You can lay cardboard down and mulch over the top of that. You need a lot of mulch. No matter what you do it's going to be a big job.

Many caneberry u-pick fields here have very weedy/grassy rows, does not affect cane growth. The bush fruit may be a different matter.

The weed grass here grows 6' so.... Will shade out any fruit no matter how tall.

I have the same problem, hope you get and answer. I am contemplating a living mulch to suppress the weeds, but in my experience not much competes with an invasive grass.

I've let one area of blueberries go to basically turf, and weed whack it every few weeks. I have to say it's pretty high maintenance doing so and you're bound to whip the young shoots. Unless you can think of a better ground over. I can't think of anything that stays low that will also hold back big weeds.

Buckwheat could work if starting from a weed free bed. They bloom which is great for pollinators, then cut down as a cut and drop mulch. Won't work for me but worth trying!

micro clover?

Well, ..with my raspberry rows, have rows apart far enough that I can cut with lawn tractor, I cut close to the rows trimming suckers also which helps keeping the row narrow,..makes less work thinning the rows, less canes makes for more light and tastier berries.

Konrad, - I saw pictures of your lovely raspberries, and I was surprised to see the grass, simply because all the gardening info out there tells us to keep them cleanly cultivated. I had to till my whole bed under last fall I am starting fresh this spring and I am going to put in grass paths. For me, mowing is easier than hoeing.

Konrad, I was speaking to I beleive Tree Farm nursery about getting plants and mentioned that their is a guy from Canada who's on a website that takes great pictures. He says, ( It wouldn't be Konrad would it? ). I said yes! He said ya I know him. I talk to him for at least an hour every year on the phone.

put down mulch. This helps keep the soil moist (which encourages earthworms to aerate the soil), and makes it more difficult for weeds to take root and come up.

or plant a groundcover species (Rubus pentalobus might be a good one for drier warmer climates). More difficult for weeds to grow where there is already something else growing.

lingonberry is another groundcover if you are up north, they are very tart but nevertheless there is something special about them... get cravings to eat this berry. unlike cranberry they are very palatable

Johnny...yeah, he was nice enough to contact me if he can adopt my Golden Spice pear picture, [most others steal] with my credit...well, in this case it was my wife taking the picture..Golden Spice

I found that some of my older raspberry rows more established, the grass clippings from the mower spitting into the rows kept the weeds down pretty good.

OH... this moron took my apple picture, [Trailman crab] to advertise Golden Spice pear, lol....I should call him one of these days.

Golden Spice pear

Karma, nice to hear that at least they are looking like morons for all to see. You would think that if you are selling fruit, you would have your own to photo? Or at least recognize the difference between an apple and a pear.

In Canada artists automatically hold copyright for their creations, but I am not sure if that holds true in the States.

Konrad, wrong nursury sorry, it's in Canada, Tree Time nursery. I am looking for cupid and evans cherry trees. He said he couldn't ship to the states.

I mulch my berries with leaves in the fall. It doesn't look the best but works great. I do my fruit trees too with leaves. Helps keep the ground moist and makes great earthworm beds.

I use landscape fabric with a wide line of holes down the middle which allows room for some suckering. Any suckers that come into the narrow pathways get mowed unless I have the time to dig them out. I put a thin layer of wood chips on the fabric which does an okay job blocking the light and keeping weeds down. A thick layer of chips will decompose quicker (it doesn't dry out quick enough) and be the soil for weeds. Under some of my blackberries a thick carpet of wild violets have taken over and they block out everybody else - so I may encourage them to spread further and cut down some of my work.

>>Konrad, wrong nursury sorry, it's in Canada, Tree Time nursery<<

Tree Time

This one, very close to me..about 1/2 hour,..honestly, never heard of this place and don't remember I talked to someone,..could be a member of our club.

Think all these tissue cultured one year cherry plugs are not grown by them, [re-sale] a Romeo plug for $15.00 pretty hefty priced!

For all but raspberries the landscape fabric works fine. Raspberries you just need to get thick enough to out-compete the weeds. I do OK on the reds but the black raspberries are a lot of work. I am going to cut down one weedy row this winter and mow to death all the vines and other non-grass weeds. Hopefully I can re-plant in a year or so.

We put wood chips every year. I also cultivate a variety of edible weeds. They crowd out inedible weeds. It's better biodiversity for soil microbe health. They also attract positive insects and pollinators. Then I don't have to "weed". I just harvest. The other great thing is that these "vegetables" grow just like weeds. The overall idea is getting your soil to have a balance between fungal orientation and bacterial orientation, which is about halfway on a succession pathway, which would be (and is) just about what berries want.

John S
PDX OR

Hi.....Pine Needles from Yellow Pine which are long work really good 4 me, besides being great organic mulch they are very acidic and raspberries love them.......they fill in nice around plants and control almost all weeds or grass growing between plants.

I'm told by a landscaper not to use grass clippings because of all the chemicals used on them returning into the food chain, i.e. eating your raspberries.

The fact of the matter is that if you want to avoid herbicides --you'll need to smother, provide competition, and live with a certain amount of weeds. It's pretty easy on a small lot. Living mulches such as nasturtium, arugula, cilantro, violas, and even dichondra grass work pretty well for me. Large scale you might need to start over with a plan in mind.