Pruning Blackberries and fetching horse litter

Monday 14th January
Monday was a lovely day, fine weather and not too cold, so I could do some of the less energetic tasks. Top of the list was the blackberry bushes which needed cutting back and training.
I started by pruning out all the canes which had fruited this year. It soon became apparent that wherever a cane had touched the ground it had started rooting so I was soon pulling and digging plantlets and collecting them on the path. Once the fruited canes were removed and the rooted ends separated I 
fixed the thickest bamboo canes I had between the posts, replacing some thinner ones that were not up to the job. Following that I selected a few of the stronger canes cutting the weaker ones back to the ground.

​I decided to leave tying the canes in to another time as I had the trailer with me so I went to the horse litter bin and collected a load. The ten barrowloads I collected was stacked on the roots bed, which is already mulched with horse litter, ready for when I have dug over and cleared the paths alongside the raspberries of roots and offshoots.
That done I cleaned up the trailer and went home for a late lunch.