ErikaMoen
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Wandering Raspberry Patch
🕑 Added 2023-04-18 03:44:18 +0000 UTCToday is Friday, April 14th, and I am walking my cat on her leash around the yard. Literally, right now, as I write this, I’m typing with my right hand on my phone while the loop of her leash is hanging on my left wrist.
But that’s not what this post is about.
This post is about what I found in the newest grow box that Matt built for me and I sowed with sugar snap pea seeds several weeks ago.
Computer, enhance:
That, my friends, is not a sugar snap pea sprout.
That is a raspberry shoot.
The previous tenants left us a nice, orderly little raspberry patch when we moved in ten years ago. I did not know this then, but raspberries roam.
It’s been fascinating to watch their progression as they march across the yard, erupting from the ground in a very specific patch and going to fruit while stealthily sending out underground scout shoots to find next year's location.
NOTE TO FUTURE ERIKA: Draw a diagram of the Great Raspberry Migration and insert it here:
THANK YOU, FUTURE ERIKA.
Last year they colonized the first sugar snap pea box (#3) and the results were just beautiful; bright red berries nestled against plump green pea pods with their little twisty green tendrils snaking around wooden stalks with delicate hair-like thorns. I’d go out in the morning to collect fistfuls of raspberries and pea pods, filling my bowl with the two mixed together.
Unfortunately, the lettuce box (#4) next door did not find a similar harmonious balance, as the raspberry stalks shot up high above my short baby lettuces and, I assume, hogged all the sunlight and soil nutrients because those ground level fledglings all withered away while the intruders thrived. It’s ok, I like raspberries more than lettuce anyway.
I'm excited for this year's round of raspberries. I'm excited to find the first rogue raspberry shoot in the newest grow box Matt built for me (#5). I'm excited to see where these fuckers continue to travel. I'm excited to many more years of backyard raspberries.
I'm excited to share it with you :3
Comments
The Ferret
That's my hope! n_n and yeah! There'll be so many good treats
Erika Moen
Counterpoint: homemade blackberry pie.
Auros Harman
Oh G*d blackberries? Those things will devour your entire yard until you have to hire goats to try to drive them back... Blackberries are to raspberries as The Sex Pistols are to Chopin.
Erika Moen
They so are. I absolutely relish the period when I can go outside and just stuff my face everyday and not make any kind of dent in the overall crop.
Erika Moen
SENDING YOU GOOD BLACKBERRY VIBES
Erika Moen
Last summer a friend brought her two toddler-ish age kids over and even though they went HAM cleaning out the berries (both putting into bowls or inserting directly into their mouths) they didn’t make a dent in my overall crop 😂
Erika Moen
Wahahaha so true
Erika Moen
🤤❤️
Erika Moen
Sending you good gardening vibes! Keep us updated in my future posts ❤️
Karine Charlebois
I have to transplant some of my relocated raspberries from my garden box to a more practical area in my yard. I wish for a return to the bounties of pre-pandemic, when I'd fill a gallon-sized bowl almost every day for most of July... Raspberries are, to me, nature's candy.
The Ferret
Ooh hahaha excellent! I'm planning on planting a blackberry bush and hoping it'll grow into my own little thicket. n_n
Auros Harman
So when you say you're excited to share with us... when can I come get some raspberries? Joking not joking -- home-grown raspberries are one of my favorite things. My family had a row of raspberry canes in the back yard when I was growing up which would produce two crops a year. My brother and I would get sent out and harvest them, and we probably ate almost as much as we brought inside. :-D
allanfranta
I have blackberries growing on the fence line, lord knows how long ago that started, this year's crop is amazing! I was able to teach the neighbor kid (5) how to pick the ripe ones without getting stung by the little thorns. I tried to get her to take some to her mom but she ate them all. Berries are natures marshmallow test.
Yen
Raspberries got places to BE! Mine is in a pot (as we rent) but it's decided to colonise the landlords courtyard. Which they don't care about, so maybe future tenants will be able to feast upon my unruly raspberry children...
Allienna Nezelek
I just bought some loofah seeds from a native seed org and put hibiscus on hold at my local library right before seeing this . Hoping to get them started before it gets too hot. It's my first time trying to really garden, I'm very excited
