Raspberries - The Accidental Backyard Gardener

August 2023.

Now, I started out with the intent of growing blueberries for my beer bread but I just happened to be at Home Depot, again, and I saw they had their Raspberry plants on sale. Hmmm, why not? This was in mid-August, 2023.

The Latham as I brought it home from the store

I had a planting bed made out of Pine edges from a mill. Well, damn, I think this would work just fine for a raised raspberry planter.

I put the planter in a sunny spot of the yard, filled it with potting soil and acidifier, mixed it all together and let it sit for a couple of weeks.

My raspberry bed, made out of an old pine tree.

After acclimation, on 9-15-23 I planted the raspberry. I used Pine Bark mulch to cover the soil.

Planted the Latham Raspberry in the raised bed.

The raspberry survived the transplant and seems to be thriving. On October 1st I shielded the plant for Winter by wrapping the cage with burlap.

First year raspberry wrapped in burlap for the Winter.

2024

We had a pretty mild Winter. Not much snow and not a lot of cold days.

March, 1, 2024. The raspberry survived the winter just fine and is showing lots of new growth already. YAY! I took off the burlap so it could stretch its legs.

April, 10, 2024, she is looking pretty good. I added a trellis so I could help support it and hopefully not have it flop to the ground. Latham is supposed to be an ‘upright’ grower.

May 3rd, 2024. I added some marigolds to help keep the critters away from the raspberry, and add a dash of color to the bed.

May 3rd and I added some Marigolds to the bed

June 8th, 2024. Plant is doing great!. No fruit yet but this is supposed to be a July-bloomer so time will tell.

7-1-2024

These darn Japanese Beetles have been attacking this bush for the last week or so. I became real tired of seeing the leaves being eaten and flicking them off into a cup of water and soap. I could not be there all the time! So, Toile to the rescue. I figured it worked for the cicadas so it should work for this bush.

Raspberry wrapped in toile to fend off the Japanese beetles.

7-18-2024

The Japanese Beetles have mostly stopped so I took the Toile down so I could build a trellis.

I used metal fence posts, earth anchors and turnbuckles for stability, and paracord to support the plant.

Fence posts and earth anchors are installed

Posts attached to anchors with cable and turnbuckles

side view of the finished trellis — The finished trellis with the paracord strung to support the canes

Look at this crazy thing! It is mid-October, 2024, and it has grown like crazy. No fruit this year but I will prune it in the Spring and hopefully have fruit in 2025.

I full growth at the end of Summer — In full growth at the end of Summer

2025

2-25-25

Now that Spring is in the air, hopefully, it was time to prune the raspberry plant. Sure hope it produces fruit this year.

February 25th and getting ready to prune the raspberry bush.

February 25th and the raspberry bush has been pruned.