Fruit cages are useful things when the bushes are full of fruit and you don't want the birds to get the fruit before you have a chance to get to it yourself. They are less useful when it's winter. The main problem is that if it is very icy or there is snow, the net at the top of the cage can get too heavy and either break the cage or break itself. There is also the issue of pests building up in the cage, because the birds aren't able to get in to scratch around under the bushes.
Both these problems are easily solved by taking off the top of the cage for the winter and spring. This lets the birds do their de-bugging, and also means the top net is safe.
So - the team set to and managed to get the net removed from the cage. We also took the opportunity to prune out the old growth from the blackberry/raspberry hybrids and loganberries that we've planted around the edge of the cage, as well as giving the whole thing a spruce up. We weeded - some of the weeds were pretty impressive! Then we put compost around all the bushes, and topped up the wood chippings to keep down the weeds.
It's all looking pretty good now, and we hope that it will stand the weather because we've shored it up with line and wire to make sure the structure doesn't fall apart in the wind. We'll put the top back on around April.
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