Fruit can be in almost every home garden.
In all the years I’ve gardened I never thought about growing raspberries until 2007 after finding a recipe using red raspberries that I wanted to add to my list of special “company is coming” recipes. Sadly it never occurred to me back then to search the web and I searched the catalogs instead.
I read that Latham summer bearers were suppose to be some of the best! Boy was I disappointed! After planting in the fall of 07, first fruits came in 2008. They were small, mushy, and horrible tasting! Realizing that I had made a mistake, I ordered Caroline Raspberries which could not be shipped until spring of 2009. Two years lost and nothing to show!
I planted my new Carolines in the spring of 09. The Lathams had their last chance that summer and then out they came. By that time I was really worried that perhaps I had also made a mistake about the Caroline berries. If I had it would be 3 1/2 years lost.
Finally, the berries started to come. It looked as if there would not be many, but much to my delight and surprise they kept right on coming until frost and they were delicious! (A little tart – but I like that.) We ate half the berries fresh and froze the rest for a total of almost a gallon of berries.
In December I cut all the canes except for 3. I am looking forward to a summer crop on those canes. I just today thinned the new canes that have come up this year so air circulation will be good. I will prune the tips as they fruit and they should continue to bear until the weather turns cold.
Since discovering how good these berries are in muffins I plan to freeze a lot more packages.
Having fresh fruit is such a treat and having frozen fruit on hand in the winter makes preparing something special for your family and/or company a snap. Raspberries, strawberries and blueberries are all easy to grow, so if you don’t have fruit in your garden order now before another season passes.
(Pictures below of strawberries in bloom, blueberries in bloom, and spring growth for Raspberries.)
Pictured above and below are strawberry blossoms in April.
Pictured above and below are blueberry blossoms in April.
Pictured below is new spring growth for Raspberries.
These fruits are easy to grow and so delicious. If you don’t have them add them this year if you can.
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Hi Theresa,
How many Carolina plants did you order to get a gallon berries the first year?
Thanks,
Betty
I only ordered 3 plants Betty. How much fruit they give you the first year will depend on lots of variables – weather, etc.
But with 3 plants you could populate the world almost by the second year.
I am constantly pulling up new plants and I keep the raspberries confined to a small area.
Theresa
Theresa, I thought I would give you an update on my raspberries. I didn’t get around to ordering raspberries in 2013. in the spring of 2014 I bought 3 or 4 potted up raspberry plants at a Master Gardener Fundraising plant sale.
I finally got them planted in late summer in a bed I had double-dug the previous fall. We had come home with a van loaded so full of herbs, veggie plants, annuals, perennials, shrubs & trees that I sat with plants packed all around me, between my feet & in my lap. Poor Alfred barely had room to drive!
The raspberries were tough troopers sitting under a shade tree & getting watered as I took all summer getting all of the other things in the ground.
They have spread, flowered & are now setting fruit. I don’t know what variety they are, but I’ll try to remember to give you an update after we eat some.
Thank you & Bill so much for taking time to teach us, with wonderful pictures to let us see what exactly you did, how to successfully & organically grow yet another wonderful fruit that we can rarely afford to buy!
You’ll never know this side of heaven how many lives you’ve changed for the better by freely & generously taking the time & making the effort to share with us what you’ve learned.
God Bless You Both,
Betty
Glad you’ve got the raspberries going Betty.
Thanks so much for your kind thoughts and words of appreciation.
And you are very welcome!
Theresa
Just a quick update. My raspberries are starting to produce and they are so sweet and delicious! Smaller berries than I would like, but the flavor is so much better than I’ve ever gotten from store bought ones. None have made it into the house yet because I eat them all in the garden or on the way in!
Thanks again,
Betty