I made a bit of time this morning to trim some of the raspberries and improve the soil with  free used coffee grounds.

If you look at the photos below, you’ll see that all fall and winter, blowing leaves have collected and begun to break down around our raspberries. This required no work on my part (it actually required that I do no work) but it protected the soil, provided amendments as it broke down, and more.

Late winter I trim the raspberries back to around 12″ and completely remove the dead stalks. The former helps the stalks grow strong new shoots, the latter makes working in the patch easier in addition to improving air flow.

Trimming the stalks back made the next part much easier. I poured about 30 lbs of used coffee grounds on the area. In the remaining few weeks of winter these grounds will begin breaking down the leaves and adding nutrition as well as valuable organic matter to the soil to feed and maintain the raspberries.

Raspberries trimmed, surrounded by fallen leaves.

Add coffee and hibernate for another few weeks.

When working in the raspberries be sure to wear eye protection, because it is very easy to get a stray thorny stalk in your eye.  Stay warm!