New allotment + fruit bush conundrum

[Monster]

Hello! I got my first allotment last week (yay!), a half plot 150sq m, and have started clearing it because it is pretty overgrown, mostly just long grass though. It has some raspberries already on it, which I want to keep and leave where they are, and plant other fruit near them. That bit is also by far the most overgrown part of the plot - grass as tall as me and lots of dock etc. I won't be touching that part of the plot for a while yet though because there are some birds nesting there

However! My mum bought me some pots of soft fruit - autumn raspberries, gooseberry, redcuurents, a loganberry - that really need to go outside soon! I don't have a garden so they are sat on my windowsill, growing into triffids. I can't plant them out where I want them now, but I don't really know what to do with them for the couple of months until the chicks have fledged. Should I leave them in the tiny pots they are in and hope for the best, or pot them up into bigger containers and then plant them out in a few weeks, or wait until they are dormant and then plant them? The main problem I have with leaving them in pots outside is that they're going to get blown all about the plot all the time but if being messed about with too often is going to kill them off then I'll try to find some way of securing the pots. Tie them to the compost bin maybe.

Anyway that was a bit of a long waffley intro. Here's a nice picture of part of my weed farm before I strimmed the middle and built a compost bin *yes that is a bit of horsetail in the front corner...

[Bigmallly]

Hello Monster & welcome to the vine.........I'd pot your soft fruits up then transplant them into the ground in winter. Hopefully you will get some fruit this year.

[alldigging]

Pot them up and let them sit on your allotment plot until you're ready to plant them.

[Greenleaves]

Hi Monster....welcome. cant help with the question on fruit, but people on here have a wealth on knowledge. ....

[kathycam]

I'd also have the plants in pots at the allotment. Though if security is an issue there, maybe best not to have them too accessible! (I had things nicked from my plot, including Fruit trees)

What type of birds are they? Haven't most already left nests by now, or is this their second round?

[BertieFox]

I'd say you would be better to just plant them in a handy corner of soil near at hand where you can keep them well watered if there is a drought this summer. Then dig them up in the autumn with as much root as possible and transplant them to the allotment. Things in pots are murder to look after and won't thrive in a warm summer, while in the ground they can be kept moist and happy.

(Written by someone who has to spend an hour every day watering a great mass of tree seedlings and bushes in pots! Why don't I take my own advice! )

[Goldcrest]

Hello and welcome.

Don't know much about fruit bushes, but kathycam has a good point - it might be worth checking the type of bird to see if you can clear earlier. For example, it's bad news (although not for the birds)! if you have (for example) blackbirds, sparrows or robins as they breed all summer whereas (a bad example) a bluetit only tends to have one clutch and they should have fledged by now.

[Scarlet]

If getting stolen is your problem, pot on in larger pots and bury the pots in the ground. This will help stop them drying out as well. You really need to get them outside though, inside isn't a good idea, they'll get leggy.

[Monster]

Hey everyone. Thanks for all your suggestions - I think I might go down the burying them in pots route. It is a robin's nest by the way! So goodness knows when she'll be done. Good job I like birds so much