Eleanor Clarke
GARDENING
Grow Your Own Raspberries
We love raspberries here at the Nunhead Gardener. They’re so tasty and versatile, and their cropping season lasts that little bit longer than strawberries – a great deal longer if you grow both summer and autumn fruiting varieties. The plants themselves have a longer lifespan, too, and can fruit for up to 15 years. A simple bowl of raspberries, warm from the sun, with a drizzle of cream, is a dessert to die for, but they freeze well too and make amazing jam, smoothies, crumbles, ice cream and more. If you grow a few different varieties, you could potentially be harvesting your own berries from June to November.
Autumn-fruiting
They’re a little less demanding than summer-fruiting varieties as they don’t need supporting in the same way, and because birds don’t seem to love them as much, you won’t need to cover them in netting. They’ll give you berries from September until the first frosts.
The best time to plant these raspberry canes is when they’re dormant, from December until the end of March. You’ll need a clear stretch of ground, free of weeds and large stones, then dig plenty of well-rotted manure and set them around 40cm apart with around 80cm between rows. Plant 10cm deep, sprinkling in some bonemeal, then cut each cane down to a bud around 25cm from the ground. They’ll begin to sprout in spring, giving you fruit by September.
Photo – Dmytro Davydenko
Three varieties to try
1 ‘Autumn Bliss’
Productive and self-supporting, giving you tasty berries well into autumn
2 ‘Polka’
Good crops of large, sweet, juicy berries until November
3 ‘Joan J’
Thornless and self-supporting, this is a compact, sweet raspberry that you could even grow in roomy pot on the patio (though you’ll need to be extra vigilant with watering and feeding.
Photo – Anita Austvika
Summer-fruiting
Taller (up to 2.5m) than the autumn varieties, summer raspberries need support to grow well. Plant them in the same way as the autumn canes, cutting them to around 25cm. You’ll miss out on fruit the first summer, but get a much bigger, better crop the following year, so it’s worth it. Then you’ll need sturdy 2m posts, driven into the ground every 3m – or one at either end of your raspberries if you’re just growing a few. Attach horizontal wires to these, at thigh and neck height, and you have a simple structure to which you can tie in your canes.
Photo – Alexandra Nosova
Three varieties to try
1 ‘Glen Fyne’
A spineless raspberry good for beginners, with heavy crops from June to August
2 ‘Malling Jewel’
Compact, so a good option for smaller gardens. Virus resistant and crops from July to August
3 ‘Tulameen’
Very hardy with great crops of large tasty fruit, from July into August. This is one that’s better not to cut back after planting.
Your raspberry care schedule
February/early March
Cut back all the canes of autumn-fruiting varieties to the base
Check summer-fruiting canes and cut back any damaged tips to a healthy bud
June
Put netting over summer varieties to discourage the birds
June-November
Harvest!
July/August
When summer-fruiting canes have finished cropping, cut them down completely
Tie in new growth of summer-fruiting canes to their wires, cutting out any that are weak and spindly so you have a row of healthy-looking plants that will fruit next summer.
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OUTDOOR PLANTS
