Raspberries and the city

One day several years ago our city inspector called. He told Hubby that we had to remove the tall weeds in our yard.

The Frugal Gardener and her hubby carefully tend our yard. We knew we had no tall weeds. We were perplexed. What was he talking about?

Then we realized that he had to be thinking of our raspberry bushes.

At this time we were editor and publisher of a weekly newspaper.

Hubby called the inspector.

“My wife loves her raspberry bushes,” he said. “And she doesn't want to cut them down. Do you really want my wife, the editor, to have to cut down her raspberry bushes? You know that you’ll hear about it in print forever.”

We never heard a word more.

Talk about the power of the press!

Growing raspberries

Our raspberries were here when we moved in. I kept thinking those bushes were raspberries. They had raspberry leaves, but they didn’t produce any berries. So I didn’t bother with them. I didn’t have time to do much gardening then, so I just left them alone.

We’d been here one or two years when we had a wet spring. Berries appeared. Oh, so they are raspberries! We were delighted.

I’ve been tending them carefully ever since.

Raspberries want lots of water, especially during blossoming and fruiting seasons. However, I can water all I want and only have fair results. For a good crop, we must have rain, especially during blossoming. This year, we received no rain during blossoming. I watered, but the blossoms were sparse. Last year, we did have rain during blossoming and blossoms were everywhere. Blossoms produce berries, so the more blossoms, the more fruit.

Rains during fruiting time make the berries larger and juicier than they are with only watering.

Raspberries do require some work.

Pruning

If you don’t prune, your raspberry patch will soon be overgrown. After years of neglect, our raspberry thicket was nearly impenetrable. Once I began to prune, we received better yields — and I could get through the canes to reach their fruit.

Pruning is very important for raspberries. Otherwise, they become a tangle and have too much competition for sunlight and nutrients. I leave my canes intact until late February or early March in order to trap as much snow as possible. I then cut off all canes about 18 inches from the ground. I remove all the old, dead canes.

Red raspberry canes should be pruned to the ground.

Make sure to wear plenty of protection when pruning, including safety glasses. My face has been badly scratched when I hauled off the prunings.

Propagation

Black and red raspberries propagate themselves differently. Red raspberries send out suckers. To propagate red raspberries, sever the sucker from the mother plant and plant it in its new location.

Black raspberries start new plants from the canes of the old ones. Canes grow long enough to bend over and touch ground. The tip grows roots and up comes a new raspberry plant. If you wish to propagate the berries, cover the tips with 2-4 inches of soil to encourage rooting. Next spring, sever the new plant from the mother cane and transplant it.

Do not propagate any plants from diseased canes. The new plant will be infected with whatever infected the parent.

Black raspberries

Our black raspberries are one of summer’s greatest joys. All year, we look forward to eating them. We devour them during their short season, mostly in raspberry ice cream.

Last year we had a good crop. Rains fell at the right time to produce lots of plump, juicy berries. I thought I might be able to make preserves. That didn’t happen. We ate every last berry I picked!

The berry thicket is a hot, stuffy place. No air moves. I pick the berries early in the morning. That’s the only time picking is bearable. I object to being scratched, so I wear pants and a jacket. My hands are the only part of me left uncovered below the neck. Unfortunately, I can’t pick while wearing gloves. I tend to crush the berries because my sense of touch is off. Once I did try picking while wearing thin plastic gloves. That didn’t work. The gloves were shredded within minutes.

So I get a few scratches. Big deal. The price of scratches is well worth paying in order to eat delectable berries.