Raspberries and Strawberries

Today was a big day of hard work in the garden. I started by planting most of the root bed: a row each of early and main carrots, beets, swiss chard, and scallions, as well as a container of parsley. Then most of the day was spent in prepping and planting 25 earliglow strawberry plants and 5 heritage raspberry plants.

The new strawberry patch is in the old railroad tie bed. We dug out most of the old soil, rototilled and then added in mushroom soil. My intent was to plant the raspberries as a beginning hedge next to our fence. However, with all this rain we've been having, it has been too muddy and slick to get the truck around. I figured it would be bad for the roots to be in that much water as well, so we ended up tilling right next to the garden fence. I had also wanted to layer in fall leaves and mushroom soil, but again with not being able to move the truck, that didn't work out. So in the end, we rototilled the soil, planted the canes, and then watered in some Miracle Grow organic liquid fertilizer. It is only 8-0-0 instead of 10-10-10, so I will try to add some bonemeal and stuff in a few weeks.