cutting raspberry canes
It seems too late, or too early, but there I was, overdressed and perspiring in the sun, cutting out the old canes from our raspberry and black raspberry patches. The new canes - young, lithe and smooth, golden tan (raspberry) or red-purple-blue (black raspberry) - grow better and produce more without competition from the old canes, stiff and flaking gray. The old canes make a nice prickly mulch, instead.
