Allotment Gardening

If you prepare the bed really well with lots of manure and mulch well every spring I find that mine produce well despite being only 4 foot apart (with strawberries growing underneath).

I am interested to see what other responses you receive on this question.

thanks interesting, will have to see what i can do then, i have raised beds going in, they are too be fill with well rotted manure and i will be mulching them too. 
A list of whats going inside the cage:-
3 x blackcurrents,
3 x redcurrents,
5 x Gooseberries (double cordons)
Raspberries
3 x Cape Gooseberries
3 x blueberries
Strewberries if i can find the sapce.

Thanks guys for you advice has help me loads going to plant the blueberries in pots and have them at home. 

Thanks guys for you advice has help me loads going to plant the blueberries in pots and have them at home.  

Exactly what I do to the honest.  Make sure you cover them though - the birds strip them before they are ripe enough to eat.  Usually a bit of cheap fleece does the job.

I also have never netted blackcurrants.  Do the birds (pigeons) eat them?
I've not noticed great losses. Always assumed they were too acidic for most birds.

I find that if your bushes are established so there is lots of foliage, then the birds don't find them.  However, if your bushes are younger (like mine - they have only been in two years), they get stripped!  No idea though whether this is rodent damage, rather than birds but I now cover the whole bed and have found less losses.