The Soft Fruit Garden

This weekend we have planted up the Blackcurrant cuttings taken last year.  Mum kindly bought me 5 bushes for Xmas last year (Big Ben, Ben Connan, Ben Sarek,  Ben Lomond and Ben Hope) which when planted were cut down to the ground as instructed.  I left the cuttings lying in the grass and came across them a few weeks later to find they had started to root.  I therefore potted them up resulting in 17 new bushes but   unfortunately, I don't know which variety they are!

Including the original 5 and one we brought with us from Kent, we now hopefully have 16 productive bushes.  The next challenge will be what to do with all the Blackcurrents!

We have also planted a few Blueberry bushes.  Last year we planted one each of Duke, Bluegold and Ozarkblue to give a long cropping season.  I had wanted to plant Nui as well, however, they seemed to be out of stock everywhere until juat before Xmas.  I ordered 4no. from the RHS and these have been planted as well.

Planting Raspberries canes proved a bit more of a challenge.  The plan was to have 3no. 20' rows which required three lots of wires and 9no. 8' posts hammered into the ground.  A post knocker was bought for the purpose but it still proved hard going as there is rock about a foot down.  A trench was dug along the rows a couple of weeks before and lots of compost dug in.

Early, mid season and late varieties, Glen Moy, Glen Ample and Autumn Bliss respectively were planted last Spring (2011) and we did get a reasonable crop off the late variety as they fruit on first year canes.