August 25, 2020 - Garden and Allotment Tips and Advice

Gooseberry Season

February 20, 2024August 25, 2020 by Gardening With Ben

Gooseberry Season

Gooseberries are can be very easy to grow in the garden and allotment. However they still are not such a popular fruit to grow. They are not an highly sought after fruit in the shops. One of the best countries to grow gooseberries in is the UK this is because it is just the right climate and the rain will help them produce great gooseberries. The gooseberry season in the UK is from May though to August.

The gooseberry season works like this, at the beginning of the gooseberry season you can pick your gooseberries and they will be tart but a great accompaniment for your pies and crumbles. As the gooseberry season moves on you will be picking dessert gooseberries this can actually be eaten raw and you won’t be squinting your face up as you eat them.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

Are you starting an allotment or planning on growing your own fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers in a kitchen garden? If so we highly recommend the book Allotment Month By Month. This does exactly what it does on the cover to help you with what you should be doing in the allotment and kitchen garden each month. Below you can see the link for Amazon where you can purchase the book directly. This book is extremely popular with all allotment holders as you will read in the reviews:-

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

You can get many varieties of gooseberry plant now. You can even get red gooseberries which are delicious to eat raw. These are sweet and you will find these a lot nicer than the green variety of gooseberry.

You can actually freeze gooseberries as they will not last ages once picked like any other berry they will only last a couple of days at the most. To freeze gooseberries first give them a through wash. Pat down the gooseberries with a clean towel to dry them off. Lay them all out on a baking tray and freeze. Once they have been frozen you can transfer them to an airtight container and freeze them for up to one year. You can then help yourself to them when ever you fancy a few – they will soon defrost at room temperature. The reason why you freeze them first on a baking tray rather than shoving them all straight in a box is that they will all stick together if you put them straight in a box.

We hope you have found these tips on gooseberry season useful. You can find out more tips on gooseberries here.

Alpine Strawberries – How to grow them

February 20, 2024August 25, 2020 by Gardening With Ben

Alpine Strawberries – How to grow them

Alpin Strawberries are not like the strawberries that you will purchase in the shops or eat at Wimbledon. They certainly are not as big as them. Alpine Strawberries are also known as Fragaria vesca. Alpine Strawberries originally came from Europe and Asia. You can still find these growing wild especially in the Natives of America and woodlands.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

About Alpine Strawberries

These strawberries certainly are not like the strawberries we grow in the garden or the ones you find in the supermarket. The main difference is that they are a lot smaller in size. They will not produce runners from the plants to make more plants. You will mainly find these alpine strawberries growing in the wild and woodland not in peoples gardens or farms. One thing abould Alpine Strawberries which are better than the shop bought strawberries is that they produce strawberries all fruiting season from June right through to October. You won’t be picking Strawberries just once a year like the common strawberry.

The alpine strawberry was originally found in the alps. This is where it obviously gets it name from which has stuck with it around 300 years ago.

There are now many varieties of the alpine strawberry which you can actually grow in your garden if you are wanting to try this type. The fruit of the alpine strawberry has a wild delicious taste. Some varieties of them also have a little hint of pineapple in them.

How to grow Alpine Strawberries

After reading about the Alpine Strawberries are you tempted to grow your own at home or the allotment?

To grow alpine Strawberries you can start them off from seed which you can purchase online – see link below.

Start your seeds off in a seed tray and keep in a warm green house to help them germinate. When the plants are big enough transplant them to individual plant pots. Keep these in a greenhouse until they are big enough to transplant outside.

Before you transplant your plants outside you need to make sure you have prepared your ground for them. When choosing the right area to plant the plants choose somewhere which will get around at least 4 hours of sun. Add some well rotted organic matter to your soil – make sure it is well draining soil – this is what the plants prefer.

Once you have an area for the Strawberry plants make sure you have hardened them off for a couple of weeks so they are used to the temperature before planting out. Once you have planted these you can add a layer of mulch around them this will keep the weeds down and it will also help feed the plants.

If you planted your seeds in the spring you could be eating fresh alpine strawberries by summer.

If you found these hints and tips useful you can find out more tips on Strawberries here.

Planting Raspberry Canes

February 20, 2024August 25, 2020 by Gardening With Ben

Planting Raspberry Canes

Raspberry canes are a great addition to the allotment or the garden then can produce fantastic crops year after year. If they are controlled right you can increase your crops every year from new canes produced. Here we will be explaining about growing raspberry canes, varieties of raspberry canes , planting raspberry canes and also how to prune your raspberries.

Raspberries are extremely expensive to purchase as they do not have a long shelf life once picked, they only last a couple of days. One of the great reasons for growing raspberries is that you can freeze them until you actually need them.

Allotment and Kitchen Garden Book

You can check out all the allotment and kitchen garden books we recommend here.

Best Location for Raspberries

The UK has perfect temperatures for growing raspberries. They like to be grown in climates that are cool and also the rain will help them produce. In the UK you can plant them in sunny positions as we don’t have too hot days. If you live in a hot climate you will need to plant your raspberry canes in areas that are slightly shaded to protect them.

Raspberry Soil Conditions

When choosing the right soil to plant raspberries in you need to look at soil that drains well but can also hold water. They do not like to be planted in soil that is made up of clay. When you are planting raspberry canes you can add well rotted organic matter to the soil to help improve the quality and also the drainage for the raspberry canes.

Raspberry Cane Varieties.

When choosing your raspberry cane varieties to plant there are a few you can choose from. You can get Summer producing raspberries, Autumn producing raspberries, Golden Yellow Raspberries. You can even get black raspberries now.

A great variety of raspberry to grow is Autumn producing raspberries. This is because they can be pruned to the ground each year and they actually produce bigger raspberries than th summer raspberries.

When to plant raspberry canes

The best time of year to plant your raspberry canes is from Autumn through to Spring. This is because the ground will be wetter so they will not dry out and they should hopefully root better than in summer. If you have purchased some raspberries and the ground is frozen solid store the canes somewhere cool and keep them moist until you can plant them out in the ground.

How to plant raspberry canes

Before your plant raspberry canes you need to improve the soil conditions for the plants. You can do this by digging in plenty of well rotted organic matter to the soil. You can also sprinkle some blood fish and bone over the soil – this can be mixed in with the soil to help it break down in it.

If you are planting summer raspberry varieties you will need to provide some trellis or support to fasten the plants to. If you are growing autumn raspberry canes these do not need support to hold them up they should stand up on their own.

Before you plant the raspberries dig a trench along where you are going to grow your raspberries. The trench needs to be around 30cm deep and around 40cm wide. The reason for this depth is so that the roots can be spread out in the trench and the raspberry cane cane be put to the depth that it was planted before. You will be able to tell from looking at the plant where it was planted before and the depth.

You can now plant your raspberry canes as mentioned above in the trench. Space the plants around 60cm apart. Once you have planted the raspberry canes cut them down do around 25cm. This will encourage the plant to send out new shoots and concentrate on growing a healthy plant.

Once you have planted and filled the soil back in you can cover the area in a organic matter to help feed them. Do not get it on the stems though as this could rot them.

One word of warning if you are growing Autumn and Summer Raspberries do not grow them near each other as when it comes to pruning it can be quite complicated.

How to Prune Raspberries

Autumn and Summer Raspberries need pruning different to each other. Summer raspberries grow on the can that has grown the year before but Autumn raspberries grow on the same cane that has grown that year. So Autumn Raspberries can be cut down each year. Summer raspberries only need pruning on the canes that have had the fruit on that year. My advice is the best option to purchase is Summer Raspberries.

We hope you have found these tips on planting raspberry canes useful. You can find out how to freeze raspberries here.