It was a gorgeous day today, the sun was out , the sky was blue there were only a few clouds to spoil the view and it wasn’t raining, even in my heart! So I spent this morning on my plot planting out some new Raspberry canes that I ordered from Pomona Fruits. I ordered 2 packs of 6 and the variety is Malling Admiral. Apparently they’re very tasty and grow very well. I’ve had my Raspberries for years and they’re now a bit…..eh! So I treated myself with some new ones for this coming year. Hopefully they’ll give me enough fruit to make loads of jam with.

They may not look like much now, but hopefully these Raspberry canes will be full of fruit in the summer.

Make sure that before you plant your new Raspberry canes, that you soak them in water for at least an hour and a half before planting in the soil. This helps them take in some water and then they tend to spread their roots much better once they’re in the soil. I got “Bare rooted” ones, which basically means that you get the cane with some roots on the bottom. They’re not in pots when you receive them, just in a plastic bag. They need to be planted out with in a few days. Also I’ve decided to cover the fruit bed with some weed suppressant. It’ll just make keeping this area more under control. Unlike the rest of the beds, it doesn’t get a thorough digging over every year, so the soil becomes rather compact and this makes weeding rather tricky especially with the couch grass. I will cover the fabric with wood chips, but at the moment, we don’t have any on site, but as soon as we do, I’ll put a lovely thick layer on top of the fabric. Just before I left, I harvested some more Kale for the chickens and some of my Romanesco Cauliflowers. They went in a little later than I wanted them to this year, so haven’t grown as large as I expected them to, but I’ve got enough for dinner. I might save them until tomorrow though, because my parents are here (they’re flying in for Christmas, we’re all excited) and I think they might like to try them. Now being a gardener and growing some strange vegetables sometimes, you notice some in the most bizarre places. Stay with me on this please. Last night, we went as a family to see the new Star Wars film. It’s very, very good. Mark is a massive fan of especially the first 3 films, (that’s episodes 4, 5 and 6), and he was a very happy chappy. Now I’m not going to give anything away, but there is a scene when 2 of the characters are sitting down in a restaurant with a bowl of food in front of them, and in their bowls were what looked like Romanesco cauliflowers!! If you watch the film let me know if you see them to. I’ll have to point it out to Mark when we get the film on DVD! Anyway that’s about it for today. I’ve now got to go and give the chickens their Kale and then marzipan my Christmas cake, which is in the shape of a snowman, but Mark thinks it looks phallic…typical!!