Readers' issues: Gooseberry carnage

Well I didn't expect this... Whilst doing my 1st teensy weensy bit of pimping of this blog, I got a question! I feel like I'm on Radio4!

Good evening caller, you're on the air:

"Do you have any tips on how to stop the little b***8rd caterpillars eating my gooseberry bush? I’m thinking a can or petrol and a match might do the job, but have consequences..."

Oh! Oh! I think I know this one!

We had the exact same problem a few years ago & I remember Carol Klein covering this on Gardeners World. I think she said they were sawfly larvae &, this might sound weird, they don’t like a breeze.

The answer is to prune the bush into an open ‘bowl’ shape by removing the stems in the middle. As well as helping the air get in, this has other advantages:

• It gets plenty of light into the middle of the bush, so hopefully more/better fruit.


• It reduces the number of prickly branches that are crossing each other & so stops them chewing each other to bits. This means healthier stems which means a healthier plant, so again, hopefully more/better fruit.

A bit of Internet digging shows Gardeners World covered this again, June this year, in Jobs for the weekend, so here it is from the horse's mouth:

"Sawfly can strip redcurrants, whitecurrants and gooseberries of all their leaves in a matter of days. And a good way to deter them is to keep the centre of the bush clear of new shoots. This discourages the adults from laying their eggs, and the green, caterpillar-like larvae from hatching out and munching their way through the plant."

Anyhoo, I hope this option is as successful for you as it has been for us. Let me know how you get on.

Happy pruning :D

1st blueberries of the year

I get to keep a good eye on the blueberries as they're in a couple of pots in the yard, below the kitchen window. Do the washing up; check how the blueberries are doing.... Doing good this year, as it happens :)

1st harvest was last week.

Yum yum yum, on my muesli* :)

* No spiders were harmed in the making of my breakfast.

Wrangling raspberries

Monty was tidying his raspberry canes on this week's Gardeners World. Timely, I thought, I've been avoiding doing that job for at least 3 weeks...

Out with the old, in with the new

This year's berries are long gone, as we're usually picking around Wimbledon time, & those fruiting stems are properly dying back now. By contrast, this year's new stems are tall, vigorous & bright bright green. Deffo time to sort them out.

Despite their prickly exterior, raspberry plants are surprising brittle - they snap as soon as you look at them & they don't repair themselves. To survive the blusters of Winter & make it through safely to provide lots of fruit next year, they need our support now.

But 1st things 1st: the old brown stems won't fruit again next year so they are all snipped out at the base. So I don't damage the new stems, I remove these offcuts very carefully, often snipping along the length of the old stem & removing in shorter sections - it's a bit safer.

A bit of structure

Cos they're tall & our garden is small, the raspberries are planted against a wall. This is great for a few reasons:

• All the fruit is easy to reach by only trampling on 1 set of under-planting.
• My flimsy bamboo supports can be tied to something much more sturdy.

It's worked so far, but I do rebuild it every year, & have only needed to do the occasional mid-Winter repair after a particularly stormy night.

So last years bamboo comes down - dangerous time as the new stems are well over 6 foot tall & catch the lightest breeze. Thankfully it was a calm day... unlike today which is bloody blustery & from here on the sofa I can see the rasps getting blown all over the shop. Fingers xed it all holds...

New uprights in 1st, then 3 rows - bottom, middle, top, in front of the rasps, so I've trapped the stems between the frame & the wall.

A bit of bondage

Normally I don't bother to tie the stems in any further than that - the wall/frame sandwich being sufficient. Monty was a bit more forceful & recommended tying each stem into the support, to stop them flapping about. To be fair, I have noticed a fair bit of stem damage where their spines have been rubbing up against each other, so hopefully this'll stop that.

A little off the top?

Something else mentioned on Gardeners World: chopping the very tops of the tallest stems. Normally that's exactly what I'd do too (woohoo! go me!). But earlier this year on a trip to Alnwick Garden, I spotted a different approach.

As you can hopefully see in the pic, the Alnwick Gardeners loop over the long raspberry stems & tie them back into the frame. Genius. Extra fruit! My guess this is done now, when the stems are green, cos they will bend a bit if you're careful. So I've tied in the tops of all the stems that are long enough. Some aren't quite there yet, so I'll do those a little later. I'm a bit worried they're a bit skinny tho...

All done

A mulch of homemade compost around their feet & that's the rasps done for another year. Hurrah!

Hello

So, what's this all about? Well, I'm quite interested in gardening: I watch the TV shows; read newspaper articles, & I do tend to absorb the info, so I can talk a fairly good pub talk. But when it comes to actually getting my hands dirty... it's all a bit random :/
That's not to say the garden is a totally neglected mass of brambles & nettles (or 'Wildlife Corner" as the journos would have it). There are pots in the yard with living things in, & there are also plenty of plants doing their thang in the borders-n-lawn garden.

Get on with it!

I like our garden, & would like to do more with it, but my approach is somewhat haphazard: I'll do it when I can be arsed. I could blame a hectic social schedule, & in the past that wouldn't be lies, but frankly I just haven't made the time. So diligent calendar watching has never been the name of the game, more of a case of: am I in? Is it raining? What triffid needs hacking before it takes over the neighbourhood? All of which might explain my rather hit & miss success rate...

Step away from the crayons

I've been planning the main garden for ages - I've filled a sketchbook with possible layouts & other ideas. But I've struggled to make decisions, & on the rare occassion I do, to stick to 'em long enough to actually get my arse off the sofa & do something about 'em.

What we're working with

The yard

About 8m x 2.5m of North West facing concrete. Pretty normal then. There are some pots, struggling along, & of course a delightful focal point generated by 2 wheelie bins.

The garden

We've done a fair bit over the years to the 10m x 12m South East facing plot. But it still lacks structure & is a bugger to maintain. The herb bed does a fairly good job of self regulating, but the bottom is getting way too 'wildlife' - I don't want those brambles thinking they can have the run of the place... Back! Back damn you!

So what now?

I'm hoping this blog will help me keep track of my progress out there in the garden. I want to grow more edibles & keep on top of the most troublesome invaders. I also want to learn more about what we already have, cos there's plenty out there that's been here longer than us & I don't have a clue what some of it is. Hopefully that'll be where you lovely readers come in ;)

Footnote

If you're getting lost with all this South West/North West bollox, here's something that might help:

The garden runs from North West to South East. In the pic, the compass is sat on the edge of the BBQ bench, which runs parallel to the house. As we look at the compass, the house is behind us (North West), in front of us (South East) is the gate at the end of garden, & the hedge of doom is to our right (South West). Hope this helps :)