jammy

There are going to be so many raspberries in the back yard this summer! I went back to pull some weeds in the back corner of the yard where there used to be a stand of lilac bushes until I cut them all to the ground so My Darling B could enlarge her garden. There’s one little strip outside the fence, though, where I couldn’t dig out all the stumps, so I just left them to rot, but until they do I can’t mow back there, so I have to clear the weeds out by hand.

One of our neighbors has a big raspberry patch in the corner of her yard that’s right up against the corner of our yard where the lilacs used to be. She told us she’s been growing raspberries in that patch for something like 47 years. Shortly after B put her garden in, the raspberries began to pop up all along the fence line, so she encouraged them a little and they pretty much took over half of the back fence. Last year we brought in quite an impressively large crop of raspberries from those few canes.

And I noticed that the raspberries were volunteering in the corner of the yard where the lilacs used to be, so I kept it weeded by pulling up the garlic mustard and covering the ground with lots of straw. This year there are even more raspberry canes popping up, and they’re marching up the lot line toward the house. In a couple more years, if we keep encouraging them, we ought to preserve enough raspberries to have jam on toast every morning all winter long.