The overgrown Raspberry bed’s demise

The overgrown Raspberry bed’s demise

The overgrown Raspberry bed’s demise is well under way! Just over a week ago I dug up the first 3 or 4 rows in this bed & afterwards I dug in horse manure & sprinkled a little chicken manure on top of it in the hope that it would help it rot down faster. I then covered the whole bed with soil improver – the name given to the composted gardening waste the local council collects from people’s homes.

This is composted on an industrial scale & reaches very high temps & is therefore sterile. When Gerry & I went to the place they do it there was an enormous mountain of the stuff for free collection by anyone. Every time we broke away some to shovel into bags you could see the steam rising & feel the heat it gave off! Even after a couple of days in the bags on the allotment it was still warm!

The overgrown Raspberry bed in September:

The overgrown Raspberry bed is being dug up to make way for other crops next year. I don’t believe they are worth keeping & anyway they occupy far too much space for a half allotment. They haven’t been looked after for years & are full of dead wood from previous years as well as tons of couch grass, which, as most people will know, is very invasive & is terrible to get rid of as the smallest piece will grow into another plant which will spread its roots everywhere as well after a few months!

Gerry also has two beds on his allotments (1 & 1/2) & this year I’ve eaten tons of them, (to the point I began to think my face must look like a Raspberry! LOL! ), & as I will continue to help him with them I don’t want any more on my new plot!

The Raspberry bed is roughly divided up into about 4 rows with rows of canes 3 or 4 wide. It looks as if originally about 4 rows were planted with a path between each but these rows were subdivided into 3 or 4 rows in each subdivision. As Raspberries make new canes alongside the originals there isn’t a very clear division between rows. The paths may have been made just by the previous tenant over years of walking alongside the rows, perhaps when he first used to tend them &/or when picking the fruit. When I took over the plot at the beginning of September there were a couple of fairly clear paths where it was obvious the grass had been trodden down fairly recently.

Raspberry bed in October – A start being made:

This is what the the bed looks like now! It’s covered in the black soil improver which I’ve put on as a mulch after soaking the soil, to kick start the decomposition process of the horse/chicken manure & to try to stop as many weed seeds as possible from germinating.

Raspberry bed in November – The battle continues

I spent the better part of 4 hours on the next bit of the bed today, 5th November. I started off with clearing as much of the top growth of Raspberry canes & Couch grass as I possibly could. Just that phase took more than an hour! Then I started to dig as much as possible of the roots out – a mammoth task! As the grass roots form a thick, almost impenetrable layer several inches thick it’s very difficult to dig them out & is a backbreaking exercise – even for someone with a healthy back & mine is by no means healthy! So it requires constant stopping for a breather while stretching my back. I also had to be very careful to lift each forkful with my legs rather than my back! I only managed to finish 3/4 of the bed, but then I’m in no great hurry as I have all winter in which to get the canes & grass dug out. I’m only doing it now because the mild weather is giving me time!

I’ve got rid of the rusty old barrel you’ll have seen in previous photos! I had hoped it was full of composted waste but no, it was mostly full of Couch grass roots & a few canes & tons of stones & a little soil. I dug out the grass & canes & tipped the remains on the ground to dig in!

An hour later:

On Monday I hope to finish digging out the roots in the last 1/4 of the bed so I can start to dig in the horse manure. I doubt I’ll have sufficient time on Monday to finish digging in the manure so that’s a job to finish off on Tuesday.

Time now to go home & refuel!