Cats and Fruit

  

Yum. It’s not just me picking my neighbours raspberries whilst they are away!

Oh the responsibility

I’ve been given the daunting task of looking after three cats this week.  A neighbour has gone away and I must have given the impression that I have a soft spot for the felines at some time. I’m not sure how as they don’t really come high on my list of pets.  It’s not too much of a task, let them in, let them out, feed them and avoid any physical contact of the litter tray that seems to be taking on a life of its own.  Everything went well until the third day, I went to let one of the roaming tom cats in for the night and it has disappeared.  Four days later and I am still wandering the streets asking strangers if they have seen the wanderer and pushing contact details through the letter boxes of where the cat has gone missing before (It’s happened a couple of months ago and not surprisingly he was found very near to a few females on heat)  

Brings back memories

The whole experience brings back vivid memories of when I was entrusted to look after a friend’s fish. The first time I was asked, one of them died in my care (I thought the water should look like mud) and the second time the following year they still asked me to look after the remaining fish that survived my neglect the previous year.  I still can’t believe that a cat got into the house minutes after they had left to go on their holidays. The cat ate the fish and left the tail on the floor in the living room.  I still also can’t believe that on both occasions, like in some really bad situation comedy I went to the pet shop to try and get a fish that looked like the ones I had let die. The staff at the shop thought it was a bit strange, especially on the second trip when I took the tail in and tried to match it up with the gold fish they had in the tank.  

Perks

There has been a perk though as the neighbours garden is full of lovely soft fruit. I have to compete with a golden retriever in the adjoining garden for the raspberries as he has taken to jumping up and grabbing what he can from over the fence. Thankfully he doesn’t get many.  Their alpine strawberries are doing well as are the currants; it seems to be a good year for a lot of fruit, especially the blackcurrants which are laden.  Julie’s mother has been harvesting her large crop of raspberries, the yield is good but some of the fruit has been blemished by the rain. This isn’t a problem though as the best ones are kept and frozen for decorating pavlovas and other puddings, then any blemished ones are put straight into the jam pot and boiled up to make her now legendary pots for family and friends.  At the moment she has two on the go, raspberry and my favourite, rhubarb and ginger. It’s partly the taste why I like the latter, but more to do with the fact that after a spoonful on toast I don’t spend the remainder of the day picking seeds out of my teeth.

Frost Pockets

Most soft fruits will grow well in any sunny position in the garden. Blueberries love our acid soil and blackberries, red and white currants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberry, rhubarb and tayberries all do well in our moderate climate as long as it’s well lit, fed, drained and you read up when to cut back the fruit, (I cut every raspberries cane back to ground level in our own garden last autumn so none of the new shoots have produced fruit)   The main thing to look out for is to plant them away from frost pockets.   

Areas where cold air collects are known as frost pockets, and it’s best to avoid growing fruit in these areas because flowers that emerge very early in the year can be damaged or killed.

Cold air naturally sinks and collects in the lowest point it can reach, so sloping sites are most at risk. If the garden is in a natural valley, try not to plant the fruit at the bottom of it, where there will be a natural frost pocket. You can also inadvertently create frost pockets on sloping sites by stopping the downward flow of cold air with a hedge, fence or a building like a large shed. The cold air gets trapped on the upper side of the barriers. Where they do exist, avoid planting fruit directly above them. Other than that having your own crop of fresh fruit is a great bonus in the summer months when you can have a break from cutting the grass or in my case hanging around to see if the cat comes back before the neighbours return from their holiday at the weekend.