Raspberries can be found in gardens all over the world, and there are a thousand different reasons why they can make the perfect next addition to your garden. They’re one of the berries highest in natural anti-oxidants, and they’re overall great for your health whether you’re adding them to an ice cream recipe or baking berry-containing cupcakes instead.
They grow happily under the right circumstances, and they’re one of the most popular berries to grow second only to strawberries. A lot of new gardeners are surprised to find out that raspberries aren’t nearly as hard to grow as they might have imagined – as long as you have the essential key elements for your raspberry plant calculated right, you can look forward to happy and healthy raspberry plants for years or even decades more to come.
Here are 8 key elements for gardeners who want to grow raspberries in their garden.
1. The Right Soil
The first thing a gardener should think about when planning to plant anything new in their garden is the type of soil that the plant is going to need; the same conditions often don’t count for the same type of plant, which is why it’s often the easiest to mark off certain areas of the garden and prepare the soil for that specific section.
Raspberries aren’t fussy when it comes to the type of soil they want to grow in; ideally, soil should be loosely packed together and should be free of any rocks, weeds or clumps. From there, it can never hurt to water the soil before any plants, seeds or cuttings go into it
Prepare the soil by adding at least one layer of compost, and if you live in a colder area, use mulch packed around the base of the plant (but never the roots) to insulate the plant slightly from the cold.