The Potting Shed - come on in, the kettle's on!

aliasojo

Well it sounds like you're all set then. I'll look forward to pics of what you've grown.

The gardens do sound great, it's not often you get both a large front and back garden.

Time to get planning.

duchy

So...........Bit more clearing to do tomorrow before work. Have a couple of cut bramble mountains to dispose of in the morning and going to aereate the lawn a bit .

Next week is scrub the patio as it's a bit mossy and grubby and cart chairs to the shed at the end of the garden.Hopefully time for a lawn trim too but may run out of time as I'm effectively working a six day week. Payday on Friday so want everything reasonable by then so I can justify starting to plant on the patio then. Also need to sort out with next door's landlord about his promised contribution towards my fence his lovely tenants trashed (apparently they wrecked the house too and even burned a hole in the bath....the mind boggles !!)

Things to grow -plans are Tomatoes, potatoes, onions, cucumbers, courgettes, strawberries maybe aurbergines <?> nothing too complex but enough to keep me motivated. Any suggestions welcome. I had thought of raspberries ?

Thriftkitten

I quite fancied rasberries too this year but have not grown them before, are they brambly I havent a clue, I have bought a couple of those hanging pepper/strawberry planters so am going to put strawbs in there this year. I would also like some tomatoes as we use these a lot for kids pack ups and salads throughout the summer, Im a complete novice as fruit and veg growing but nothing beats nipping out into the garden to pick your own dessert!

duchy

One of my favourite things when my garden was civilized was a lunch (or breakfast)of crusty bread, feta and toms and cucumber from the garden on the patio in the sunshine.

This year's aim is to get the garden decent enough to be able to do that without shuddering at the amount of work still to do .

Oh the other thing I was considering growing was rhubarb-as a kid we grew it in the garden and I was always getting sent to the bottom of the garden to pick some for my Mum. It seemed to need very little attention once established.

boultdj

Thriftkitten + duchy, raspberries do have thorn's, they are cane's so need some surport, they spread as well over a couple of year's and most inportant, there's 2 type's, summer fruiting and autum fruiting and you need to lable well if you decide to get both.

Summer Fruiting Raspberry
Give's the most amount of fruit per plant, the cane's that fruit this year need cutting out about september time, and any new shoot's that come up this year need tying up on the cane's at the same time, that is essental because the new cane's are next year's fruit.

Autum Fruiting Raspberry
This is a fairly simple one to remember how to look after, the cane's that come up this year are the one's that fruit, when it get's to febuary cut the old cane's off, the new one's will come up from the base, you don't get as much fruit as the summer fruiting but it make's a nice treat.


In both case's it might be an idea to net the plant's.....bird's love 'em.hth

aliasojo

Do raspberry canes need much looking after other than pruning? Not something I've ever grown before. Could they go in large tubs (at least for a year or two initially)?

radiohelen

Rhubarb is a joy once you get it going. No maintenance. Stalks for crumble year after year! I love my rhubarb.
I would defo go the Autumn fruiting rasps route. Less to remember! I had berries into December this year too!
I think Aldi and Lidl have both got garden events on now. I got three fruit bushes for £2.50 a couple of weeks ago. Raspberries, blackcurrants and thornless blackberries. I'm still putting them in the garden now, well I would be but it's throwing it down outside.

Here's a question though, if you had a big space that clearly needed to be a patio but you had no money (familiar anyone? The money bit obvs) How would you get yourself a patio? It's been a green wedge of misery for a couple of years and it really needs sorting out not least because my little one is now getting to the riding a bike stage and we need somewhere for it to happen that won't turn into a muddy bald patch of lawn.

aliasojo

radiohelen wrote: »

Here's a question though, if you had a big space that clearly needed to be a patio but you had no money (familiar anyone? The money bit obvs) How would you get yourself a patio?

Ask on Freecycle or similar, maybe a note in the local supermarket?

We gave away loads of slabs a while ago to someone in a similar position. They were only utility slabs, nothing fancy, but the person made a lovely looking space with them.

You might find someone who is changing their garden and is digging up their old ones?

Other than that, I haven't got a clue.

Sambucus_Nigra

boultdj wrote: »

Thriftkitten + duchy, raspberries do have thorns, they are canes so need some support, they spread as well over a couple of years and most important, there's 2 types, summer fruiting and autumn fruiting and you need to label well if you decide to get both.

Summer Fruiting Raspberry
Give's the most amount of fruit per plant, the cane's that fruit this year need cutting out about September time, and any new shoot's that come up this year need tying up on the cane's at the same time, that is essential because the new cane's are next year's fruit.

Autumn Fruiting Raspberry
This is a fairly simple one to remember how to look after, the canes that come up this year are the ones that fruit, when it gets to February cut the old canes off, the new ones will come up from the base, you don't get as much fruit as the summer fruiting but it makes a nice treat.


In both cases it might be an idea to net the plants.....bird's love 'em. hth

Not all raspberries have thorns - we have 4 different varieties and picked them for a long season and to be thornless.

Your advice about which raspberries to but back is good - but the better version would be 'if a cane has finished fruiting, cut it back'. Then you really don't get confused. People avoid rasps because the advice about when to cut back is so complicated but it really is that simple. We also only tie back one variety and that's Glencoe [the purple ones] as they can grow to over 8ft high.

I highly recommend rasps - and after the second year most will have new suckers that you can use to increase your rasp area or give away to others to start their patch.

boultdj

Thank's for info on thornless raspberry Sambucus Nigra, I will keep an eye out for them:D and my information of what to do with raspberries was told to me by my Great Aunt,so a good 25-30 year's ago when I first heared it and I only started growing rasperries 6 year's ago, so anything new to learn and help get a better crop is gratefully recived:)


Aliasojo, yes raspberris can go in in big pot's, mine spent the first 2 year's in pot's,due to back yard being concert where we use to live, but it's a lot better if you can get them in the ground.