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I have some summer and autumn raspberries along a fence in my new garden. The summer are inherited and planted next to a blackcurrant. They're in my kitchen garden-to-be so I have fixed planks in front of them to keep the chickens off the roots for the moment and to make it so that they are effectively in a raised bedas everything will eventually be.

Can I bung a gooseberry an another blackcurrant in the gaps or will they need very different soils? I've never paid much attention to that before but now I'm relying on high yields from a small space I'd like to get it right. The raised beds are being filled with topsoil from elsewhere in the garden (sightly acid but good soil), mushroom compost, homemade compost and lots of poo (horse). I've always mucked really heavily before but that was on very poor soil: am I going to end up with all leaf and no trousers do you think?

I've always had all my fruit bushes in the same bed with no problems - although I've since found out the blueberries need a more acid soil so that explains my generally poor harvests. But I see no reason why you couldn't spot feed for specific needs eg coffee grounds round the acid lovers, lime round alkaline lovers. Or something like that

Thanks . No blueberries here so I think I'll stick them all in.

I didn't know about the coffee grounds. I put them down as I've found slugs don't like them but never thought about changing ph with them. I've only ever limed for peas and beans before. I am not a science genius and much of this stuff would not occur to me naturally!

I think they'll do fine although do expect raspberries to be poking up out of the soil all over the place so you have to pull them out/cut them off as they do spread like crazy. You may well need to water a lot as the rasp roots will be taking all the moisture away from the currant/gooseberry bushes, but watering depends on your climate obviously. I think they'll all love the rich soil to be honest and it will help retain the moisture anyway.