The raspberry harvest was a little anti-climactic this year because we were out of town for the last pickings. When we returned the berries were clearly past their prime. No point grumbling too much however since this is a “building” year, so to speak. Around this time of the year I start preparing for next year’s harvest and the first step is to weed out any plants that have poked through the mulch. To be honest though the mulch we applied last fall will have nearly broken down by this time of the year so there are lots of little plants to deal with. For instance, about seven years ago, a sweet pea from next door hopped the fence to elope with our raspberries and they’ve been together more or less ever since. I keep trying to pull them out but they so persistently return, it must be love. I spent my time today weeding – and swatting at a cloud of little bugs that kept dive bombing my face.
The next step after finishing all the weeding, will be to prune off this year’s dying/dead canes, prune the green canes so they’ll split and make a bigger harvest next year and then spread the whole area with mulch. This year I’m trying a thick layer of straw. But since it looks like rain, those are all tasks for another day.
