Growing Raspberries Your Yard

With the possible exception of growing herbs, there is no better return on your investment for a home garden than the humble raspberry patch.  When I’m advising people on what they should grow in their home food production garden, I always point out that the best things to grow are the things you can’t buy.  It is extraordinarily difficult to buy local, organic raspberries.  Add to that the fact that a raspberry begins losing its quality immediately upon picking, and travels quite poorly; and you’ve got all the right reasons to find a place in your own yard for a small raspberry patch.

Every morning for about four months out of the year (June, July, September, October) I pick a generous handful of raspberries from my small patch which I’ve squeezed into the median strip between the sidewalk and the road.  In addition to the daily harvest, I conduct a “big” harvest about twice a season, usually at least 2 quarts.  And even so, my neighbors are able to also enjoy a few berries as they pass.  All of this from a piece of under-utilized lawn that is only about 3’ wide by 10’ long!

You will plant your raspberries in the Spring and enjoy a small harvest that fall.  The following year you will enjoy a larger harvest in the Summer and Fall and each year after that it will grow.  A well cared for patch of raspberries will produce for about 5 years, after which time quality and quantity of harvest will begin to decline, due mostly to disease.

Raspberries do not need or even want high quality soil.  Their roots are shallow, so while a deeply loosened bed is nice it isn’t necessary.  Good drainage and at least 6 hours a day of direct sunlight are necessary.  Raspberries do not need or even want watering.  They will need regular watering the first few months after planting.  And then never again!  They don’t need fertilizers, are not appealing to rabbits and have limited appeal to deer.  Other than a rare Japanese Beetle attack, they are not pestered by any garden bugs.

It will be necessary to prune out the previous year’s canes every August.  Canes that grow from the ground in the Spring will produce flowers and fruit that Fall and again the following Summer.  When this second crop is done, the canes will die and will be easily distinguished from the new canes.  All of the dead canes must be cut off at the ground and removed completely from the garden and yard.

Choose your raspberry variety carefully.  You want an ever-bearing berry that is held on upright canes.  This means they will produce fruit twice each year and that the canes will not need support.  Buy your stock from a reputable nursery (to ensure disease free plants) in the Spring and plan to plant in April or May.  I recommend Meadowview Farm in Bowers, PA (sorry they do not have a website).  Or online, any of the major stock providers will do.  I have had good results from Miller’s Nursery – which provides a full year no hassle survival guarantee.  You will want to plant your canes about 1 foot apart, a 30 square foot patch like mine won’t cost more than $60 in plant stock.  If you order online, your plants will come with detailed planting instructions.

I say raspberries not lawns!  Make plans this Fall to plant them next Spring in your own yard, community park, at school or even at your work place!