Gooseberry bushes have yielded well for once. They’d had a problem with mildew for years, their scant fruit was unusable.

Following advice from ABC Hobart’s gardening talkback, I sprayed them with milk/water solution before fruit formed (when just leaves on bushes).

Today the reward – picked from our very few bushes, enough perfect gooseberries to fill 19 jars (now in the preserver) for pies and tarts, with enough left over for a batch of sparkling gooseberry.

Man of the house did the hardest part of the work – his arms are covered in scratches from the bushes and he spent at least an hour topping and tailing them. Despite this, he too is pleased with the yield.

That now makes two things that grow well here out in the open that are untouched by wildlife and not dug out by the chickens or geese – Tasmanian pepperberries and gooseberries.