'Garden Column - November 2009'

Time to get caned!

Whilst most of the garden starts to remain dormant one area that certainly can be shown some attention is the fruit garden – especially if you are fond of soft fruit and do not like paying the inflated prices at the supermarket.

 

Caned fruit like Raspberries and Blackberries are best planted at this time of the year – there are also some hybrid varieties worth trying like Tayberries & Loganberries.

 

Raspberries usually are available in bundles of 10 canes and other varieties of caned fruit have a tendency of being planted in individual pots.

 

With Raspberries it is worth deciding on when you would like to harvest as this will decide on the type of training required for your plants.

 

The Raspberry canes are best planted about 45cm apart with 1.8m between the rows. Create a framework of wire fencing for your crop to be grown and trained against.

Training the plants can sometimes seem daunting to most novice gardeners as Early, Mid & Late season varieties need to have all the growth after planting trained to one side of the wire frame – this growth will produce the following years fruit.

All growth that appears the following spring needs to be trained the other side of the framework.

If you are wondering why this is? It’s because once your fruit has been harvested the fruited canes need to be removed and by following the stem down and leaving 10-15cm above the ground. By doing this it will stop you removing the new canes that will produce for the following year’s fruit.

Varieties worth considering are – ‘Glen Ample’, ‘Glen Clova’, Glen Moy’, ‘Glen Prosen’, ‘Leo’ & ‘Tulameen.’

 

Other caned fruit like Blackberries & hybrid berries like Loganberries & Tayberries require the same training.

Look for thornless varieties of Blackberry like ‘Adrienne’, ‘Oregon Thornless’, ‘Thornfree’ & ‘Waldo’ – these can also make productive features on pergolas or walls.

 

If this still seems daunting then have no fear as the Raspberry family has plants ideal for the complete and utter novice. ‘Autumn Bliss’ are an autumn fruiting variety that crop on their canes every year – pruning is very simple.

Their first year in the garden it is best to remove any fruit that sets and allow all the goodness to remain in the plant for the following year.

When spring arrives - hard prune like you would any late-flowering shrub leaving 3-5 buds per cane – when the new growth appears train onto a framework – these will then produce a mass of fruit ideally picked from Late August onwards.

 

Colour your winter.

 

November can always seem a bleak month – what with the onslaught of winter around the corner the garden can seem even more inhospitable.

 

As gardeners we are all guilty of planting masses of colour for the spring & summer – leaving the fall of the leaves to give us autumn colour and we neglect that winter can have as much colour and interest as the other three seasons put together.

Of course most of us will have autumn/winter flowering pansies & violas but there is a wide spectrum of other plants that come into their own in the winter months.

 

To start with you have the Dogwoods (Cornus) – these as the temperature drops have vibrant green, yellow, red or dark purple stems (depending on the variety) that when planted in groups can really make an impact to any bed or border.

 

A wide variety of evergreen shrubs can give colour throughout the garden.

Sacred Bamboos (Nandina) with their fiery red winter foliage planted amongst carpets of Euonymus with their variegated foliage that turns pink as the temperature drops can create a simple and effective display for the winter months.

Mahonia (Holly Leaved Barberry) add great impact to shrubberies with their bright & cheery yellow flowers.

 

Winter Flowering Heathers (Erica) make great edging plants along pathways and lawn edges.

 

Conifers can also help by adding colour and structure to the garden in the winter months what with the wide array of dwarf, upright and spreading varieties – there is a conifer for any garden.

 

If space is a premium - then why not brighten the patio up using acid-loving shrubs like Leucothoe (Switch Ivy) – these have foliage that turns dark burgundy as the temperatures drop.

If these don’t rock your boat then try a Pieris (Lily Of The Valley Tree). These make great winter colour plants especially if you purchase a variegated one – not only giving colour with their two-toned foliage in the winter but in the spring you have a mass of white, lily of the valley-like flowers followed by bright red new growth.

 

Ornamental grasses like Carex (Sedge) & Festuca (Fescue) when strategically placed in containers can add dimension to any scheme.

 

So as you can see the winter months now don’t seem so bleak.

 

Start gathering sprouts.

 

Brussels sprouts are now ready to be picked and used.

When picking, do not strip one plant, but take the largest sprouts from the bottom of a number of plants.

 

Harvest them by either twisting the button off with your fingers or cut them with a sharp knife.

 

If they crumble in your hand and do not seem firm then simply use the latter method.

 

Also do not pull up the plants as soon as you have cropped all the sprouts but leave them in and use the top growth as greens.