The blackberries have been throwing very vigorous new canes out all summer. I’ve been carefully stepping over them or brushing them to one side as I’ve gone around the plot.

But the time had come to trim back our thornless blackberries.

So firstly I tied all the new canes together in the centre using some garden string, being careful that the string did not cut into the delicate new growth canes.

This gave me the space to chop back all of the old canes. At this stage it is easy to see which canes had fruited this year.

And this is difficult to see from this photograph, mainly because there is still so much green around. I tied the new growth into two wires that had been stretched between posts. I am very pleased with this plant now, we should get some good fruit next year, its neighbour has not done very well, so has been chopped back to the base.

Next I pruned the blackcurrants, I still have the apple, pear, gooseberries and blueberries to do, but for that I need to read up a little first.