Clearing a Tangle of Berries

Now that summer is gradually ending and we're moving into autumn, it's time to start tidying up the garden. I have to admit I have neglected it through the summer - just too busy working !

Summer was odd this year in this part of the UK. The first part was colder than usual, and we went through a patch of about 6 weeks where it rained every day. Not usually all day, but at least some rain every day.

This meant that all of our crops were very late ripening. Loganberries usually start ripening around the second week of June. This year, it was the end of July. The tomatoes never did ripen. We used the old trick of picking them green then putting them on the windowsill in a closed cardboard box separated by paper or cardboard so the tomatoes didn't rot against each other.

We didn't get any white currants at all, the pigeons stole the whole crop. I've briefed Duncan cat (who is still quite new to us) that next summer his job is to frighten the pigeons away any time they look at our fruit.

The soft fruit section of our garden badly needs attention. It's a total tangle of loganberries, blackberries, white currants, and neighbouring laurel and shrubs. Luckily the blackberry plant is a thornless one. It's been here since we bought the house nearly 20 years ago, and still reliably puts up new canes and gives us delicious fruit.

As you can see from this photo, it's a mess !

The original plan was to totally tidy it up, but there are still quite a lot of blackberries waiting to ripen. We've had a good crop, this is the third wave. My wife has been making pear and blackberry crumble with pears from the tree in the front garden and blackberries off this bush. Very yummy !

The tidying up process isn't just a case of cutting everything back. There are three loganberry plants, so it's a case of following each cane to work out what's going on. The ones that have given us fruit this year need to be cut down. The ones that have come up this year need to be tied up, because they'll give us fruit next year. They are very brittle and break easily if they aren't properly supported.

It's a time consuming process ! It may not look like much, but it took a couple of hours just to get this far.

Blackberries and white currants are similar to loganberries, fruiting on the previous year's growth. Once the blackberries have finished, I can cut down the old canes and pin up the new ones.

With the undergrowth all cut back, I've discovered a fox hole under the fence to next door's garden which I'll need to fill in. The grass is also in pretty poor state, but that can be a next spring project !

The white currant bush (at the bottom, centre left with the slightly lighter green leaves) can be pruned once the leaves have dropped at the end of autumn. I've got a spare garden arch, so the plan is to use about half it's height over the white currants which can then be netted over next year as the flowers turn to fruit. Hopefully it will stop the birds eating them !

All photos by me