Last year we made a little garden with two azalea plants, a raspberry bush and the wishing well.
Started out like this.
Ended up like this.
HOWEVER. . . .This year the raspberry bush *went crazy,* spreading outwards . . .and there were too many plants. Even after multiple times "thinning" the plants they still took over the small garden - smothering the azalea plant.
So, I looked up raspberries online and found a few sites that gave directions how to have a successful raspberry patch.
When we started we had grand plans of a raspberry and strawberry patch . . . but as temperatures soared, the ground proved a worthy adversary full of rocks (boulders ;-) and the children's short attention span - we scaled back our plans and created a *small* raspberry patch.
Believe it or not this little area took over two hours to create. To make this patch we used a pickaxe to break open the ground, shook all the soil off the grass roots (threw the grass clumps over the fence ;-), used a shovel to further loosen the ground and mix in top soil and fertilizer, transplant the raspberry plants from the other garden, and finally lay some light mulch.
Luke's appearance in a few of the pictures was no accident. He LOVES raspberries and if we don't take a walk out to the raspberry bushes with him then he will do it on his own and ends up breaking up the bush.
The end result was a nice flower bed again.
At the end of the season, we will have to dig up the original raspberry bush and transplant it to the new bed. I will have to pick something else to put in its place in the flower bed.
We were hoping that the creation of the raspberry patch this year will allow us to reap the rewards next year. The actual fruit only occurs on the 2nd year of growth - not the first year. In June of 2011 we will see how well we did!!
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