Now THAT's a Raspberry!

Garden Man's raspberry canes are in their second year. The neighbor who gave them to us said we shouldn't expect any fruit the first year, but we did get a little. So did the foxes, and the deer ate some of the foliage.

This year, Garden Man fashioned a makeshift fence around the canes, which are much bigger than last year. They are brambles, after all. Even though a deer, fleeing some imagined threat, managed to land right in the middle of the little enclosure and break everything down, we've still gotten fruit. There was a small flush of fruit earlier in the summer, mostly from the gold berries which I believe are Fall Gold. For the last 3 weeks or more, we're getting a much heavier flush of fruit, mostly from the red Heritage. Heritage is the most popular everbearing variety, and it's typical to get a flush of fruit in July with heavier production in August and September. We pick a small butter dish piled high with beautiful berries every few days. We've had enough to enjoy ourselves, with some left over to share with special friends. Garden Punk's friend next door thinks we are magical, producing such wonderful fruit in our backyard, and he sure is happy to hear "come over and get yourself some berries."

Garden Man delights in bringing me a dish of them every couple of days, and this morning, he brought me this:

Now THAT's a raspberry! And it tasted just as good as it looks.

If you have sun and a little space (it really doesn't take much space, but it does take diligence to keep them contained), you can grow raspberries. They are definitely worth the effort, because the ones from the store just don't compare.

Comments

[Frances]

Hi Kim, yessirree! That is some raspberry! We have Anne and Caroline, gold and red. The birds, or someone is eating the flesh but leaving the seeds from the gold, making me see red! May need to add bird netting? The flavor is so good, yours make my mouth water. :-)

Frances

[Kelly (the sorry gardener)]

You're a funny girl. I hear you have some advice for how to get Mr. Sorry to do the dethatching. Should I resort to feminine wiles? I ache too much for that. I'm pretty sure some of those raspberries would make me feel a whole lot better, though.

[Gail]

I can almost taste it! If you look very closely at the berry, you can see little hearts! How have you been? gail

[Sue]

That is one pretty raspberry! I grew them in the garden where we used to live, and the birds ate more of them than we did. When we did pick them, they usually got eaten on the spot. I've been thinking about finding a spot for some here. Maybe I will.

[Kelly (the sorry gardener)]

Helloooooooooooooo! Got any more yellow squash? I'm in a really sorry way with those right now.

[Gail]

Just stopping by to see what you are up to...I bet you've made even more changes to your garden! gail