When we first moved into the house, my parents brought down some raspberry plants from their garden. They have a good number raspberry and blackberry, some of them wild. They also have Loganberry plants, which I bought for them. Since I really hadn’t expected to get the raspberry plants, we cut down the Rose of Sharon bushes in the Side Micro-Garden and planted the raspberry plants where we could. The following year, we got a good batch of raspberries, but the Rose of Sharon bushes started to grow back. Last year, I completely removed the Rose of Sharon bushes and then moved the raspberry bushes to their new home lining the back of the Side Micro-Garden, instead of being at one end. I used some curly tomato stakes to hold them up.
I also bought some black raspberries last year and planted them in between the existing red raspberry bushes. I didn’t expect them to grow much, since the red raspberry bushes filled in the area, but they did grow over the fall and into the winter. There is also a bit of an issue with volunteers showing up in different parts of the Side Micro-Garden and I replanted a few of them elsewhere in the yard.
Due to the False Spring we had a few months ago, the raspberries decided to start greening, so I decided to get one of my projects done. Last year, the raspberry plants got out of control and tried to grow into everything growing in the Side Micro-Garden. So, I planed to take a tip from my parents and put a couple of fence poles in and string wire to hold the raspberry plants.
I picked up two fence poles that are over 4 feet tall. I thought about getting taller ones, but due the uneven ground and not having a good way to pound them in, I decided against getting poles taller than me. I even had issues getting one pole in deep enough, because the Side Micro-Garden has a layer of rock under the dirt. I don’t know what was there in the past, but I’m guessing that might be a cement slab or something deep under the dirt.
The fence posts have holes and tabs in them. Which makes it easy to string some wire through. I used wire that is covered and used mostly for gardening. I figured I wanted a setup that would last a nice long time and not rust in a year.
The wire is stiff enough, that I only needed to wrap it around through the hole. Maybe if there is a strong wind, it might pull the wire out, but I don’t think it is going anywhere. I tried to weave the raspberry plants in and out of the wires to help keep it growing upwards. As you can see from the photos, there are plenty of leaves already. I probably will have to cut the tops off in a couple of weeks after the last frost date pasts. So far, the raspberry plants have survived freezing temperatures and a recent snow fall.
My parents also gave me more of the garden Eco Discs and I put one on each of the black raspberry plants, to help give them an edge in growing. Because I worry about the quality of the soil in the Side Micro-Garden, I also added extra garden dirt I got from the store and then put the plastic back down in hopes to keep the weeds at bay.
Since I didn’t replant them or do anything else with the raspberries, but let them grow, I hope that I will get a good yield from this year.
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