Taming the Fruit Cage

Finally started on the garden this weekend - first task, the fruit cage:

This was a bit of a mess to be honest - one of the raspberry supports had collapsed one windy day, and we hadn't yet cut back the old raspberry canes.

The strawberries were choked up with dead leaves, and there were old weeds that had died back and new weeds coming up.



Anyway it all looks much tidier now - pruned, weeded, etc. etc. - and hopefully there'll be less places for mices to hide out when it comes to the strawberries bearing fruit!  Still pondering ways of keeping the little blighters out . . .

Update
Subsequently we've also dug up the blueberry bush, which was barely holding its own against the strawberries, and transplanted it into a large pot, filled with ericaceous compost - hopefully it will like that better!

Elephant Tomato and the Lone Blueberry

One of our first tomatoes - in our fine tradition of deformed produce. We've had a few more tomatoes since, all much more normal looking.

The Lone Blueberry is an even more tragic tale . . . We had (at one point) lots of lovely ripening blueberries - then, one day, they were gone, except for the Lone Blueberry sitting on a strawberry leaf. No idea what got them, as far as we can see the fruit cage is intact - our only thought is that some clever bird / squirrel squeezed itself under the flap of netting at the top, ate the lot, and squeezed its way back out again.

Ah well, you live and learn . . . next year we tie down all the netting round the top and keep our fingers crossed!