raspberry help/netting plea

[BroadRipple]

OK here's the situation. Tiny garden, raspberries brilliant in first year but less good in second, and taking up valuable space.
a)Should I move them to a shadier/more Scottish part of my garden and keep the sunny bit for vegetables etc?
b)And if so, is it too late in the year?
c)Last year I covered them with thickish netting and I think this may have stopped pollinators (well, fat bumble bees) from getting at the flowers. Is this likely? And if so, any netting recommendations? Do I even need it? In fact, Grapies, netting is a major issue - how you would laugh at the sight of me half-strangled by my annual attempts to cover my 'crop' (3 currant bushes, 2 blubes), only to find that I can't then access berries for picking, weeds for killing etc etc...it's pitiful. And I don't have the DIY skills to make anything better. And a huge fruit cage in my very visible garden would make me even more of a laughing stock than I already am. HELP.
ok. breeeeaaathe.

[greenishfing]

I never net my raspberries and don't have a problem. I used to net my strawberries but it was such a pain trying to pick them that I just planted extra plants and decided to let the blackbirds have a few. The secret with strawberries is leave the half eaten fruit on the plants. Blackbirds will then come back to the same berry.

[Newton]

You did prune them?

[rustylady]

I don't net my raspberries, there's usually enough for me, the birds and the dog (yes, the dog loves raspberries). As Newton says, did you prune them?

[Two_Sheds]

I never net raspberries, the (black)birds are too busy scoffing my strawbs to notice them

[ladylottie]

I don't net my raspberries either at the lottie but there are loads and enough to go round for me and the birds. It might be a different story if I only grew a few at home in the garden though!
I was wondering too if you'd pruned them?

[Two_Sheds]

my annual attempts to cover my 'crop' (3 currant bushes, 2 blubes), only to find that I can't then access berries

I hate tangly netting.

Voile (but not the Ikea one, it tears) is much easier to handle, can be sew into drawstring tents or large sheets, whatever you need. It last a good few seasons too, and can be bunged in the washing machine then packed away.

[BroadRipple]

yes I did prune...but v encouraged by all you non-netters. and simultaneously and contradictorily encouraged by twosheds's voile idea. Love a bit of garden creativity. Thank you all - still wondering what I did wrong but poss it was that netting...

[Alison]

I don't net my raspberries either, at some point I'll build a full sized fruit cage over all my lottie fruit but that is probably a few years off as I have other projects on the go at the moment. I do net strawberries though as the ones round here take a bite out of one then move onto the next, the next and then the next one without ever going back to the first one . I used to construct a fancy net arrangement with poles and pegs but last year was running short of time at the end of the day and the strawberries were starting to ripen so just weighted some enviromesh that wasn't needed at the time over the top and it worked really well as it's so strong. No good if the strawberries weren't already pollinated but great at that point as I had hundreds of fat green fruits ready for the sunshine.

[ladylottie]

last year was running short of time at the end of the day and the strawberries were starting to ripen so just weighted some enviromesh that wasn't needed at the time over the top and it worked really well as it's so strong. No good if the strawberries weren't already pollinated but great at that point as I had hundreds of fat green fruits ready for the sunshine.

This is a good idea - I'll have a much bigger strawbs bed this year and I'll try slinging some enviromesh over them - it should save all the faf of rummaging about under poles and nets.

[binley100]

I've never netted the raspberries ......this year I couldn't if I wanted cos they are all round my new plot like a hedge ........I will be covering the fruit bushes tho' in one way or another.......Last year I had a race with the pigeons for my gooseberries .

[Two_Sheds]

poss it was that netting...

You'd only need to net once the fruit was fruiting, not when the flowers was flowering ...

[Aberdeenplotter]

I'm lucky, I inherited a big portable walk in fruit cage when a customer sold his house but I also have some rasp canes along the side of my plot as a screen. I never try to crop them and leave them to the birds in the hope that if they have a free source there they won't bother my other soft fruit

[BroadRipple]

You'd only need to net once the fruit was fruiting, not when the flowers was flowering ...

i know it seems dim but i think maybe that's where i went wrong! thank you 2sheds. also, can i say that 'compost everything' is becoming my motto, to a quite scary extent *gets up off floor where has been searching for balls of fluff under shelving*

[Two_Sheds]

can i say that 'compost everything' is becoming my motto, to a quite scary extent

Yay !

fluff bunnies, hoover contents, hair trimmings, toenail cuttings ...