Soft Fruit

This Sunday on the allotment was all about soft fruit, not intentionally though. 

On the way to the allotment we decided that we would spend the morning building a pineberry bed. We originally planned to have it half strawberry and half pineberry but with access to a few good pick your owns near by and nowhere that sold pineberries it made sense to go all out on the amazing tasting white berry.

A few months back now I took delivery of a large quantity of six inch square timber lengths, some free off cuts. I though they would be perfect for a nice big pineberry bed. 

The area we wanted the bed was on a slope, like all of our plot, so working from the lowest corner we dug out a trench to put the first layer in. The first row on the furthest corner is almost completely underground, but it will give is a good strong base that will last a really long time. 

We didn't have any nails to fix it all in place but we layered the block 3 high. The lengths are all a little random which made us chuckle when we kept finding just the right size piece. We only had trouble with one corner and had to cut a knobbly bit off one piece.

Next week we will return with nails to secure it, then dig out the inside and return all the earth we took out for the trenches. Then all we need is some compost, black plastic (we have plenty in the shed) and of course some pineberry plants. We want to plant them by the end of September if possible to give them time to settle in before winter, though we do have some straw to tuck them in when it gets cold

The soft fruit then continued with picking black berries. The hedge around the allotments is full or brambles, a mixed blessing, that try to invade the plot but they also give us a free crop.  Being in the corner means we have two sides of the plot bordered with blackberries. The bottom, east side, didn't have much ready this week but there was tones on the way as you can see in the picture above. 

The right of the plot, south, was a little further ahead and had plenty, especially when I went round the other side and picked the ones in the orchard. You can only pick fruit from trees you rent in the orchard but the blackberries are fair game to who ever gets there first. 

Our last soft fruit, at least I think its classed as a soft fruit, is the grapes which are having a great time. The first year on this plot we got around 2 grapes, not bunches, just 2 grapes. This year however it looks like we might get quite a lot of fruit, yum.