Home-grown soft fruit is delicious and well worth growing. In our plot we grow blackcurrants, redcurrants, gooseberries, raspberries, strawberries and blueberries and the fruit is either eaten fresh, or my wife Jill freezes it or makes jams and preserves.
For me, the main pest of soft fruit is birds. As soon as the berries start to ripen, blackbirds and starlings descend upon the garden and will strip the bushes in no time at all. The only way to make sure we get the ripe fruits is to protect them from hungry birds. In the past we’ve used wire netting supported on metal stakes with plastic netting draped over the top. This is a fiddly set-up and to get to the bushes to pick, we have to disassemble our makeshift construction. This system has worked, but it doesn’t look very attractive for our National Garden Scheme open day or when groups visit the garden. We’ve also had a couple of birds trapped in the netting and as much as I don’t want them to eat the fruits, I don’t want to harm them either.