Berry Berry Good

Last month, I planted two trees (sweet cherry and apricot), 4 blueberry bushes, and 3 raspberries. The raspberries were "Royalty," a purple variety.

Here in KY, we have some nasty, nasty clay soil. And when I say clay, I want to be clear that I'm talking about a layer of solid clay inches deep in strata going down forever. Josiah Wedgewood has asked to be reincarnated here so he can take up pottery again. When I toe off my boots and leave them by the back door, any accumulated mud dries and then falls off in a chunk with my tread emblazoned in it. It's clay.

So I dug a deep hole and amended the soil like mad with all kinds of good stuff. Then I carefully propped my bare-root raspberry canes in the holes and tamped them into place. It rained that night. So far, so good. But then...nothing happened. For 2 weeks or maybe even 3. Nothing. The cherry tree put out buds, so did the apricot. My blueberry bushes leafed out (at least, the 3 that are alive did). But from the Royalty? Nothing.*

I thought they were dead. And when I received a gift of 3 more bushes, this time "Heritage," a red variety that bears fruit the first year (!!!), I thought "well, I'll put them in the same holes!" Less work that way.



But when I pulled up the canes (the dull, brown canes with no buds on them), there were little buds on the stalks. Underground. Which reminded me that raspberries grow up from the ground in canes almost like bamboo. So they wouldn't come off of the stalk sticking up from the ground but from closer to the root base.

And also: oops. Not going to be able to put the new ones in the same holes.

Not a problem! I plunked Iain into his BOB, and started digging new holes. But with all that clay, it's hard work. Especially when the neighborhood siren goes off. To notify you that there's a tornado watch.

I planted the raspberries. In record time, I might add. Then we skedaddled inside just in time to avoid the torrential rains, thunder and lightning, and other forms of divine judgment that rained down on Lexington for the rest of the afternoon.

What's the takeaway? I now have 6 raspberry bushes planted. Six! Red and purple. Whee! This is very much in line with my Philosophy of Life: You Cannot Have Too Many Raspberries.

[And tomorrow is the first Farmer's Market of the season! Whee!]

*I should mention that Juno pulled the three canes out of their temporary perch in a pot of soil and chewed on them a bit before I planted them. It looked ok to me, but you never know.