Planting soft fruit

Now that the fruit cage is built, we can start to use it. On Friday I planted 34 raspberry canes, mainly a summer crop variety but with some autumn crop as well. Also into the fruit cage went 3 red currant and 3 black currant bushes. And yesterday, we dug up the strawberries that were in two different patches to put them in the fruit cage. Strawberries were the first plants we put into the allotment in a small corner 2 years ago. About 10 went in. Last year we planted another 7 on a different patch. Yesterday I dug up over 70.

This isn't the end of the soft fruit planting however. We have another 30 raspberry canes on order (they will be planted outside the fruit cage) and 10 waiting to be planted in our garden in London. There are also 2 blueberries to go into the fruit cage. They have been in pots on the patio for a year and are now pot bound.

Assuming we have a recent crop, watch out for interesting recipes for using raspberries and strawberries later this year.