posted by ![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
revdorothyl at 12:27pm on 01/08/2008
revdorothyl at 12:27pm on 01/08/2008It's still hot-hot-hot (though not as hot as it's supposed to get at the beginning of next week) here, and plenty humid (though not as humid as the last two mornings, when it took the entire 4-minute walk from the parking lot to the office for my glasses to de-fog enough to wear), but I was thrilled to pieces when I went out to my back garden this morning and found FOUR (count 'em, 4) big, red, ripe raspberries in my berry patch.
Granted, compared with the luscious gold raspberries that my corner market had on sale for just $1.99 per half-pint this week (dead cheap for any raspberries, but especially for the golden variety), four red raspberries isn't much of a raspberry bonanza, but these were MINE.
These were the first ones I've been able to grow since I left my last parsonage (where I'd planted and cultivated a huge raspberry patch, to provide fruit for me and entertainment and exercise for my three cats, who loved to lurk beneath the canes and wait for the slow-learners among the avian population to try to snack on my berries) along with fulltime parish ministry in Iowa, back in 1995.
These 'first fruits' almost make up for the sunburn and bug bites I got planting those dry-root raspberry canes two months ago, as well as the muscle aches from having to lug huge bags of garden dirt from Home Depot (after discovering that the dirt in my backyard was mostly huge rocks) to give them a fighting chance. And it almost makes up for the freaking huge bug-bites I got on my arms and legs and face while tearing the weeds out of my berry patch last Sunday morning.
After all, considering how late I planted (beginning of June is already high summer, here, and most raspberries prefer cooler weather, if they can get it), I'm jolly lucky that ANY of the 15 canes (5 each of two different varieties of red and one variety of gold) have sent out leaves and blossoms. I was actually prepared for the whole crop to die from heat shock. But, thankfully, it looks like at least 3/5 of each variety's canes have survived or even thrived.
I can't wait for the Fall, now, to see if any of the gold raspberries will fruit this year.
There is LIFE on planet 'RevDorothy's backyard', after all!
Granted, compared with the luscious gold raspberries that my corner market had on sale for just $1.99 per half-pint this week (dead cheap for any raspberries, but especially for the golden variety), four red raspberries isn't much of a raspberry bonanza, but these were MINE.
These were the first ones I've been able to grow since I left my last parsonage (where I'd planted and cultivated a huge raspberry patch, to provide fruit for me and entertainment and exercise for my three cats, who loved to lurk beneath the canes and wait for the slow-learners among the avian population to try to snack on my berries) along with fulltime parish ministry in Iowa, back in 1995.
These 'first fruits' almost make up for the sunburn and bug bites I got planting those dry-root raspberry canes two months ago, as well as the muscle aches from having to lug huge bags of garden dirt from Home Depot (after discovering that the dirt in my backyard was mostly huge rocks) to give them a fighting chance. And it almost makes up for the freaking huge bug-bites I got on my arms and legs and face while tearing the weeds out of my berry patch last Sunday morning.
After all, considering how late I planted (beginning of June is already high summer, here, and most raspberries prefer cooler weather, if they can get it), I'm jolly lucky that ANY of the 15 canes (5 each of two different varieties of red and one variety of gold) have sent out leaves and blossoms. I was actually prepared for the whole crop to die from heat shock. But, thankfully, it looks like at least 3/5 of each variety's canes have survived or even thrived.
I can't wait for the Fall, now, to see if any of the gold raspberries will fruit this year.
There is LIFE on planet 'RevDorothy's backyard', after all!
(no subject)
(no subject)
(no subject)
I didn't have time or energy to try to dig a hole big enough for my tomato plants, unfortunately, so I have two yellow pear plants (one of which is gallantly producing a few green tomatoes on each branch) and one green zebra plant (which produced exactly one tiny striped green tomato) still in large pots in my back yard. Without more root room, I don't think they'll do much, but NEXT YEAR, I'm going to put in at least two cherry tomato plants, no matter what!
(no subject)
And to you for the dirt hauling, insect bites et al. The joy of gardening, eh?
(no subject)
I got a few more red raspberries today, and confirmed that at least ONE of the canes that survived is from the golden raspberry variety, so maybe I'll have more berries come the end of October or early November, once the weather starts to cool off to something resembling actual late-Summer/early-Fall temperatures!