A bit of summer pruning goes a long way to keeping your raspberries healthy and productive. So, get out the mosquito netting, long sleeves and pruners and get busy.

The summer harvest is produced on 2-year-old canes called floricanes. Remove those that bore fruit to ground level once your harvest is complete. These canes will not produce more fruit and their presence can increase the risk of insect and disease problems. This is also a good time to remove damaged, insect-infested or discolored canes.

Summer is also a good time to thin the remaining canes on summer-only bearing raspberries. Remove weak or damaged canes, leaving three or four of the sturdiest canes per foot of row or six or eight stems per hill when growing in the hill system. Thinning increases airflow and light penetration, resulting in healthier plants and a better harvest next season. Wait until next spring to reduce the height of the remaining canes. At that time, you can determine winter dieback, and damage, and prune accordingly.

Everbearing raspberries are often called fall raspberries and form fruit on first-year canes called primocanes. You can manage these types of raspberries for a single fall harvest only. Wait until the plants are dormant then cut the whole planting back to ground level. There will be a larger and earlier harvest when pruning everbearing raspberries this way. Although this pruning technique eliminates the summer crop, it is much easier, less time-consuming, and eliminates animal and winter damage in just one cut.

The other option is to prune everbearing raspberries for a fall and summer harvest. The new growth produces the fall crop. These canes are left to produce berries the following summer. Prune these 2-year-old canes after the summer harvest as you would on a summer-only bearing raspberry.

Maximize your summer and fall harvest by planting a summer and a fall-bearing raspberry patch. You’ll enjoy summer raspberries from one planting plus a larger, earlier harvest from the fall-bearing raspberries when pruning all those canes to ground level each year during the dormant season.

Don’t let a lack of space keep you from growing delicious raspberries high in fiber and vitamin C.

Plant, train and use raspberries as a hedge in your landscape. Or grow the new compact and thornless Raspberry Shortcake in a container or any sunny small space in your garden. You may not be freezing a large harvest from a single pot of raspberries, but you will enjoy fresh-from-the-garden raspberries even in your small space.

Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books, including “Small Space Gardening” and “Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition.” Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and her website is MelindaMyers.com.

You can double the benefit of every gardening task while keeping your garden looking its best. You’ll reduce your workload, help your landscape flourish, and have more time to enjoy its beauty.

Don’t spend time and energy bagging and hauling landscape trimmings to the recycling center. Put it to work in your garden. Use shredded leaves, evergreen needles, herbicide-free grass clippings, or other pest- and weed-free organic material as mulch. Spread a 1- to 2-inch layer of these materials over the soil around annual and perennial flowers and vegetables.

Spreading organic mulch over the soil surface helps conserve moisture, suppress weeds, moderate soil temperatures, protect the soil during heavy rains, and improve the soil as it breaks down. Besides all these benefits, you’ll be burning calories and strengthening your muscles.

Convert larger tree and shrub trimmings into wattle fences, arbors or plant supports. Or chip them into mulch to spread around trees and shrubs or as pathways throughout the landscape. You don’t need to buy a chipper, but may want to team up with your neighbors to rent one. Maintain a 2- to 3-inch layer of mulch around these plants. Keep the mulch away from the tree trunks and crowns of the plants.

Still more landscape trimmings? Start a compost pile if your municipality allows it. Transform plant-based kitchen scraps and landscape trimmings into a valuable soil amendment. Do not add meat, fat or bones, which can attract rodents. Avoid adding weeds gone to seed, perennial weeds like quackgrass and bindweed, and plants infected with disease or insects. Most gardeners do not compost at high enough temperatures to kill these organisms, so they get added back to the garden with the compost.

Compost is good for the environment and helps build healthy soil more equipped to retain moisture, provide nutrients, and help suppress some plant diseases and insect pests.

Continue growing lawn grass tall and mowing high as long as your grass is actively growing. Taller grass is more likely to outcompete the weeds and forms deeper roots making it more drought tolerant. Minimize the stress by removing no more than a third of the total grass height each time you mow.

Improve your lawn’s appearance, save time, and use fewer resources with sharp mower blades.  You can mow faster with sharpened blades and your mower will consume up to 22% less fuel. Lawns will also use up to 30% less water. Sharp mower blades make a clean cut that is less noticeable plus the wound closes quickly, helping you grow a healthy better-looking lawn.

Leave the clippings on the lawn. They add nutrients, moisture and organic matter to the soil. A season’s worth of clippings equals one fertilizer application so every time you mow you are fertilizing the lawn and improving the soil.

Finish every garden chore with a bit of cleanup. Sweep clippings, plant debris, and fertilizer off walks, drives, and patios, so it won’t wash into the storm sewer. Keeping plant debris out of our waterways is good for us and the environment.

Melinda Myers is the author of more than 20 gardening books, including “Small Space Gardening” and “Midwest Gardener’s Handbook, 2nd Edition.” Myers is a columnist and contributing editor for Birds & Blooms magazine and her website is MelindaMyers.com.