Sharing Raspberries

Raspberries have so many wonderful attributes.  One of my favorite things about raspberries is their prolific nature.  They send out runners and get into all parts of the garden.  This may annoy some, but I see it as an opportunity to share one of the most productive members of my garden.

This time my raspberries have sent their runners into the tomato patch.  Those tomatoes have pretty much fallen to blight, so I have been removing the plants as the fruit ripens.  I should be ready to dig up those raspberry canes and take them to their new home.

I am sharing these canes with a new friend who just bought a new house.  The lawn along the street is challenging to mow, so she thought it would be a nice to place to grow raspberries.  Planted there, neighborhood kids on their way to the park could eat their fill and she could get out of mowing a difficult bank.

In preparation for my delivery of raspberry canes, she should:

Call the local water and gas companies to be sure that there are no buried cables or lines in the area.

Remove the sod from the area, if possible.

Rototill the area to loosen the soil.  I am not usually a huge fan of rototilling, but it’s a quick and dirty way to prepare a bed.  Raspberries are not too picky and could probably grow in gravel.  If a rototiller is not available, the area could be hand turned with a spade.

Cover the bed with landscape fabric and secure it with landscape staples.

Using a utility knife (not the husband’s fillet knife), cut Xs in the fabric where the raspberry canes will be planted.  For ease of picking, the bed should not be more than six feet deep.

Plant the canes and water them in thoroughly.

Cover the landscape cloth with woodchips or mulch of some sort.

Water the area again and daily for the next two weeks, then weekly until the end of the season.

Raspberries will send their shoots everywhere, but with the street on one side of the bed and lawn on all others, they should be relatively contained.  The new shoots can be run over by the lawn mower and kept at bay.  The landscape cloth should keep out most grass and weeds but it isn’t strong enough to keep the raspberry canes from filling in the bed.

This plan should keep my friend off that bank and the whole neighborhood in really nice raspberries.

If you are hoping for raspberries of your own, look around.  Many yards have berries growing in them and they are so prolific, no one minds sharing.  If you have raspberries in your yard, pass them on to a friend!