We have an area of raspberry canes in our small-ish city permaculture garden. They’ve been there for years, long before I took over, and by the looks of it so have the weeds. I typically have a laissez-faire approach to weeds but this bed pisses me off!
It’s not just a bit of grass, it’s cinquefoil that makes a really dense mat, and this other tall flowering thing that swamps them. Plus some hidden brambles. It looks ugly, there’s very little air flow (our conditions are a bit airless at the best of times), and at this time of year they’re outcompeting the small canes for sunlight. I have to go out every few days and chop what I can back to ground level. We also had a wasp nest under the thick weed blanket last summer which meant the children couldn’t access the canes to harvest berries.
My aim is to mulch again on top of a thick cardboard layer, and this time replace the weeds with something else, quick growing that will cover the ground and preferably have a benefit to us / the garden. I was wondering about strawberries as they grow a bit like cinquefoil. Borage / yarrow / comfrey, perhaps, but it’s a large area to cover if starting these from seed (I hate buying this sort of stuff). Ideally something that establishes early in the season. Any ideas? What do other people co-plant w raspberries?
submitted by /u/pirategospel
[link] [comments]
