But you know how it is. Having taken the trouble to go there I didn't feel that picking Leeks was quite enough. So I started to prune the Blackberries.......and when you've started, well you can't just stop.
Pruning the Blackberries is always a nightmare. I have two plants of Himalayan Giant, which produce HUGE berries but also HUGE thorns. They lash about and lacerate my hands and, if I'm unlucky, my face. This may sound a bit overkill but I prune them wearing safety glasses! Then I have two plants of Oregon Thornless which, do what they say on the tin vis a vis thorns; their berries are good but more seedy. Tough choices, huh?
Both of them are very vigorous but this year they seem to have been on something (Manure! Doh!). That combined with the warm, wet weather has seen phenomenal amounts of growth. I was reeling the buggers in from the adjacent raspberry patch. Some of the new growth was a good twenty feet long, and not spindly, feeble stuff either. Good solid sturdy growth. Must have had my eye off the ball for a long time for them to grow that much, although they do go pretty fast once they start.
All that has led me to conclude that the existing support framework (post and wire) just won't do. It's starting to show it's age and it's debatable whether it was holding up the Blackberries or vice versa. And with 20+ feet of growth to deal with it just ain't big enough. So this week it's off to the timber yard to get the tallest posts I can find to start building the framework for a Blackberry Wall.
Lord knows what Wilma Wilbury will think when I broach the subject of yet more Blackberries this year; we haven't quite finished the ones from the year before last. Now we don't eat puddings (sob!) I fear they may have to go into a new batch of Blackberry Vodka (yum!)
4 comments:
We have a similar problem and as it is my job to prune the plants I can so empathise with you. Then there are the canes with growing tips have rooted in the ground and need dragging free, It really is like fishing,
Our support is of similar age to yours and by the sound of it in a similar conditions
Yep, that sounds very familiar. The ones with the rooted tips are a real nuisance! Especially when they come loose suddenly and whack you in the face (hence the safety goggles).
Pruning wearing safety glasses sounds emminently sensible.
Well done you actually getting out and doing something, and hello Sue (small world :}) and hello Nutty if you're reading this.
There's no such thing as JUST going to do one job in a garden or allottment!
Post a Comment