Thursday morning session

I came prepared Thursday morning to sort out my raspberries.
They were only planted last spring and I just let them get on with it, getting a small crop as expected.
I had banged in the support posts in the autumn but not fixed the wires so I arrived with staples and a hammer, the wire being buried somewhere in the shed!
I fixed up a lower wire on both rows and hammered in the staples for the top wire. I am not bothering with the recommended T-bar system and will just tie the canes back to the wire with long loops of string. I spread some of the pine needles I get from a neighbour down each side of the row to form a path. Raspberries like an acid soil so this is one of the few places I can use needles.
To keep the raspberries under control, each year I will run a spade down one side of the row, cutting through all the runners spreading out from the plants. I then dig over the path that side removing all the raspberry root I can. The following year I do the same on the other side.  That way the plants get little chance to spread!
Finally I pruned the summer raspberries, removing any branches that poked out sideways and trimming the dead tips. The autumn raspberries were cut down completely.
I then harvested a couple of parsnips, a few leeks and some more purple sprouting. It is great to be harvesting such a selection at this time of year and there was enough to offer a little to one of my neighbours!