Gooseberries, supermarket lettuce and pea netting!

HI everyone,

I've got a few newbie questions - so thought I'd put them all in one post 

1. I have a gooseberry bush on the plot - how do I know when they're ready to pick? Also do gooseberry bushes have a certain lifespan? Anything I should feed it?

2. Supermarket lettuce - can I plant these and will they grow in to big lettuce? Not having much luck with seeds!

3. The plots either side of mine don't have pea netting, but an old fella walked passed mine today and said 'you'll want netting over those before the wood pigeons get them' - to net or not to net? that is the question!

And on a final note - the seed potatoes and onion sets I planted last weekend are poking through the soil! Soooo exciting! 

Thanks for all the help - its really appreciated xx

... and breath. 

1. Rule of thumb for all fruit - give it a gentle tug and twist if it comes off it's ripe.  I've never seen a bush die of old age 
2. Yes, you can plant it. I've done a tray from snasbods myself today.  If you're sowing seeds now they're likely to be too hot, sow them in a shady place away from Mr slug.
3. If you net them you will get a crop, don't net and you might get a crop.

Nobby you're making me drool! lol! 
I've no idea what variety it is, or indeed if there are enough berries to make anything with.... I'll take a picture of it later for identification.
How do you make all this stuff? Got any recipes you'd like to share? 

google how to re size pictures. you need to open and change in paint then it will upload fine.

as far as lettuce, prob the easiest thing to grow from seed. buy some new seeds, sow in a seed tray and dib out into modules. i went with paris island cos from premier seeds, really good crop, good size, you can plant quite close together and easy to grow.

The traditional way with gooseberries is to pick every other one now and pick the rest in about a months time when they are properly ripe. That gives you an early picking for making tarts etc and allows the rest to grow bigger.