Sunday, March 22, 2015

Getting the berries under control

The annual process of controlling the berries begins

Step 1: remove all the old canes
(ps, you can see the raspberries in the background, I've already removed the dead stuff and tied them up)

Step 2: tie up the 1 year old canes
So far, I have put in 5 days to get this far.  It's harder than it looks.
One of these year I am going to thin these berries.  Ideally, we would have 1 plant every 4-6 feet.  Currently, we have them every 4-6 inches.  Yikes

Ther are two varieties, Cascade and Young berries according to the son of the family that used to live here.  I want to separate them out because one is good eating and the other good cooking.  But I know them by their leaves.  so, I think this set is the Young berry.  I have tagged it.  I just have to remember to check if I am right.

We got 3 dump trucks of mulch delivered

My big annoyance with the berries are the thistles.  and bindweed but I don't know how to kill that one.  
So step 3:  cardboard down between the berries

Step 4: alder leaf mulch on top of that

The mower doesn't fit between the rows, so...
Step 5: weed cloth between the rows

and step 6: Cedar chips on top to level out the path.

It looks reasonably pretty, and I really hope it helps control those dratted thistles!

I could kind of get the little mower between the raspberries, but it was a seriously bumpy ride, so we are mulching here as well


 Just in time to finish, everyone is staring to leaf out!

I hope this works! it was so much work to do

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