Raspberries / grape vine / fig tree / apple tree

[chocolatine]

I've just inherited a garden with lots of berry plants (raspberries, strawberries, blackberries and some others I think) plus a grape vine, two fig trees and an apple tree. It has not been touched for about a year. I am a total novice and trying to figure out what I should be doing to keep the garden going. Can anyone out there help me? It's such a beautiful garden and the old lady who cared for it obviously put such a lot of effort in, I don't want to mess it up.

I'm in France (just south of Paris) and it's South / South West facing, so gets a lot of sun.

Raspberries - I have found out from Google that there are two types of raspberry plants but I don't know which type I have. There were some fruit visible in September, but I'm not sure if this was the main crop or just leftovers. Should I be pruning? Now? Does that mean cutting the plants right down to the ground??

Other berries - I know where the raspberries where but there were also other berries in a different part of the garden and I'm not sure which are which. Should I do anything to them at this stage?

Grape vine / fig tree / apple tree - from what I've seen online I don't need to do anything particular to these. Is that right or am I missing something? The apple tree has lots of rotting apples on - is it okay to leave them?

Any help would be very gratefully received!

nothing will suffer too much if you leave it well alone for a season and see exactly what you have got :-)

apple tree could probably do with pruning while its cold
but again, no great shakes if you let it sit for a year

RHS website is your best friend for pruning / training / identification

Thanks!

Raspberries, I think, are either summer fruiting, or autumn fruiting, and ideally they do need pruning differently. But I guess things might be a bit different in France. They should have wires or some form of support, and shouldn't rock in winter storms as that won't do the roots any good. I'll try and find out more, and come back sometime.

I think maybe remove the apples if they really are rotting, in case disease gets to the tree.

If there are strawberries they will most likely be flat on the ground, and there may be 'runners' from them producing new little plants.

Blackberries will be long canes; anything that is tall, just try to prevent it rocking about too much in winter storms, so maybe cut back to a manageable height, or tie in to some supports.

I've found a bit of information on raspberries, Summer or Autumn fruiting:

There are 3 differences:

1. The time of year they fruit 2) The way they fruit 3) The way they are pruned.

Given a raspberry rootstock, you can't tell which variety it is until it fruits. Summer fruiting raspberries fruit late june through to August. Autumn Raspberries fruit September through to November. Summer fruiting raspberries fruit on last years wood. Autumn fruiting raspberries fruit on this years growth. Summer fruiting raspberries are pruned in the autumn after they've finnished fruiting to remove the growth they've just fruited on. This years growth which you've spent this season tying in for next year, is then left. On a manture established raspberry you restrict it to 4-6 canes. Autumn fruiting raspberries are pruned now - all of last years growth is cut down to the ground.

Thanks Ferguson that's really useful. I'll get a ladder for the apples!
For the raspberries, I'm really not sure if they are Summer or Autumn fruiting. I thought that they were Autumn as they had fruit on in September, but a random neighbour told me they were usually pruned in November, which would mean Summer.
Maybe I should prune a couple down to the ground and leave the rest and see what happens? (The neighbour also told me that the fruit were the best she'd ever tasted and I'd better not muck it up )

"Pruning" raspberries means cutting autumn ones right down to the ground, and cutting out the old canes on summer ones to the ground but leaving the new canes. It doesn't mean cutting anything to the knees.

Do your raspberries have their stems in two different colours growing from the same clump - one lot of stems looking old and woody but other newer looking stems mixed in? If so they are more likely to be summer fruiting and you can cut down the old woody ones and leave the greener ones to fruit this year.

If they all look the same I'd just hack every other plant down to the ground and leave the others. The summer ones you've hacked down to the ground might not fruit this coming year, or they might fruit late. The ones you've left will fruit this year but I think possibly not a great crop as they will be trying to support two years' worth of canes.

The autumn ones you hack to the ground will be very happy. The autumn ones you left alone will grow new shoots from the old canes (I think) and presumably create a great tangle. But at least you'll get something from something and you'll be able to hazard a guess for the following year. (NB - I may have got some of this a bit wrong, but it seems like a sensible strategy to me!)

Hi again, thanks so much for all the help
I've been to the house this weekend to check and there do seem to be two types of stem, but they both look pretty woody (about half are lighter brown, half are darker brown) so I'm not sure which would be the old and which would be the new. Anyone have any idea? (I've obviously googled but the pictures don't really look like mine). If I can't figure it out, I guess I'll just go with hacking half of them and see what happens. I'll come back in summer and let you know how it turns out!