How often have your kids dropped in to talk and sat in silence while you watched “Who wants to me a millionaire” on television?
I cannot count the number of times I called my sister and said, “how about going to lunch in half an hour?”. She would gas up and stammer, “I can’t. I have clothes on the line. My hair is dirty. I wish I had known yesterday, I had a late breakfast, It looks like rain”. And my personal favourite: “It’s Monday”, She died a few years ago. We never did have lunch together.
Because we cram so much into our lives, we tend to even schedule our headaches. We live ona sparse diet of promises we make to ourselves when all the conditions are perfect. We’ll go back and visit the grandparents when we get Steve toilet trained. We’ll entertain when we replace the living room carpet. We’ll go on a second honeymoon when we get two more kids out of college.
Life has a way of accelerating as we get older. The days get shorter, and the list of promises to ourselves gets longer. One morning, we awaken, and all we have to show for our lives is a litany of “I’m going to”, “I plan on”, and “Someday, when things settle down a bit”.
When anyone callse my “seize the moment” friend, she is open to adventure and available for trips. She keeps an open mind on new ideas. Her enthusiasm for life is contagious. You talk to with her for five minutes and you’re ready to trade your bad feet for a pair of rollerblades and skip an elevator for a bungee cord.
My lips have not touched icecream in 10 years. I love icecream. It’s just that I might as well apply it directly to my stomach with a spatula and eliminate the digestive process. The other day I stopped the car and bought a triple-decker. If my car had hit an iceberg on the way home, I would have died happy. Now…go on and have a nice day. Do something you WANT to ….not something on your SHOULD DO list. If you were going to die soon and only had one phone call you could make, who would you call and what would you say? And why are you waiting?
Make sure you read this to the end; you will understand why I sent this to you.
Have you ever watched kids playing on a merry go round or listened to the rain lapping on the ground? Ever followed a butterfly’s erratic flight or gazed a the sun into the fading night? Do you run through each day on the fly? When you ask “How are you?” Do you hear the reply.
When the day is done, do you lie in your bed with the next hundred chores running through your head? Ever told your child “We’ll do it tomorrow” And in your haste not seen his sorrow? Ever lost touch? Let a good friendship die? Just call to say hi?
When you worry and hurry through your day, it is like an unopened gift…thrown away…Life is not a race. Hear the music before the song is over.

Bluberry planting and other garden updates

Saturday, March 14th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Life, Money Saving | No Comments

Planted blueberries with bark mulch

So as mention before I got some cheap blueberry plants from Lidl the other week. Quicker than the raspberries I managed to get some ericaceous compost this weekend and get the blueberries planted up. I managed to get some flower buckets from Morrisons (8 for 99p) so have used these for planting. I was a little disappointed to find that the bushes were not so much bushes but more broken off bits of a possible established bush. Still the seemed ok and had a few buds of new growth on them. An unexpected bonus was that one of the bushes was actually 2, so I now have 4 planted up.

The down side being, as I later read, that blueberries prefer differing varieties for pollination… they will still pollinate and produce fruit, just not as much as if they were cross pollinated. I may get a couple more bushes, only problem being I have no idea what kind these are so it’s very difficult to decide what other variety to get.

Having said that blueberries also like being in 3’s so maybe if I got two more bushes of differing varieties I’d be sure to have at least two varieties, hopefully 3!

Bluberry buds

Update on the Raspberries: All is looking good, wood chip mulch is down to prevent the weeds from growing. Raspberry roots are quite shallow so they need to be protected from the weeds. A fair few of the canes are showing signs of new growth, I’m not 100% sure this should happen, although they are summer fruiting all bar the Joan J. As such they would fruit on last years wood so maybe I will get a crop this year!

I also had one lonely little raspberry cane that has been growing in a pot for the past couple of years.. nothing ever came of it, so last year I just left it to it’s own devices and pretty much ignored it. I planted out with the others, near to the fence as it does have thorns and it seems to be doing pretty good, there are signs of new growth on the cane and also a little shoot of a new cane coming up as well.

Unknown Raspberry cane

Signs of new growth

Signs of new growth

Other updates: The little one and I also planted some  sweetcorn in peat pots. We planted 9 and fingers crossed all will germinate so we can have a 3×3 grid formed of the Morrisons flower buckets.  Grid formation is best as sweetcorn pollinates by the wind. I’m hoping we will get some cobs

Blueberries, Blueberry, Raspberries, Raspberry

Blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum)

Saturday, March 7th, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

I got 3 blueberry bushes from Lidl for £1.45 each today.. need to think about planting them out, easier this time as I know they will go in pots I just need to get some ericaceous compost.

As usual with these places there is nothing that mentions the variety of the blueberries, I got 3 as they like company for pollination, though they apparently prefer other varieties.

Blueberries (Vaccinium corymbosum) require a very acid soil, (pH 4.5-5.5), which is well drained but moisture retentive. Where this cannot be provided they are best grown in 30-38cm (12-15in) diameter containers of ericaceous compost. Choose a sheltered site in full sun or part shade.

Planting

Bushes for containers can be planted at any time in good growing weather, but in the ground, plant after leaf fall (November to March). Prepare soil by digging in composted bark or sawdust. Then trim off tips of branches and remove any flower buds so the plant will establish strong roots in its first year. Space bushes 1.5m (5ft) apart, although compact cultivars can be planted closer. Mulch newly-planted blueberries with composted or chipped pine bark, or leafmould if available.

For container growing, buy a bush in a 2-litre pot and check the rootball in spring every couple of years (lift plant from its pot) to see if it needs repotting. A 50-litre pot may finally be needed.

Watering

Blueberries should be watered little and often using rainwater. Do not allow to dry out even if this means resorting to tap water in dry spells. Mulch open-grown plants with bark mulch or pine needles to conserve moisture.

Feeding

After pruning, apply an acidic mulch of composted bark (or leafmould where available) and a dressing of fertiliser. Use 50g per sq m (1.5oz per sq yd) of Growmore, plus 15g per sq m (0.5oz per sq yd) sulphate of ammonia. Pelleted poultry manure is a suitable organic alternative (applied at 150g per sq m) but, as it is usually alkaline, also apply flowers of sulphur at the rate of 15g per sq m. Alternatively, apply a dressing of sulphate of ammonia, sulphate of potash and bonemeal, or apply a potash-rich or ericaceous liquid feed fortnightly during the growing season.

Pruning

The largest fruit is borne on the thicker, more vigorous shoots produced the previous spring or early summer. Strong stems that appear in late summer may also bear fruit at the tips. Pruning is carried out in late February/early March when the fruit buds are visible.

Young plants need little pruning in the first three years. Aim to produce an open centred bush, by removing horizontally growing or overly long shoots, weak stems, as well as dead or diseased wood. Prune to an upright shoot or healthy bud where possible.

On mature plants remove older stems lacking in vigour. Remove thin, twiggy stems as well as any damaged or diseased shoots, crossing or horizontal shoots a or stems close to the ground b. Cut back some branches to the base c and others to strong upright shoots. Stems that fruited the previous year should be pruned to a low, strong-growing upward-facing bud or shoot. By the end of pruning an established bush, you should have cut out roughly 15 percent of the old growth.

Pollination and fruiting

Blueberries have two flushes of growth. In spring they bear flowers on the tips of the previous-season’s growth. These flowers become the first crop of berries. New sideshoots develop just below these berries. Later, (usually in July), strong new shoots grow from the base of the plant, and produce flower and fruit buds at their tips. This second, later crop of berries is usually plumper than the first.

Blueberries benefit from cross-pollination by other varieties, which results in better fruit set. Keep plants in a sheltered spot to encourage visits from pollinating insects.

Pick fruit in stages as it ripens, protecting from birds if necessary. Ripe fruit should part easily from the cluster and will be deep mauve with a grey bloom. Each bush can provide 2-5kg (4.5-11lb) of fruit.

Taken from the Royal Horticultural Website

Varieties of blueberry

• Earliblue’ – a vigorous, early ripening variety. It has medium to large, light blue berries, excellent sweet flavour and impressive autumn colour.
• ‘Bluetta’ – a fairly tasty and vigorous, compact variety, with a spreading habit, producing a medium-sized, light blue berry.
• ‘Patriot’ – a high-yielding, vigorous, hardy variety with medium to large blue berries and excellent flavour.
• ‘Bluecrop’ T- large, light blue berries with good flavour. It is slightly aromatic and has excellent orange and copper leaves in autumn.
• ‘Herbert’ – arguably the tastiest variety of blueberry. It produces large berries and has moderate vigour.
• ‘Bluejay’ – a mid-season, fast-growing, reliable variety that has superb autumn colour. It only produces moderate yields of medium large berries, but has a good, slightly tart flavour.
• ‘Ivanhoe’ – mid-season, erect variety with large, delicious, dark blue berries. A vigorous plant with good autumn colour.
• ‘Bluegold’ – a mid- to late season variety, vigorous but low-growing, with high yields. It is ideal for growing in pots and produces very tasty berries in August. The fruit has a longer life than most varieties.
• ‘Coville’ – very late, vigorous variety with large fruit that can be left on the bush for a long time before dropping.

Blueberries, Fruit, Grow your own

In the garden

Sunday, February 15th, 2009 | Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

So today saw the wall being almost finished. I just need a couple of the bricks chopped in half to finally finish it off. But that didn’t stop me piling in the compost and planting! The best deal was indeed B&Q’s own brand grow bags at £1.48 for 33l however, they currently have an offer on “4 bags for £5″ making it an even better 3.7p a litre

I finally decide that I would plant my old gooseberry bush and my new gooseberry bush in the newly created bed. I’ve had the old gooseberry bush for a few years but never got any fruit from it as it just kept getting eaten by the sawfly, It was in a pot so I thought it might like a new home. The new bush I got from homebase some weeks ago.. which I shamefully left by the washing machine… only to find that it has loads of new green shots with leaves on it so that’s looking hopeful. I just need to find out the best way of protecting them from the sawfly to give them half a chance!

Almost finished compete with two gooseberry bushes

News from the first planting

There is activity in the galvanised trough where I planted the garlic… Shoots are appearing. No sign of life from the shallots or onions yet.

The peppers have sprouted and have become fine seedings, so I have replanted them in a trough to give them more room. I managed to save 3 of the tomato seedings the little monster pulled and have replanted them as well. The herbs were doing ok, I had one oregano seedling and I planted millions of the little seeds! The parsley didn’t survive the monster. These were all replanted in a square self watering pot, more seeds sown along side them. As well as a supermarket bought thyme plant. Top left is the thyme plant, top right is the basil. Bottom left are the chives and bottom right is the oregano.. not much too see at the moment

Herbs and Peppers

There is also a small area (approx 3ft wide) nearer the house that was half shingle (afformentioned bag that has been sitting around for years now) and half paving slabbed when Imoved in. Today that got worked over. The shingle had been lifted some time ago and a muddy patch was left, then just before new year the paving slabs were taken away by a fellow from freecycle that wanted them as a base for his new alotment shed. A couple of years ago my Dad put up a new shed and layed some decking over an area of grass at the end of the garden that didn’t really grow due to lack of water from tree roots and shade. I lost about 6ft of garden to the decking so I decided that the 3ft area nearer the house would be ideal to grass over… It does look like it would be an ideal veg patch but it’s in constant shade. I think towards the end of March begining of April I will get some turf layed down there… seeding takes too long and is very much hit and miss. You will also notice a patch near the fence that hasn’t been dug over.. I plan to site a compost bin of sorts there so didn’t think it was worth digging it over.

I’m still no further forward for where to put my raspberries, but I did soak the roots and temporarily planted them in pots.

Before

After

compost, Gooseberry, Grow your own, planting, vegetables

Ideas in the Garden

Sunday, February 1st, 2009 | Environment, Gardening, Life | No Comments

So yesterday I had a nose around B&Q and Homebase. Having had discussions with the little one when planting some bluebell bulbs pre school gave out, we decided it would be nice to build up the area under the silver birch tree by making a little wall and adding some compost so things could grow.

The area is a bit out on it’s own and currently is chock a block with the roots from the tree, there are some snow drop bulbs growing at the moment and we planted the bluebells in there too. By building it up I hope we will be able to get things to grow in there. At the moment I’m thinking about the Raspberry plants but the usable area is only approx 2ft x 3ft so if the canes need to be 18″ apart I’m not going to get many of them in!

So while I was in B&Q I purchased 20 driveway paving blocks, 25p a piece 50+% cheaper than normal house bricks. The work began, I had to remove some old worse for wear house bricks that lined the edge of the decking first then do a little digging to level it off before putting down the new blocks – until I was scuppered by a rather obtrusive tree root, my plans were foiled!  A quick rethink and I was back on track using up some of the bag full of pea shingle that has been sitting in the same place for almost 3 years (finally!) Using the shingle I made a base level with the decking which the blocks would sit half on shingle half on decking – avoiding and hard work with said tree root! Once done I laid out the blocks….Unfortunately 20 wasn’t enough, but no bother I can just go back and get more… calculating it I think I’ll need another 40 bricks, so £15 in all will be spent on the wall.  I’m still researching compost, but have found that B&Q’s own brand grow bags seem to be the best value for money working out a 4.2p a litre… will keep looking though.

New Wall

I think I could probably get two Raspberries canes in there and then maybe some nice pansy’s along the front for a bit of colour… or maybe I should put the two Gooseberry Bushes in there hmmmm… will need to read up about that!

Raspberries (Rubus idaeus) have arrived

Thursday, January 29th, 2009 | Gardening, Money Saving | No Comments

So the Raspberries I ordered from ebay arrived, well when I say arrived I mean I had to go collect them from the post office! I got a mixed bunch, 1 x Raspberry Glen Prosen Cane, 1 x Raspberry Glen Moy Cane, 1 x Raspberry Glen Ample Cane, 1 x Raspberry Glen Lyon Cane, 1 x Raspberry Glen Rosa Cane, 1 x Raspberry Joan J Cane – they are all spine-free meaning no nasty spikes to get you when picking!

Glen Prosen - Mid season, Summer Fruiting
A new variety. The fruit is round and very firm. The canes are spine free and easy to control. Flavour is good and there is some resistance to aphid and virus. Heavy cropping ready for picking from mid-July. Plant canes 18 inches apart. Fruits on the previous year’s cane which must be tied up to support the crop. A good mid-season variety.

• Position: full sun
• Soil: fertile, well-drained soil
• Rate of growth: fast-growing
• Other features: tasty, firm fruit (mid-July to mid-August)
• Hardiness: fully hardyA widely grown and popular variety to rival ‘Malling Admiral’. It has spineless canes, some resistance to aphids and virus, and is easy to grow and control. The heavy yield of very firm, round fruit is ready for picking from mid-July and the raspberries are full of flavour. A good mid-season variety.
• Garden care: Prepare the ground well before planting. Remove all weeds and dig in plenty of well-rotted manure in to the area. Once planted, shorten the canes to about 23cm (9in). Each spring, mulch well with well-rotted manure. Plants flower on one-year-old wood, so the new canes need to be separated from fruiting ones. After cropping, cut the fruiting canes down to the ground and tie in the new ones that have grown that year.

Glen Moy – Early fruiting
Producing an abundance of sweet juicy fruits from spine-free canes, making harvesting a pleasurable experience that starts in mid June and carries on until almost the end of July.
The spine free canes are vigorous, aphid resistant and not prone to viruses.

• Position: full sun
• Soil: fertile, well-drained soil
• Rate of growth: fast-growing
• Other features: large, tasty fruit (early July to late July)
• Hardiness: fully hardy A new, early fruiting variety which has many advantages over ‘Glen Clova’ – no spines, larger berries and good aphid resistance. It also has quite a heavy yield but the picking season is shorter. The raspberries have a downy skin, are flavoursome and ready for picking from early July. In warm summers, there may even be a bonus of a small crop in autumn.
• Garden care: Prepare the ground well before planting. Remove all weeds and dig in plenty of well-rotted manure in to the area. Once planted, shorten the canes to about 23cm (9in). Each spring, mulch well with well-rotted manure. Plants flower on one-year-old wood, so the new canes need to be separated from fruiting ones. After cropping, cut the fruiting canes down to the ground and tie in the new ones that have grown that year.

Glen Ample – Mid season, Summer Fruiting
Exceptionally high yields of very large tasty, deep red raspberries from July to August.. Canes are spine free upright with strong vigour. Mid season (July) with a long harvest period. The fruit freeze well so any excess can be used later. They also make excellent jam and jellies, as well being delicious fresh fruit for desserts. Plant canes 18 inches apart. Fruits on the previous year’s cane which must be tied up to support the crop.

(As with all summer fruiting raspberries, the canes that have fruited should be cut back to ground level as soon as all the fruit has been picked??)

Glen Lyon
Heavy cropping, thorn less new variety with beautiful glossy large fruit of excellent flavour. Disease resistant.Suitable for freezing.

Glen Rosa
Glen Rosa is a high yielding, mid-season, spine-free cultivar, 10 days later than Glen Moy but with a longer season. Bred at SCRI, Glen Rosa produces high quality, brightly coloured fruit of medium size (3-5.5g) with good shelf life.

Joan J – First Year Fruiting
An outstanding spine-free variety, producing an abundance of delicious, large, juicy berries. If you find you can’t eat the fruit as quickly as you harvest it, Joan J has the advantage over other varieties that it comes out of the freezer tasting as sweet and delicious as the day it was picked.

Ideal for picking daily throughout the cropping season, starting at the end of July/early August continuing into October.

Planting and Information
Raspberries need a slightly acid soil with really good drainage.
Plant the canes about 18” (45 cm) apart with 6 ft (1.8 m) between the rows. Avoid planting the young canes too deeply, a covering of 3” (7.5 cms) over the roots is ample. Cut the canes down to 9” (23 cms) above the soil immediately after planting. In the spring when the new shoots appear from beneath the soil the 9” stub should be cut away. The young canes are tied into a wire fence system for cropping the following season. Subsequently all canes which have fruited are cut out at ground level immediately after fruiting.

Fruit, Grow your own, Raspberries, Raspberry