the fruit and berry garden (well one day maybe)

I have been posting about the areas of my garden, the next after the ditch garden is the fruit and berry garden, this only became a focus last year and I have 2 bloggers to thank for that though neither knew it, well until now, this is the area in 2004 the earliest photo I could find,

as you can see the area is between the ditch and the front fence, there is another larger ditch the other side of the fence, I planted around the perimeters the first year I was here 2002, I dug a small strip one year and planted the flowering currants grown from cutting sent to me by KC fpu when they were on Orkney, flowering currant does stand up to the wind,

fast forward to 2010, I cobbled 2 photos together to get this view across the whole, the area on the far right has wild raspberry growing and is loved by wildlife for this reason I leave any fruit for the birds and do not want to clear it though have controlled it’s spread,

in the autumn of 2010 I managed to get another bit dug, left side of photo, I dig a trench put some sand and lime in the bottom then as I dig the next row turn them over so the remaining grass is at the bottom of the trench, the right side of photo is how it looked about this time last year,

I didn’t really know what I wanted to do with this area no spark had struck, I did though know I wanted to get rid of grass and knew I wanted paths along the perimeter planting, so when we had some good weather last February I started laying cardboard and covering with shingle, it has worked quite well and only needed a bit of weeding I would like to get more done,

then early last year finding and reading Helen blog Patient Gardener and Janet blog Plantalisicious where they were both talking about plans for their allotments, I started to think about this area and decided I needed to measure it and put it on paper then plan paths and planting, at this time the little shop in town had recently expanded the area where it sells plants and had had a large (for the island) delivery, among the plants were Gooseberries, I love gooseberries, suddenly things started to come together and I bought a gooseberry plant with the aim of planting in the dug area here, I couldn’t buy them all at once due to carrying them home but here we have 2,

then 3, when I got the first one home and detached the label with growing instructions the planting area gave me a starting point in drawing up the area, I decided to plant in a strip with path either side for (I hope) picking, these paths would be made with the new wonderful shredded material I had, about May/June last year,

for added protection they were inside the flowering currants and I wanted to make a second hedge along the top end too, so one Saturday afternoon I took cuttings from the flowering currents and hypericum, I made 2 rows mulched with composted pine needles and felt satisfied at the end of the day, left side of photo, Sunday on the island is respected as the Sabbath so no gardening, Monday morning I found all the cuttings out and the mulch chucked about, the culprits were probably blackbirds and starlings, I put back ones that had not wilted and cut some more then covered them with glass jars, most of the cuttings took and the photo on the right was taken in November, the flowering currants have lost their leaves but the hypericums were flowering!

I had been thinking what to call the area still and had decided to move some blackcurrants I have to the area next to the gooseberries, it was then that I started to think with the wild raspberries it is a fruit garden but to me that conjures up apples and trees as well where as fruit and berry kept it small, this is the wild raspberry area in summer, the wild flowers have started to move around the edge now I’ve got the grass down,

this white flower in among the wild raspberries was here when I came and I have moved some to the damp meadow and along one of the perimeter areas, for a long time I didn’t know what it was but now know it a sidalcea,

I did manage to get a bit more path done and the area to the left between the path and fence I covered with newsprint and shredded material to kill the grass, I have bought 10 blackthorn to plant along there following on from the willows, the blackthorn are heeled in and I just hope I get a break in the weather to plant them before they start growing,

I thought I’d show this long shot from last year, in the foreground is the Alder terrace with the marigold and daisies, the tall pink flower is purple loosestrife in the Ditch garden and behind the Fruit and Berry garden, the gaps in the perimeter hedge are planted with hornbeam and hawthorn they have been in as long as the other trees nearly 10 years,

the last photo was taken in early December just before we had some snow, I had weeded the gooseberries and when in town saw some winter onions so bought them and planted them in long strips down each side of the gooseberry bed, some of them are starting to show, in the foreground you can see in the grass numerous candelabra seedlings, they can’t be seen now as the are perennials, I want/need to move them,

I had hoped to get the area next to the gooseberries dug so I could move the black currants there this year but it doesn’t look like that is going to happen, because of the wet I can’t doing anything here even when the weather is good enough to get out, so that’s it up to the end of last year, more of and end of year post, I hope Helen won’t mind my joining this post with the end of month meme but I have nothing to report on the Alder garden except that nothing has been done, to see more gardens click this link,

©Copyright 2012 Frances Caple. All rights reserved. Content created by Frances Caple for Island Threads.