Raspberry advice PLZ, organic ideas welcome!

I want to plant a row of raspberries in my garden, partly for the fruit, partly to use as a kind of a "hedge" to keep my toddler away from the parking bit at the back.

I have two questions, first, which varieties would people recommend for the South-East climate? I'm not aiming for an April to January picking season but I'd need at least a combination of mid and late season varieties. Also desease resistant and good flavour, but please don't bother suggesting thornless varieties as that totally defies my purpose.

i've already got 3 Glen Lyon and 3 of something else, really can't remember what they were... BTW are they gonna be ok if I move them? the Glen Lyons are very young, only planted them this spring, the other three are 2-3 years old I think but they haven't grown big or fruited much(I think the soil's too poor where they are).

The other question is, is there anything I could use as companion plants? Would that have much benefit in terms of building a little eco-system, or am I just as well off growing them as a monoculture? Any advice from organic gardeners particularly appreciated. I suppose I'm mostly looking for stuff that would fill the gaps at the bottom, but if there's anything edible that would be happy next to raspberries that would be a bonus.

Thanks in advance!

 

Wheren`t you the one who didn`t want thorny plants in the garden because of the little one?

 

Raspberries aren't really thorny in my experience, but they don't make much of a hedge either, since you take out the fruited canes every year and they are easily pushed through. Not to mention the fact that your toddler might well find the berries irresistible and be drawn to the area! I'm not trying to put you off growing them as they are just about my favourite fruit, but I can't see them making much of a barrier.

 

Tbf, I couldn't pick a better post to return on... nope, I couldn't top this, cheers, Dai :thumb:

 

Welcome back Kyle

 

Cheers, Ziggy :D

 

Nope, twasn't me.
As I said I've already got a few raspberry plants in the garden, also roses and he picks the rose fruit then brings it back to me cooing

 

That may be, if you do prune them heavily and take canes out. I won't have time for doing it all by the book for another 5 years if not more. They'll be pretty much left to their own devices.

I don't know if it's just the way raspberries are grown in my home country, but what you tend to see most of the time is overgrown hedges. you wouldn't want to walk through them if your life depended on it. And no, the crop isn't affected, or certainly not as much as to make it pointless.

Of course it won't make much of a barrier if grown in a single row, I'd have to plant a double row or a few clusters, tho I'm thinking I might get away with arranging them chequerwise.

Anyway, chances are I'll have to put something else in, be it a screen at the back or other plants, because a raspberry hedge won't work in winter.

 

Personally I wouldn't put in anything which is edible - how will your toddler know that the pretty berries of that plant are edible, while other pretty berries .... are poisonous?

 

I remember walking to nursery school with my mum & her pointing out the poisonous deadly nightshade berries, so even at 3 or 4 the info got into my head.

A few years later I had to tell my mum that they were in fact Arum Lillies.