Wendel's networking has been going great guns this week and I now have 2 new clients, the first of which I visited yesterday - a lovely garden full of flowers and fruit trees. I was asked to prune back some raspberry bushes and do a bit of weeding for a lovely lady (and her gentleman lodger - very sweet lad) who needs a bit of help getting the garden ready for the winter. As I don't have much experience with soft fruits (apart from nicking blackberry's from off the allotment), I went armed with my trusty RHS pruning book and got stuck in.
As I found out raspberry's fruit on the second years growth, so with these summer fruiting shrubs you need to cut back this years dead wood to allow space for next year's fruit. It was easier than I thought to identify the old wood from the new and I spent a pleasant couple of hours thinning and tying in the new growth to give it support. It was great fun and very restful pruning away to the sound of bees in the September sunshine.
As a bonus I also came away with a bag of delicious apples, which were literally falling off the tree as I worked. Back in a couple of weeks to finish off and dig out some old gooseberry bushes so long sleeves and gloves are a must!
LxXx
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