Monday 17 November 2008

Roots and Raspberries.........

What a exciting weekend. The FIRST plants go in. Yipppeeeeeeeee.....

I wasn't expecting to be able to do much this weekend, but on Friday the Raspberry Canes had arrived from a nursery I found on ebay (total cost for 15 canes was £22.50 inc postage), for what I thought was pretty good value and also saved me a lot of time in visiting local garden centres and trying to find what I wanted for the right price.

While Tom was playing football, I set to work on more double digging and uncovering more and more of my now best friends, the ROOTS. Arrghhhh, they are everywhere and I have to get rid of them otherwise it will ruin my plot. Unfortunately, because there are so many I don't get to use the Rotovator, so it's all down to manual labour, sweat and tears. I worked out that it takes about an hour to dig and clear a length of the bed to 3 spades' width and get all the roots and stones/flint out. I had a quick tally as I was walking home and figured to dig the whole plot like that is going to take into March 2009, doing a couple of hours each weekend. That seems like a lot, so I need to put my mind to trying to move that along somehow....and it doesn't include time for me to build and shed and have lots of cups of tea.

That was it for Saturday, but as we weren't planning on doing too much on Sunday, I was fortunate enough to secure a short pass for an hour or two. Well, I thought it was more like two, but the issuer of the pass, figured one, so I wasn't Top of the Class when I got home before lunch. However, I dug another row (so that was the hour taken up), put plenty of manure on the areas where the canes were going to go and bashed in some posts to give me a 'line' and mark out where the proper poles will go.....hold on, back up a bit...

When I got down on Sunday, after Karen had given me a lift so I could take all the garden waste to the compost bins, I also bought 8 bags of Nigel's manure and he very kindly wheeled them down to my plot and we piled them up ready for use. So, that was another £22. I really hope that next year I am able to produce a lot of compost myself as at this rate and the quality of the soil, each bed is going to need 6 bags, so to do the lot is going to cost £99.

Right so now I have the compost and the bed is mostly ready. I was conscious of the time and wanted to get at least some of the raspberry canes in. I decided to plant the 2 types of Summer Fruiting types, Glen Ample and Glen Prosen and the soil was nice and crumbly with the manure, so I think they'll be quite happy where they are. As you can see from the last set of posts, I wasn't able to plant the Autumn Bliss, so that will have to wait until next week, when I complete another row of digging. I think there is only a couple more rows to do and then that bed will be finished. I'll also have a bit of the room left, so I'll have to think about what could go there.

The next few weeks are going to be very monotonous, with digging, picking out roots and stones as well as clearing the other beds and doing the same over and over again. BUT, it's all this hard work now that should pay dividends in the future, so I'll just put my head down and carry on. Oh and yes, it did rain again...pretty much started when I got there on Sunday, but then it always does when I go so no surprise there..I'm sure the raspberries like it though, so I'll just imagine their happy little faces and unbounded joy at their new home.

2 comments:

Unknown said...

You must be skiving!! Ha Ha.
Well done - you are really putting your back into that plot. I hope your raspberries appreciate all that lovely manure, blood, sweat and toil you put in.
p.s. next time I have cold hands I am going to put them in between the manure bags for a warm up!! How amazing was that?
I am all finished and completely 100% on 144 now - YIPPEE!

Chris O'Kill said...

Thank you. Yes those bags of manure are pretty good. Really helps with the soil. I don't have that many worms and I'm sure the more worms you have the better! I bet they like the manure and wll help make it better. Your neighbours were still there when I left at lunchtime. Your plot looks great so you can have plenty of fun with that now. good luck.