On my todo list I have “wire up raspberries” which is a reminder to put in place some stakes and wires between them for the raspberry canes to both grow up (if I tie canes to them I can space them out) and also to keep them from blowing over. All good stuff, and it’s been in the list looking at me ever since we got the plot five years ago. A number of years ago there was slight progress in that I bought some wooden stakes, then earlier this year I actually put them in the ground. I have pulled up, weeded out bindweed, and re planted a smaller number of canes, and I am currently watching them grow. I bought some wire two or three weeks ago, so finally I got round to finishing the job which had by now turned into quite a long term projects. Sometimes, a degree of thinking, planning, pondering is needed, so I feel slightly justified by this timescale.

First of all though, I thought I’d give everything a good watering with the new springy hose. I had got to the plot super early and it had yet to reach the high temperatures that we are currently having. I did a lot of weeding, the weekly removal of bindweed as it keeps coming up having pulled it out the week before. I was going to sow some more carrots but I noticed a lot of small seedlings showing in within the carrot row, which must be a good sign.

I did plant out another row of leeks, giving me four rows and a lot left over. I have planted these within the broad beans and the garlic, of which both will be coming out by the end of the month while in the meantime they give a bit of shade to the young leeks until they get going.

Birds have been pecking the peas, which is annoying and it reminds me why I normally grow them in the garden instead.

For the raspberries I cut a couple bits of wood to go horizontally between the two end stakes and screwed in hooks for the wires. There are two rows of raspberries and so there will be wires to contain both these rows. It didn’t take too long to do, they look a bit wonky but the spirit level tells me otherwise, it’s possibly looking a bit odd as none of the stakes are fully straight. At the moment only one raspberry plant has canes tall enough to just about reach the wires, but I know within a couple of weeks or so they will all be up to this height. The bonus of doing all this too is that now it should be easier to put netting over the top later on in the year.