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Raspberries
Keep an eye on your raspberries for the next
four weeks. The young canes may give you an extra autumn crop of
delicious large berries.
Also, you may need to remove any weeds you find within the rows.
Depending on how well you did this during the season, this job
may now be easy or difficult. If there are excess new canes
(more than ten per metre), the weaker ones should now be
removed.
Finally, if you wish to plant new raspberries this winter, now
is the time to make preparations. You need to mound up some
drills with as much soil as you can. A 40cm high drill is ideal,
because raspberries do much better in the dry soil of a high
drill. Individual rows can be spaced about 3 – 4 metres
(12`-16`) apart, and when it comes to getting plants later on,
certified stock is better than canes from your existing plants,
as diseases are easily passed on in the soil.
Strawberries
Strawberries will now be producing
lots of runners. If you have a young plot, these can be
interweaved among the existing plants in the crop row. Otherwise
they will have to be cut off. If you plan a new plot, then leave
the runners attached to the plants until they have rooted, and
transplant to their new plot in November.
Existing plots can now be weeded. If there has been a vine
weevil problem in the past, then now is the time to drench with
parasitic nematodes (such as Nemasys H). These are tiny
beneficial worms which attack and kill the vine weevil eggs and
larvae. You should be able to purchase these at your local
garden centre.
Apples and Plums
You
should now be finished with your Victoria plums, and getting
ready to enjoy an apple harvest. However, apples are scarce this
year, so do not be disappointed if your crop is not great.
Springtime frosts are the main culprit, and the cool wet
early-summer did not help.
If your trees are loosing their leaves from disease, rake these
up and put them into the compost heap. This should help break
the disease cycle for next year. Keep the area around the foot
of the tree free from weed competition also.
Last
year's Autumn garden advice
Apple Muffins:
You will need:
225g (8oz.) plain flour
A pinch of salt
2 teaspoons of baking powder
50g (2oz.) caster sugar
1/2 tspn. nutmeg, 1/2 tspn. cinnamon, 1/2 tspn. mixed spice
2 eggs; lightly beaten
50g (2oz.) melted butter
150ml (5 fl.ozs.) buttermilk
1 tablespoon lemon juice
2 or 3 medium dessert apples; peeled, cored and grated
Method:
Mix the dry ingredients, add apple and liquids, mix again, but
do not beat too much. Turn into muffin tins or paper cases
standing in a muffin tin.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 230°C (450°F or gas mark 8) for
20 to 25 minutes.
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