Cookaholics Bulletin Board

Pepperhead primarily, but we have some other good gardeners here:

So, for the first time I have a fair bit of space for gardening. However, I've also inherited a bunch of plants, so I'm looking for some advice.

Strawberries: there is a large strawberry hill in the backyard. The plants seem to be still alive and doing fairly well. No idea what variety they are; presumably they are some Everbearing variety beacause the hill is at least 4 years old, maybe more. Given that it's February already, is there any point in mulching/fertilizing them? Should I just leave them alone (except weeding) and see how the first year goes? Note that this area gets verticullum wilt, so I do NOT want to use a high-nitrogen fertilizer.

Raspberries: there's also some raspberry canes. They've been cut back and currently have no leaves. How do I tell if they're still alive? Should I do anything to help restore them?

Red/Green Orach: I'm going to plant this. Dave, you said a couple years back that you'd try it again after we discussed it on this board. Did you? How did it do? Was it actually invasive?

I have never grown strawberries, so I can't help with that. Raspberries produce only on second year vines, then those die off, and maybe somebody trimmed the old ones; otherwise, if any don't start growing leaves, cut those out, and some of the others will be first year, others will be second year producers. I have a bunch of thornless blackberries out there, that I planted last year, and should get a good crop this year.

I never did get around to planting that orach, mainly because I was trying other new greens. This year the new one is Huauzontli, a.k.a. Aztec Red Spinach. I'll ask the lady in Oregon on the garden forum how orach did for her - I remember her getting seeds for it last year.

Sorry, strawberries are annuals here and raspberries won't grow.

I was all like Whaaa???? there is somewhere NA that raspberries don't grow? Sure enough:

http://plants.usda.gov/core/profile?symbol=RUID

Wow. Right down to the very edge, but sure enough, get south enough...

I was thinking the same thing, Paul! I know they are VERY cold resistant, though I'm sure it varies among the varieties.

Possibly they need a dormant period, hence not in the very south? Obviously I just looked at the map, didn't do any actual work

We're zone 3 (barely); safer at zone 2, so we are on the very edge of cold hardiness for most varietals. Between that and the rabbits, they are not a good bet here. We grew them like weeds in Ottawa, but I don't know anyone who has them here. My Junipers will also need to be replaced this year (all of them). The rabbits have decimated them.

Sounds like you need some traps, and a bunch of rabbit recipes.

We used to have a rabbit problem, not so much any more. Now it's deer. Don't know what happened to the rabbits. Our best defense against both has always been dogs, especially Westies, champion barkers.

fitzie

I don't think I ever saw wild rabbits growing up in Vermont. I remember touring Scotland at about 24 and being amazed to see rabbits on the lawn of one of the B&Bs. They're pretty common here and Wendell and I see them on many of our morning walks (not so much in the Winter).