Raspberries

The raspberries are coming in nice again this year. I can't wait to taste that first berry of the season! I put in 12 raspberry plants several years ago. They were located on the southern side of my property, next to the garage. The plants grew spindly, never got very tall and produced only a handful of small, sweet raspberries. Three years ago I decided to move the plants to a small space next to the deck. After planting them I cut the canes to waist height and mulched them heavily in the fall with shredded leaves from our maple trees. That first year after moving them, the plants produced raspberries like crazy. I have two varieties planted, one produces in early and late summer, the other produces in mid summer and early fall so we get a steady supply of raspberries. The plants grew to about 5' tall with 1/2" to 3/4" canes. The raspberries were about the size of my thumb and were delicious! I was picking close to 3 pints a day! The first year after moving them I thought it would be a good idea to cover them with mesh to keep the birds out, seeing that it was only a small patch. I put stakes at the corners and covered the entire patch with the bird netting. The plants grew huge and went right through the netting, getting all tangled. It was a nightmare trying to get in to pick the berries. The next year I decided to not use the netting. I didn't really need it as there were so many berries that the few the birds did eat didn't really make a difference, except for the fact that I now have raspberry plants popping up all over the yard from the dropped seeds! The raspberry patch has since grown to about 40 plants!