Raspberries reloaded

The raspberries were coming to an end and I had started to thin out the old branches to make room for next year's canes. They had given a very good crop but had been very crowded and difficult to get around when in full leaf. There were also a couple of plants and a conifer bush struggling in the corner, and a cherry tree not quite in the right position. The support canes were also a few years old and needing a lot of lashing down in high winds. So, time for a change...

 Cut out all of this year's canes, leaving next year's in place. In fact, one of them had decided to start fruiting a year early. I decided to keep this one to collect seed.May have an evolutionary development, but they can fruit on year one canes if they're happy enough.

 Dug out all the canes and stored in buckets.

 Also dug out all the surounding plants and bushes, and gave it all a good digging over to remove any stray roots.

 Made some boards with the remaining scaffolding planks and staked them down.

 Dug in two posts and added a good load of compost.

 Finally, planted the canes back in. Only used half of them because they are really heavy croppers. Also planted, from left to right: Morello Cherry, Blackberry, Gooseberry, Blueberry. There's some room on the corners for some strawberries too.

Et voila! One soft fruit bed!!! Next phase is to level the ground behind the fruit bed for a BBQ. Watch this space...