Small Fruit Alley

I've been steadily adding to my fruit options in the back garden.  Along the fence (or MFF as I like to refer to it), I've planted a gooseberry bush, and a Red Lake currant bush, and an espalidre pear tree underplanted with strawberries, with more strawberries in a raised bed. 

Last June, I planted a pair of Chester thornless blackberries, which were a bit of a gamble as I don't really live in the correct zone for them.  I had rather thought they had died...but when I dug them out in a de-weeding process, I discovered they were alive and kicking and sending up new shoots. (They are the tiny green bits in the sea of mulch in the above photo.)

In between rainstorms the other day, I dug up and moved some thornless raspberries that were outgrowing their original home by the chicken coop and becoming a bit of a hazard.  It's a good gig, digging raspberries after a rainstorm.  They pop right out of the ground and into your bucket!  So now they are happily living along the MFF, all five generous clumps of them.

I'll need to add a few more guide wires to support them upright as they grow, and I hope that the weed suppressant fabric-and-mulch combo actually does its job somewhat--raspberries can get notoriously weedy.  Of course, the back garden tends to run weedy anyway.  I hear that its a sign of good soil, but all it really is, is irritating.  I've got plans though...well, time will tell if they work or not I suppose.  Good thing I got that deal on mulch back in February.