I'm in zone 5, Toronto, Canada. Both the strawberry patch and raspberry patch were established in spring of 2022.

1) the strawberry patch started with 6-8 young June bearing plants spaced over a foot apart. The first season (2022)all runners and blossoms were removed. In 2023 I let some runners establish themselves to the right of the original patch, in 2024 to the left. Everything else was removed, or so I thought (ha ha). In spring of 2025 we gave away 60 - 80 young plants, mostly from the outside edges. Now in July, setting out to "renovate", and after removing the straw, I was facing a thick tangled mess of plants and runners.

Do I shovel out everything, turn over the soil, amend it, and just pick the nicest looking plants and re-plant them ? I can't tell their age, except for the few plants with dried up leaves (the oldest?)

Or leave some plants in place and rip out the rest ?

2) in 2022 we started with 8-10 mature raspberry canes; they bear fruit now in July, and once again in fall if it's still mild. The original spaces left in between for walking are all overgrown now, I can't reach some berries without breaking some branches as the patch is at least 12 feet long and 6-7 ft wide.

Last fall I removed all dead branches and cut off some good ones because I foresaw overgrowth, and cleaned out more dead stems in the spring. I did not have any help with digging up some healthy plants in between the other plants where the soil is super compacted, but could remove all young ones around the edges.

Come fall this has to get cleaned up if we want to enjoy any decent sized berries next year.

What would be the best approach?