Hiya's :)

[Steven]

Hi! i've been a guest for quite some time now, just looking, getting some ideas..

We're currently living in a flat in Aberdeen but our block is hopefully getting knocked down to make way for a dual carriageway and a few extra roundabouts or something, my fiancee and I are hoping to get somewhere with a garden in the near future as I love growing stuff, my dad was a landscape gardener so I guess that's where my love for growing plants comes from, a few days ago I picked two 2ltr ice cream tubs worth of blackberries, gave one tub to a friend and attempted to made jam with my tub, I say jam but it turned out more like a sauce, it didn't really set because I didn't use jam sugar or pectin, it was seedless and didn't strain it through muslin because I couldn't get any so sieved it instead, it still tastes very very nice and is great on ice cream and would be nice on pancakes, scones etc, It's nice as a hot drink too so i'm really looking forward to getting a garden going and growing my own fruit and veg to supplement our shopping a little and hopefully get some jams, sauces and maybe a few bottles of wine eventually.

I doubt we'll have any livestock apart from insects I attract through companion planting but am looking forward to taking some cuttings of wild plants that I can grow in the garden, my fiancee, friend and myself take our dogs out every night and we see lots of plants on our walks, but most of them are weeds, ferns, pine trees and blackberries.

I'm really looking forward to finally having our own little garden but i'm guessing it'll take a few years before we get any decent fruits..

We would like to grow blackberries, gooseberries, strawberries, raspberries, tomatoes etc and a bunch of veg and maybe a couple of smallish trees but we'll take it one step at a time from when we find out the size of our garden, currently our 'garden' is under the kitchen windowsill which measures about 4ft x 2ft and is useless because there's lots of kids around and the plants never last, they see freshly dug soil then get the idea in their heads that there's worms in there so dig up my plants in an attempt to find worms!!!

If you have a few mins spare our border collie Barney is the one on the right at 0:22 we love him dearly, he's 10 months old at the moment :)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7NTPYxthP1U

We have permission from the farmer to go through his fields

See ya's!

[Penny Lane]

Hi there Steven,

Cute dog, we also have a border collie called Sky. Here she is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yLlAlKruPzQ

[Steven]

Thanks Penny, Sky's lovely! seeing how focused he is on the ball reminds me of our Barney boy

[StripyPixieSocks]

Hello!

[ina]

Hiya Steven, and welcome from somebody who doesn't live too far away from you! Well, probably 30 miles down south...

Yes, if you don't use pectin for blackberry jam you'd have to cook it for quite a while to make it set... I never strain mine, though; I don't mind a few pips in it! Haven't seen any ripe blackberries yet this year; when I still lived in Aberdeen, I used to pick loads along the Dee; but where I'm now, there are hardly any (raspberries, though - masses of them).

[Steven]

Hi StripyPixieSocks cool name

Hi ina, thanks! we get our blackberries from just west of the Persley scrap merchants, i'll be going to the banks of the river don early next week to see what's about because we've not been down there for a few months, it's surprising what we see when we're out walking the dogs, regarding the pips.. my friend gave us a taste of his jam, he just mashed them up, boiled and added equal parts sugar no pectin, it has a very thick consistency but I'm not fond of the idea of eating the cores, pips yea but the white cores eww! he called my jam the posh stuff! i'm looking forward to making the next batch with proper jam sugar.

I've yet to see any wild raspberries

[hedgewitch]

Oooh blackberries and raspberries - I am jealous.
Hi Steven and welcome to the ishers.

[Shirley]

Hi Steve

welcome! I'm not too far from you either

[Steven]

Hi Shirlz, small world eh!
Hi hedgewitch, i'd give up all the blackberries i've picked to live in spain lol

[ellie12022]

Hi Steven, hope you find a nice place to live

I have gooseberries, rhubarb and blackberries in my garden, none of which I have planted, so I am not sure how long they take to start bearing fruit. The rhubarb has been quite prolific this year. The gooseberries have now finished and the blackberries are everywhere ( and been fruiting for about a month I think). If you want to grow blackberries, you might want to bear in mind that they can take over, i have blackberries in the midst of the gooseberry bush & having managed to cut back some last year, I found a couple of rose bushes, one of which flowered this year

[Steven]

Hi ellie, thanks! sounds like you should be in for a great harvest next year
I'll be training my blackberries I think in a similar style to grape vines, and the gooseberries will hopefully be a nice fan shaped bush shape.

[ellie12022]

I'd like to train my blackberries too , but they do taste lovely when they come even if they have taken over the flower bed (who knows what will emerge next year if I manage to cut back even more later this year ).MInd you, I didn't know you could plant them like that, I think mine here have planted themselves.

[Steven]

I don't see why they shouldn't be trainable, just don't tie the shoots too tight and cause strangulation and keep the secateurs handy
Should end up with something along these lines..

[ina]

My friend ties the ones in her garden up like that - otherwise they'd be all over the place... And would probable get mowed down by her son with the lawn mower!

Just checked - one bush in my garden has little hard green ones, the other one has some black, and some already ott. Grrr. Never get it right. But they only have a few, anyway; not enough for jam!

[Steven]

awh shame better luck for next year