I'm sure you'll be relieved to learn that I got the little raspberry twigs planted snugly into their new home, hopefully without any lasting trauma to them (or to myself).
The night they arrived I had nothing in which to plant them, other than the lawn. I thought they'd need something more than that after their journey from Territorial Seeds. The next night was bowling night, so they had to stay in their temporary cardboard crib for another day. Then Thursday after work Julie and I stopped by Lowe's on the way home (carpooling due to Mini issues) and picked up some topsoil/compost mix. I wanted to go to Russell's Garden Center in Wayland, but with all the rain we had last weekend and their close proximity to the Sudbury River, we couldn't get to them. Had I been by myself I probably would have persevered and gone the REALLY long way to get there, but when carpooling with Julie, the shortest route and time spent is generally the best. This is particularly true when it involves yard and garden themed events.
Four very heavy bags later, we finished our drive home and I went to work.
I brought out the raspberry shipping box from the kitchen, then emerged from the garage with a pair of gloves and assorted gardening tools, and set them down on the field of battle:
Next, time to unpack the plants:
Hard to believe these are going to turn into a thriving raspberry patch, eh? Now came the sweaty portion of the evening - digging the holes. I used the straight edge of the shovel to cut into the turf and then to undercut it so I could yank it out in chunks. I did take the time to knock back some of the dirt and as many worms as I could spot, so they could continue their good deeds for the soil. Then the grass chunks went into the purple bucket (since the wheelbarrow was full of the Lowe's dirt) for later transport to the back of the house. I think I got better as I went along, and the second through fifth plantings seemed to end up with larger holes and bigger mounds. But I'm sure they'll all do just fine. Here you can see the first one in the ground, with the second one underway, then the second one all done:
I like this shovel, as the top of the blade has two little platforms on which I can jump/stand to push the blade into the ground. I would have been in serious trouble if I'd had to rely on my shoulder muscles rather than throwing my formidable weight into it.
Fast forward to an hour later:
Okay, that last one's from the next morning. Since I started this after work and after the side trip to the big box store, it was getting dark by the time I packed up to go back inside. Thank goodness for the clocks having jumped ahead the previous weekend, or I would have been doing this by the glow of the solar driveway lights!
Of course, once the plants were in the ground I still had to haul the turf clumps around to the back. My, my, but those things are heavy! I had to use the purple bucket to gather them in sets and dump them into the wheelbarrow, and then I wasn't sure I was going to be able to get the wheelbarrow up the hill on the side of the house. But I persevered, and soon was able to unceremoniously dump the clumps around back to dry out. In a couple of days I'll toss them into the woods.
Yes, I know I still need to add a support system for them. However, I don't expect them to shoot up two feet before next weekend, so just back the hell off.
Julie was kind enough to take on making dinner and cleaning the litter box while I was out in the yard. Good thing, because by the time I finished I would have settled for a handful of granola and the litter box would have been ignored.
SO - the landscaping and gardening makeover has begun. Although Territorial Seeds didn't give me any heads up about the raspberries, I did get an email on Friday that another package of live plant(s) had shipped. No indication of what. I checked the website, and since the asparagus crowns don't ship until mid-April, it must be the cherry tree. I have two bags of the Stuff from Lowe's left, so that should do nicely.
