Timely tips eight week:

• the above is picture of my fruit beds. There is nothing that I can do at this point in time, except to wait till the water goes down and see if anything is left alive. Last year (2013), we had 80 days of flood and we had the best crop ever. In fact I am still eating them from my deep freeze at the the moment. So I take heart from that.
• Round seeded peas can be sown in a sheltered position and there is no better variety then Pea Meteor. Soil temperature should be 50 f. Make a drill eight inches wide and two inches deep. To allow for the inevitable losses, sow rather thickly. I sow mine in pots and plant them out when they are about two inches high.Watch out for mice, because there is not much food around for them at this time of the year and they will eat anything.
• If you have gooseberries, this is a good time to prune them. Do this by cutting side-growths to within two buds of their bases and slightly shortening the leading shoots. On the other hand you could cut out wood that is crowding the center. Retain promising young growth at the full length.
• Red and white currants are pruned by cutting back side growths to within two or three buds, and reducing leading shoots so the they remain at one-half their present length. AS black currants fruit on the young wood, the method of pruning is different, merely consisting of cutting out old branches and retaining wood at full length.