Raspberry Recycle

Everything can be put to good use.  In my dream world that is true.  When it actually happens that a natural waste product has a beneficial second life, I'm blissed out.

The fresh green of this year's growth.

So collecting my bliss is top of the Things I get to do today in the berry patch.  The raspberries are finished after four weeks of generous gifts to our table and tummies and a few into the freezer.  The last few pickings were not very much fun with the new canes hanging every-which-way, getting in the way and risking being broken off, brittle as they are.  Removing the just-finished-baring canes feels good as I put the patch in order and give this year's canes space and support for their fall crop.

These grew up last summer, released their first berries in
the fall, and just finished blessing us with this year's crop.

Mulch is a gift to the new growth, holding moisture and releasing its nutrients back into the soil.  As I collected the spent canes, their yet-healthy-and-green leaves caught my attention.

Old leaves stuffed between the canes as mulch.  Do not do this
if there is disease or rust of any kind on your raspberry leaves.

They snapped easily and quickly from the stalks.  A generous fistful was tucked between the canes and snugged to the ground.  All the spent leaves stripped, and all of them used for mulch.  Bliss.