A Raspberry Patch

Below you will see the evolution of my Raspberry Patch.  The first 4 pictures are from Spring of 2012.  The rest are from this Spring (2013).  Remember, you can always click on the photos to Zoom in.






Clockwise, from top left, I tilled up some grass, raked out the grass and roots, planted Raspberry Starts, and then mulched with Goat Manure/Hay mix, and then Straw in the middle.   I did put Cardboard under the mulch.  This was BEFORE I watched the Back to Eden Film.   I don't necessarily think what I did was  a bad thing, except the tilling was unnecessary.  I could've just planted directly IN the grass and then put Newspaper around all of the plants, and composted and mulched on top.

Here is My Raspberry patch THIS year.  I should've gotten a photo when everything was green.  I did get several handfuls of beautiful Raspberries in the fall.  The tips of the plants bore, as you can see in the photos.

We put those Raspberries in in a hurry, so I didn't really do everything how it should be.  So this year we went out and worked on the patch some more.

My tough kids hauling the railroad ties.

Railroad ties in place with newspaper under to help kill the grass.

Stakes in place to run ropes for supporting raspberries.  I also mildly pruned the berries.

I read that you should prune anything that fruited the year before.  So I did.  Then I read that Raspberries that fruit the first year, will usually fruit on the end.  But if you leave those canes, they will produce the rest of the way the second year.  So unfortunately I won't find out if that's true.  Also  I hope with all the mulch I added, that the Raspberries aren't buried so deep that they can't find their way out.  Updates will follow as I see progress.