Berry picking season is over now, so it's time to trim the old canes and branches back and get the bushes ready for next year.
I love growing berries and have been growing them for a long time. Here at my Bedford, New York farm, I grow patches of red raspberries, golden raspberries, black raspberries, gooseberries, blueberries, and currants. Many berries are best eaten raw, but they can be used in a variety of ways - as ingredients in jams and jellies, pies and tarts, and delicious summer juices. For the best yields from these plants, it's crucial to keep them well-maintained - they need to be pruned properly and regularly. Pruning produces larger berries in greater volumes. It also helps to control diseases that might otherwise spread through the berry patches. We do a more aggressive pruning in late winter or early spring before the foliage returns, but recently, my gardener Brian O'Kelly, trimmed the long canes and cut out any unproductive old and dead wood.
Here are some photos - enjoy.
I have several rows of raspberries on one side of my main greenhouse. They all produce so many fruits every summer because they are well-maintained through the year.
Here is what these raspberry bushes looked like in late June – full of sweet berries. Summer-bearing raspberry bushes produce one crop each season. The fruits typically start ripening in late June into July with a crop that lasts about one month.
Botanically, the raspberry belongs to the Rosaceae family, in the genus Rubus.
The raspberry is made up of small “drupe” fruits which are arranged in a circular fashion around a hollow central cavity. Each drupelet features a juicy pulp with a single seed.
The leaves of raspberry plants are light-green and spade-shaped. They are also toothed along the edges.
Flip the leaves over and healthy leaves will be a light greenish-silver color.
Here are the bushes before we started grooming them. Raspberries are unique because their roots and crowns are perennial, while the stems or canes are biennial. A raspberry bush can produce fruit for many years, but pruning is essential.
The upright posts are made of granite and they have heavy gauge copper wire laced through them to support the long canes.
The wire can be tightened or loosened depending on the need.
The copper wire is on both sides of the canes holding them up.
Brian first prunes all the old, weak, diseased, and damaged canes at ground level. Unpruned raspberry bushes will still grow, but won’t yield more berries.
He checks all the canes to make sure he cuts all those that are necessary. Leaving them unpruned makes them more prone to disease.
It’s good to keep the base of the bushes within a 12 to 18-inch footprint by also pruning out any suckers that poke up outside those parameters.
Here is an old, dead cane that already produced berries. It is brown in color.
The young canes are still bright green.
Brian stops for a quick photo. Pruning the berries takes some time, so we do it over a course of days in between other more time sensitive tasks.
There are a few fall berries, but not many.
Here is a pile of old canes cut from the plants. After this pile gets a bit bigger, it will be loaded onto one of our vehicles and taken to the compost yard.
The last step is to trim off the tops, so it looks neat and tidy. Here is one row all evenly cut on top.
It is important to use sharp tools in order to get consistently sharp cuts. It is also crucial to keep tools clean. Leaf sap quickly builds up on blades and clogs up the mechanisms making them less efficient.
This area looks so much better. The rows of raspberries now have wide aisles between them. A little care for these berry bushes will keep them producing delicious fruits for many years. It’s a good start to fall, and there is lots of work to do.
Here at my Bedford, New York farm, even rainy days can be extremely productive.
Whenever it's stormy outside and my gardeners and outdoor grounds crew are unable to work in the woods or gardens, I encourage them to take stock of the equipment, clean everything, and then organize all the tools and supplies. After I bought this property, it became quickly apparent that I would need a large building to store equipment. The structure is about 40 by 120 feet, with a substantial amount of height. It is where we keep our mowers, blowers, tractors, tools, and other pieces of important machinery. Yesterday, while it rained for hours, my foreman Chhiring Sherpa cleared the space, cleaned, organized, and inspected every item before returning it neatly to its spot, so everything is in good order and ready to use. Keeping things well maintained and properly stored will always save time in the long run.
Enjoy these photos.
I wanted this Equipment Barn to be an attractive structure in an easy-to-access location. This building is just off the carriage road next to my Pin Oak Allée, hay barn, and vegetable greenhouse. This is one of two giant sliding doors – one at each end.
On top of the standing seam aluminum roof, I have three lead-coated copper finials. In winter, these can be seen clearly from across the paddocks.
Inside, the Equipment Barn is well lit with these big overhead lamps. I use very utilitarian lighting and fans where I can on the farm.
Natural light also comes through these windows.
In the back corner, we have this bank of lockers for the crew. Everyone has their own set of lockers where they can store safety equipment, extra shoes, clothing, and other personal items.
Each set of lockers is labeled. Safety helmets are kept on top for easy reach. There’s plenty of room for everyone.
On this rainy day, I asked that the equipment barn be well organized. All the pieces of equipment are brought out onto the driveway for inspection and cleaning.
Chhiring makes sure each piece of equipment is in perfect working order. Then, using a power washer, he thoroughly cleans each piece, so it is ready to use. This is my Kubota ZD1211-60 zero turn riding mower. It has a 24.8 horsepower diesel engine and a wide mower deck.
Once it is cleaned, Chhiring parks it back in the barn, in a designated spot, where it can easily be driven out when needed.
We have a fleet of Kubota mowers. They are used almost daily during the warmer months.
Our blowers are made by STIHL. We’ve been using STIHL’s backpack blowers for years here at my farm. These blowers are powerful and fuel-efficient. The gasoline-powered engines provide enough rugged power to tackle heavy debris while delivering much lower emissions.
This is STIHL’s backpack battery and hand blower. The backpack battery eliminates the cost of fuel and engine oil and can be used with several other useful accessories.
STIHL’s most well-known tool is the chainsaw. STIHL designed and built its first electric chain saw in 1926 and 94 years later, it is still one of its best pieces of equipment. The chainsaw has soft grips for comfortability and secure maneuverability.
Ladders of various sizes rest against one wall close to one set of large barn doors.
All the garden tools – hoes, spades, shovels, and rakes are hung on sturdy hooks.
On this section of wall, we hang all the leaf blowers, long handled hedge trimmers, and weed-whackers – also by STIHL.
This is our wood chipper – an important piece of equipment at the farm. I am fortunate to have this machinery to chip fallen or cut branches and then return them to the woodland for top dressing various areas. It has a special parking spot in one corner of the space.
I keep this vintage Allis-Chalmers tractor from the 1940s in this barn also. It reminds us how much these farm pieces have evolved over the years.
These broadcast spreaders are cleaned and then suspended on hooks, so they are out of the way.
Blowers, tillers, edgers, walk behind mowers, and generators are all parked by type and frequency of use.
We even have an area to store spare tires.
Once everything is back in place, the rugged cement floors are all blown of debris, swept, and washed. At nght, this barn also accommodates all our farm vehicles. So much can fit into this Equipment Barn, especially when it is clean and all the tools are properly put away.
Soon, my growing turkeys will move into a beautiful new coop.
Here at the farm, my property manager, Doug White, and Pete Sherpa from my outdoor grounds crew, have been working hard to complete the structure located at one end of the chicken yard. The 10-foot by 10-foot coop has windows on all sides for proper ventilation. I also wanted it to be tall, so it could house a ladder upon which the turkeys could roost. At the front is a large and very practical sliding barn door, which slides open and closed easily, stays put, and is out of the way. And on one side, a turkey-sized hinged door, which will offer the birds another way in and out of their new home.
Here are more photos, enjoy.
On this warm, sunny day, the framing is all complete and the walls are all going up, plank by plank. Window openings are also framed out on every side.
Fernando Ferrari has been working with me a long time. He does a lot of the painting here at the farm. Our favorite color – Bedford Gray, of course. Here he is starting on the back of the coop’s exterior walls.
From the inside of the coop looking up, one can see the horizontal slats on one side along with the shingles that are secured to the slats.
There are still a lot of shingles to put up. We’re using cedar shingles for the roof of this coop. Each piece measures about 16 to 18 inches long and about four to 14 inches wide. Wood shingles can last between 15 and 40 years depending on the climate, exposure to the elements, and the slope of the roof. As a rule, the steeper the roof, the longer the material will last because rain won’t pool on it and ice and snow won’t accumulate.
Batches of shingles are placed on the roof, so they are easy to reach.
Here’s Pete putting up the shingles on the south side if the roof. Each piece is hand-selected, so it fits perfectly.
And here he is working on the ridge of the roof. The roof ridge is the horizontal line running the length of the roof where the two roof planes meet. This intersection creates the highest point, sometimes referred to as the peak.
Down on the ground, Doug works on the casings for the windows.
I brought these windows back from Maine. They are from an old house I took down on my property next to Skylands. They are perfect for this project.
Fernando cleans the front window and prepares it for painting.
This window is repurposed as an awning window – hinged on the top, so it can easily open and close with the turn of a handle. It will provide plentiful light and ventilation into the space.
Here is a look from the inside.
More windows are installed on the sides.
On this day, the process was interrupted by a brief rain shower. Doug and Pete tested the coop and stood inside for the duration of the rain – no leaks anywhere!
On the back is a door just for the turkeys. They will be able to walk in and out of the coop through this smaller doorway which will be connected to a ramp.
Here are some of the parts of the sliding barn door. These are the rollers, part of the tracking system. They will go on the door rails and be used to slide the door open and closed.
Here, Doug measures where the rollers should be installed.
Here is the barn door rail – stainless steel which is good for both interior and exterior use.
Doug installs a piece of wood over the rail to further protect it from the elements.
Here it is complete – a small piece of wood on the right stops the door from sliding off the rails. Everything will be painted Bedford Gray.
The turkeys are all waiting so patiently for their new home and yard. I know they will love it.
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