How does your garden grow?

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Freeranger
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Freeranger »

What do you think is the problem with the gooseberries and plum, Mo? Just weathery or is there something that can cause those symptoms?
I haven't studied my soft fruit closely yet - went to that part of the garden the other day (have had a bad back) and gooseberry bushes only just peeping over the weeds and the farther back blackcurrants will need more of an expedition.
I like the idea of self-seeding fruit. My raspberry canes may be beyond redemption, but it would be a good excuse to buy some fresh ones - they're for the garden, honest!
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Not sure what the problem is. I might get round to throwing some compost on top of the soil, and trying to keep up with the weeds (some hopes), otherwise >fi<
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

What am I sitting here for?
I can see a blackbird coming and going and I've just realised he is carrying off my lovely ripe gooseberries in his beak.
They were welcome to the redcurrants (too many pips), but I was saving those berries to eat raw when they got really ripe.

Time to pick them.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Cheeky bird. I'd just carried a 2litre tub full of gooseberries + some laden branches (that were tangling with the blackcurrants) inside for topping & tailing. When I looked out there he was, on the blackcurrant branch.

Too hot out there, especially with arms well covered to protect from prickles.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

I'm plodding on with picking Gooseberries & blackcurrants. Some of the bushes I've stripped (until I walk down the path and see fruit I've missed. I go crosseyed looking past the leaves. A couple more bushes then I need to orune, or maybe not, I took out some old branches for ease of picking.
The plums need attention. Still some that haven't been thinned, and the some of the Czar are changing colour. As I don't spray I need to keep checking and removing any that start to rot. I tried one today - not quite ripe, but OK.


I have been strimmed! Can now get round the garden without being attacked by nettles & brambles (though there are plenty of those for me to remove too). He did half a day so not time to do the whole acre - I asked him to make wide paths everywhere, clear round the apple trees and do as much else as possible. And to book a time to come back and finish it (not easy to get him).

Unfortunately 3 plants in the first row of King Edwards have been strimmed. I thought they might grow a bit bigger. I have been lifting the second row, which were looking rather sad and only yielded marbles & peas. Lifted one of the casualties and got about 3 servings from the root - and disturbed an ants nest.

I still need to cut back the rose that's stopping me getting down one side of the house (but now I can get the other way), and the Hypericum and Hydrangea that meet in front of the kitchen, blocking that path. And the front verge has crocus in the grass, but I won't be able to see them next year unless I cut back the hazel hedge (after the fruit has ripened). Hasn't everything grown this year - seems more than usual.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

My daughter & family came for dinner, the children went out and picked fruit while I was cooking, So now there are just a few gooseberries, and the last blackcurrant bush has less than it did. The Tom disappeared and came back with a handful of spuds.
On peeling the ones I cooked for dinner I found I was carving them into fantastic shapes to remove the slug holes. So I'd decided that they probably wouldn't grow bigger faster than they were getting smaller. Even if I hadn't wanted them dug it is hard to stop Tom once he gets started, and he does enjoy digging spuds. So that's a good start. At least half dug. I'll be buying long before Christmas though.
They have a lot more stamina than I do.
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lancashire lass
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by lancashire lass »

Mo wrote:1 of the 3 gooseberry bushes has very small fruits and the leaves have gone brown & crispy. No use leaving the berries on, they are dropping off as I touch a branch.


Just seen this post ... I suspect the gooseberry got blight after the wet June, a sort of mildew which turns the leaves brown and the fruit either drop off or turn brown on cooking. On reading:

Mo wrote:I still need to cut back the rose that's stopping me getting down one side of the house (but now I can get the other way), and the Hypericum and Hydrangea that meet in front of the kitchen, blocking that path. And the front verge has crocus in the grass, but I won't be able to see them next year unless I cut back the hazel hedge (after the fruit has ripened). Hasn't everything grown this year - seems more than usual.


I think the same wet weather followed by warmer weather (and longer daylight hours) had helped moved things along - I too have noticed a rapid growth in the garden in recent days.

Mo wrote:Even if I hadn't wanted them dug it is hard to stop Tom once he gets started, and he does enjoy digging spuds. So that's a good start. At least half dug


How lovely to have a helper )t'
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

lancashire lass wrote:
Mo wrote:1 of the 3 gooseberry bushes has very small fruits and the leaves have gone brown & crispy. No use leaving the berries on, they are dropping off as I touch a branch.


Just seen this post ... I suspect the gooseberry got blight after the wet June, a sort of mildew which turns the leaves brown and the fruit either drop off or turn brown on cooking.


The fruit is OK, just small. Though that might be due to selective picking, the ones I left to get bigger just didn't. I've had nice big berries from another bush.

How lovely to have a helper )t'

Yes (though he can get carried away).
In the Feb half term he pruned the hypericum - you'd never guess it now. and found a rooted layer, which we planted were it would have more space. It hasn't grown but has flowered, so I can be more ruthless with the old one next time. That bank of hypericum looks really good in full flower - almost worth having to go in the bank door and out the front to avoid getting wet. This year it's not just a case of getting wet - it's almost impassable.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

The other thing they 'helped' me with while waiting for the roast was exploring the wilderness (I don't often get down there) and harvesting loganberries. We didn't bother taking them inside! They are another plant thug. Long arching prickly stems that bend down and tip root like the parent bramble (x raspberry). So make a thicket if left, which they have been. Nicer taste than Rasp or blackb if you can leave them to go really dark without the birds getting them.
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lancashire lass
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by lancashire lass »

Mo wrote:loganberries. We didn't bother taking them inside! They are another plant thug. Long arching prickly stems that bend down and tip root like the parent bramble (x raspberry). So make a thicket if left, which they have been. Nicer taste than Rasp or blackb if you can leave them to go really dark without the birds getting them.


Yes, I once grew tayberry and loganberries in a raspberry patch (until I got rid of it) The loganberry in particular is very hardy and sprung up all over the place (hence all the weed suppressant I put down in my garden) and is still around possibly in the privet hedge now. It has a very prickly stem (brambles are usually more thorny) and leaves and quite hazardous. Although they all grew like brutes, to be honest I didn't think them worth keeping as they didn't produce that much fruit compared to the raspberries.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

My raspberries have never done much. Except provide bird food and seed which have popped up in my daughter arena, so Emily eats while Tom rides.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

I've been away for 5 days, so expected to come home to a Czar tree full of rotten fruit. Before I went it was just the rejects that were colouring (though I cooked them all the same).
Now it is full of ripe and ripening fruit. I've had a couple of goes at picking (can't do much at a time in this weather).
Then thought I'd have a wander to see how the other plums were doing.
Oh Dear. The greengage that fell over 20 or so years ago and has been steadily getting more hollow but still bearing fruit has finally cracked fallen down. Up to now it was resting on a branch and a sloping trunk (it fell one very wet summer) Lots of branches full of fruit on the ground. Leaves still green (except the lowest branch). I've started trying to prop then to give them a chance to ripen. Also, some of the fruit always cracks as it swells and lets the wasps in, so I've picked some of those (carefully shaking the twigs first).

My runner beans were planted out rather late and then flooded. 3 plants survived and 2 have flowers. I think they may have been too damp while I was away too. Other parts of Cheshire have had proper floods.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Plum picking continues, and chopping them in half (to look for maggots), cooking and freezing.
Keeps me busy.
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

Drat. just typed a long message and pressed wrong button. Ill repeat in instalments
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Mo
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Re: How does your garden grow?

Post by Mo »

After the Scottish break I was busy packing for a Folk Week, and trying to get the garden sorted. Froze Czar plums, greengages, and the earliest of the Victorias (the maggoty ones ripen first). Took some, hopefully unmaggotty, with me (nice in a lunch box), gave some away left some in fridge.
The greengages in the freezer will have to last me, I doubt if that tree will bear again.
My granddaughter can to visit and got me busy clearing the way through the shrubs in front of the kitchen. So not as much plum picking done as I intended
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