I'll sleep well tonight...

[watervole]

Spread manure around the raspberries in the garden.  I have several books, all of which cheerfully disagree as to when raspberries should be manured, and even whether they should be manured at all.  However, even the one that is dubious as to whether they should be manured says that it is all right if the soil is in poor condition, and the soil close to the fence in the back garden is the poorest of the lot.

None of the books are in use at all in trying to work out how much manure to apply.  So, I guessed.  There's probably an inch depth over most of the raspberries, apart from close to the stems.  All the books agree that you should not have manure or compost close to the canes.

I also manured the blackcurrant, but not the gooseberry.  Apparently, if you feed a gooseberry too much, then it leads to soft stems and leaves which are even more attractive to aphids.  (Aphids are a real problem with gooseberries at this time of year)

Later on, we went down to the allotment and I manured the raspberries there (sorry specimens, that they are) while Richard dug in manure in the area where we expect to be planting sweetcorn beans and squashes.

We've now run out of manure; so it will be back down to the riding stables in a couple of days.

Comments

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

OTOH, our raspberries along our back fence are never fed, watered or manured and they produce loads of fruit in the summer - in fact they flower and fruit into october. I do trim them back, remove the dead and straggly canes in winter and try and keep them under control - they're like brambles and will pop up anywhere they like! They're naturalised in our garden having colonised from a neigbour's garden, more years ago than i care to remember.

Yours are probably a different variety though.

[watervole.livejournal.com]

THey're probably in a corner with good soil. The soil where mine are in the garden turned out to be very alkaline when tested and raspberries really hate that. Some people don't even know to remove the dead canes. I see some raspberries on the allotments in terrible condition. I suspect I'll be doing a dedicated raspberry post before long.

Is that why you picked your user name?

[raspberryfool.livejournal.com]

We've never really worked that part of the garden right along the east-facing back fence. Our area was farmland and orchards before the houses were built so it could be that the soil was well conditioned beforehand. The soil in our garden is clay and is better where we've worked it and had regular bonfires. TBH i have no idea whether it's acid, alkaline or neutral. Our raspberries are like brambles - they just go mad.

Is that why you picked your user name?

Partly, yes - they are one of my favourite fruits. I think i'd been picking lots of them that day. 'Raspberries' was taken, and the 'fool' bit was prompted by a friend's e-mail.