Grapes and Raspberries

[Geranium]

I would love to have a lovely eating grape trailing over our terrace. The local garden centre has 'Muscat de Hambourg', Cardinal Rouge' and 'Casselas Rose'.  Can anyone comment on these from experience?  I don't like tough skins and too many seeds!

Also could I have comments on the following raspberries please? I've tried searching the internet but reviews on these varieties are hard to find. 'Zeva', 'Heritage Touffe', 'Sumo', 'Meeker', 'Malling Promise' and 'Tulomeen'.

I know I should be in Scotland to grow good raspberries and not in the South West of France, but I do love them!

[Tony F Dordogne]

I grow the Muscat grapes, second year, excellent grapes.

As for the raspberries, they should grow away like anything here so long as you keep an eye on them.  I garden on heavy soil/clay and have built raised boxes 60 x 60 cm for all the vines and fruit bushes and they all grow well.  The rasberries are also in raised long thin beds initially dug in compost plus terreau horticole to give a bit of body to the soil and then have dug in composted leaves this year to maintain the soil a bit.

All the varieties you have mentioned, grapes and raspberries, are currently on sale at Jardiland - pay a bit extra but from experience, good plants.  And if you go look at them you'll see that if you buy different varieties, you can have a succession of fruits from late June top the early part of September.

You might also want to think of planting some thornless blackberries, they are good also.

[Llwyncelyn]

I grow Muscat here in Normandie but in my greenhouses and to really ripen they need heat or warmth towards the end of the season.  Not sure where you live?

Casselas is that not a famous grape from the Lot area?  reknowned indeed.

Pruning grapes is an altogether different matter you do need to get your head around it.

Never grown rasberries but growth everything here in raised beds just for ease of gardening. 

On a related subject going to buy another compost bin and water butt.  Its just amazing what home made compost does for your garden and of course is recycling at its best and protecting the environment as best we can.