We have had our Raspberry plants in pots for over a year now , so it was exciting to finally have garden space designated just for them. We also picked up a tiny Boysenberry plant on our last Bunnings trip which will be added to the “Berry Garden”.
We prepared the garden bed a week ago. We stripped all the other plants and weeds, including a pretty impressive size Mallow. We also removed a tree stump, turned over the compacted soil, topped the garden bed with mushroom compost and added a layer of sugar cane mulch.
We made the berries support frames out of new wooden stakes and mesh panels left behind by the previous house owners. They should support the plants and give them enough room to grow up and across without being too overcrowded to pick.
The raspberry plants had lots of new shoots coming through and some dead/damaged canes from the winter frosts. The plants had a quick trim to tidy them up and were ready for transplanting. They had become quite compacted in the pots and needed some coaxing apart. We placed one plant on either side of the supports at opposite ends. By planting them on opposite ends it should hopefully make the plants accessible from both sides during harvesting.
The plan is to eventually add some Blueberries to the front yard as well. If all goes well we will have an abundance of fresh berries to eat and use to make jams and coolies.