Finally a bit of warm weather. The last few days have been lovely (it will probably rain tomorrow now I’ve said that). The 240 crocuses plus a few snowdrops we planted last autumn before returfing are putting on a good show.

Gypsy assisted with tidying up outside by trying to eat the stray bits of hay whilst we swept up. Why is it that bits of hay that have been totally ignored for ages suddenly becomes a must have piece as soon as you go anywhere near them with a  dustpan?

Scamp was equally helpful inside whilst I planted seeds. I’ve sown over 200 in the last couple of days, a mix of veg and flowers.

Is any one else enjoying a bit of spring gardening? If you’re feeling a bit green fingered (and are in the uk), the BBC are offering free vegetable seeds again this year: BBC Dig In.

In the quest for more leafy greens I’m experimenting with a bit of window sill growing. Two weeks ago I sowed timothy grass, dandelion and carrots seeds to see which would be most productive. The grass is off to the best start with quick germination and 3 inches of growth already. The carrots are slightly slower and the dandelion (the weeds that will grow anywhere) haven’t even shown their heads yet!

Poor bunnies, still a bit of a wait before there is anything to eat. Later on this month I’m going to be starting my proper carrots off and I’ll post some easy instructions in case anyone else wants a go.

More random rabbit toys. Here is Scamp herding some weeble like children’s toys. He spent ages rearranging them and throwing them around.

We don’t generally buy vegetables for the rabbits. That doesn’t mean they don’t get veg, they get what we eat, or more specifically what we don’t eat – vegetable scraps.

I’m sure some people will read this in horror… many rabbit owners buy more veg for their rabbits than themselves. I’m not suggesting that you should feed your rabbit anything that has gone bad. However, many of the parts of vegetables that people routinely throw away are perfectly fit for consumption and are often the best bits for rabbits to eat. For example carrots tops are much better for rabbits than the carrot itself.

We sort all leftovers from fruit and vegetables in to two categories, anything in good condition and safe for rabbits goes in the ‘rabbit bowl’ ready for dinner time and anything unsuitable, either because it’s unsafe or has gone bad, goes in the compost box. Once your in the habit, it’s no hassle and you’d be surprised how much there is that your rabbit can eat. Here are seven ‘vegetable scrap’ dinners (each bowl full is split between my two rabbits):

Left: celeriac, carrot peel, butternut squash, parsnip, leek leaves (not bulb).
Right: sweet pepper, strawberry leaves, apple core, carrot peel



Left: swede, parsnip, carrot peel, butternut squash.
Right:Pear peel & core (yum stewed pears!), carrot peel.



Left: carrot peel, cabbage, apple peel.
Right: carrot peel, parsnip, sweet pepper, butternut squash, sweet potato (only small amounts – some people don’t feed this), apple core


Left: broccoli stalk, kiwi peel, carrot top, mango, pear, apple, melon rind
Right: same plus Scamp.

It was interesting to record what we and they eat. I didn’t realise we ate so many carrots! We did eat other things that didn’t provide anything for the rabbits like peas, sweetcorn, runner beans, stoned fruit, etc. It also made me think a little more leafy veg would be good (I wish shops didn’t chop off all the leaves before sale). Their diet is quite seasonal; this time of year we are eating a lot of winter veg like squash and root crops. As spring comes around there will be more leafy veg plus weeds and grass. I’ll have to have a think next autumn about what we can grow over winter in the greenhouse to add to that, maybe the trays of grass could move inside.

The above is, of course, fed alongside lots of tasty hay.

Today I started pruning our raspberry canes. I’m going to spread it over a week or so and give the rabbits the prunings. They had the remaining leaves in autumn so now there are just sticks (called canes) left but hopefully they’ll enjoy gnawing them.

Last year was the first year we’ve grown them and I’m really pleased with how they did. We put six canes (plants) in a large tub in March/April (a bit late) and they gave us several handfuls of raspberries over the summer and into late autumn and some lovely leaves for the rabbits to nibble. Hopefully they’ll do even better this year.

Blackberry and raspberry leaves are great for rabbits. They are high in fibre and are really tasty. They are very handy if you have a rabbit with a sensitive tummy or that needs tempting to eat.

You’re meant to plant them by early March, before the weather warms up, so here are some tips on growing raspberries:

Picking Plants

Raspberries come in two types, summer and autumn fruiting. Summer ones fruit on the growth from the previous year, autumn on the growth from the same year. The summer ones you have to prune the stalks that fruited without pruning the new ones. Autumn is much less complicated to prune, you just chop it down to the ground each winter. Needless to say, we went for autumn fruiting.

If you haven’t seen a raspberry still attached to the plant, let me warn you those plants are prickly! Loads of spines all over the stems and underside of the leaves. Not much fun for picking or pruning. The good news is now you can get thornless varieties with no prickles! You might need to hunt around a bit more but personally I think it’s worth it. We went for a variety called ‘Joan J’ but there are lots of others too.

Planting

Raspberries need planting whilst they are dorment, so you have until the weather warms up sometime in March. The plants come as ‘bare rooted canes’ that means they basically look like a short stick with some roots and no soil. They look quite dead to be honest.

We planted our raspberries in a containner (about 18″x18″x3′) but you can also plant them in the ground if you have room. You’ll probably get more growth in the ground and you’ll have to water less but a containner is handy if your short on space.

To plant, you need to soak the roots for an hour or so, dig a hole, drop the plant in so the soil comes up to the old soil line where they’ve been dug up before sale, then fill the hole in and water them. You’re left with what looks like a 6″ stick stuck in the ground.

Then you sit back and wait, they should sprout new green shoots (canes) which will grow 4-6′ over the year and eventually have the raspberries on the end.

Care

They don’t need much care. If it’s very dry then they’ll appreciate some water. A bit of fertilizer (such as rabbit poop) will help them along. They need pruning in late winter. Cut off all the stems that fruited that year, for autumn raspberries that’s all of them.

Here’s some slightly more professional advice on growing raspberries from the RHS.

It’s nice to be thinking about growing things, the garden looks so misrable at the moment. I’m looking forward to spring when everything turns green. There are already a few bulbs poking their noses out ready!