"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
Any other advice? Hand weeding or hoeing seem to be an impossible
task.


As soon as the ground has unfrozen, it's probably a good time of year to
lift the fruit canes, clear all the perennial weeds out by hand and then
replant the canes in the clean soil.

Martin

"Pam Moore" wrote in message
...
I have a patch of Autumn fruiting raspberries and currant bushes.
Due to a few years neglect the whole area is thick with couch grass
and bindweed which smothered the canes and bushes last year.
I have cut the raspberry canes down to the ground and pulled up as
much of the dead stuff as possible.
Question:
When the grass starts coming through can I use glyphosate on it as
long as no fruit leaves get touched?
Any other advice? Hand weeding or hoeing seem to be an impossible
task.

get some chickens :~))
- advantages are great fresh eggs
they will deal with the weeds and the bugs
and when it gets over worked and bare
if yo cover teh area with deep bark the birds will love the insects that are
attracted to the bark
and by turning it over will not get too boggy for their health
Every so often you clear the whole lot and compost it
and start again

I know its not gardening as such but the resulting muck from their house and
the mulch from the bark will do the rest of the garden wonders
:~))

--
Jill Bowis

http://www.poultryscotland.co.uk http://www.henhouses.co.uk
http://www.domesticducks.co.uk http://www.poultry-books.co.uk
http://www.kintaline.co.uk/cottage
TIA
Cheers
Pam

Bristol

The message
from Pam Moore contains these words:

I have a patch of Autumn fruiting raspberries and currant bushes.
Due to a few years neglect the whole area is thick with couch grass
and bindweed which smothered the canes and bushes last year.
I have cut the raspberry canes down to the ground and pulled up as
much of the dead stuff as possible.

Ask a local shop to save cardboard packing cartons for you, and use
these (flattened) as a mulch between rows and between bushes. Weigh it
down with some bricks/planks. This will defeat most weeds; add another
layer as the card disintegrates. If you can add manure, grass clippings,
chipped branches, cut green nettles between the card layers, so much the
better. You'll have small areas around each stem where some couch will
come through; keep pulling it out by hand as often as possible and
eventually it will die off.

Janet.