Raspberry Taming

Give Raspberries a few years and they will start to take over. You’ll find their runners popping up all over the place. I found one last year on the ‘other side’ of the path to where my Raspberry patch was. With a small garden such as mine I have to keep them under control or run the risk of them taking vital nutrients from other plants.

In the Summer I was inundated by Raspberries. I tried everything to get rid of them. While I agree that Raspberries are indeed yummy and yes I can freeze them, I feel forced to cull them this Winter, if only in an effort to claw back some precious growing space.

So as part of my annual pruning of Autumn Raspberries I also dug up every other plant. I dug up any runners that had strayed too far from the patch, tightened the wires and straightened the supports.

Hopefully this Summer we’ll be back to more normal Raspberry production. But I’m sure in a few years I’ll be doing the same thing all over again.

Category: Growing Fruit, Pruning     Tagged: ,

10 Comments on “Raspberry Taming”

  1. Yes you will but at least they are shallow rooted. Top tip from commercial growers of autumn fruiting ones they like a deep (9 to 12 ins) dry mulch of hay/leaf litter/chipped bark.

  3. Oops you’ve reminded me to sort out the supports as mine nearly keeled over last year. Roll on Sunday!

  4. They do take over eventually. Just planted my first autumn varieties so looking forward to a longer raspberry season!

  5. oooohhhh,,, JUST today… in sunny California… I dug up some raspberry runners (that had run into the path) for my daughter to plant in her garden! I actually live in coastal foggy CA… so loving that raspberries grow here… last year, I finally (ok… only 2nd year for the patch) had a decent crop… so I am still loving my berries! & raspberries are SO expensive in the stores…..
    so thinking…. worth the little extra work!

  6. I planted autumn bliss raspberries for the first time last year – I had a little fruit and have just abandoned them. Forgot the whole pruning thing! Do I just need to do it now – cut back to ground level?

  8. i planted a raspberry plant last year and got nothing but what seemes like a bramble, sharp and straggly with not one raspberry. is there a good spot to plant as i have a woodland type garden, shade or sun? im very much a novice and learning in what seems the hard way!

  9. I loved this post! I go through the same thing with my raspberries in Michigan.. I looooove them, but I’m petrified they’re going to end up growing in our neighbor’s sandbox.. On the other side of the fence! I was just posting about starting my garden today on my own blog, & just discovered yours! I’ll definitely be back.

  10. When I was a kid raspberries used to grow like crazy behind our shed in our backyard. Every year there would be more and more of them. I loved hiding out back there and eating them. There were also blackberries elsewhere in the yard.