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garden (in my pyjamas) and pick off the fattest, ripest berries to put on my bowl of breakfast cereal. What a great start to the day.To avoid a painful harvest I only grow thornless blackberries, and have trained two of my favourites, Loch Ness

as the pustules erupted from nearly every leaf.The pears too had rust - a sight I've only ever seen a handful of times (and that includes working as plant pathologist at RHS Wisley for 11 years, examining thousands of decrepit plants each year). Presumably it

show recently, and 80% of the questions people asked me were about their poorly raspberries. I only grow autumn-fruiting varieties at home, which normally avoid attentions of raspberry beetle, but the early berries have been affected. So I wasn’t too

worthwhile. A short row of raspberries just 1.2m long has produced several pickings, used to add tasty home-grown vitamins to my morning bowl of cereal. Blackberries are now taking over, and I'd thoroughly recommend thornless varieties to give regular

and cooking crops. Do let us know in the comments section of this blog if there are any harvesting tips you'd like us to cover.Finally, do join me and a host of other experts on the ‘Grow Your Own’ Garden at BBC Gardeners' World Live (15-19 June 2011) for more