The best damn raspberry coffin ever

What??  You've never heard of a raspberry coffin? Of all of the projects that Doug has completed over the past two years in the development of our garden -- this is the one that I find the most amusing.

When we had our landscape plan created, we really wanted lots of fruit bearing trees and shrubs. So we have chokecherries and strawberries, pin-cherries, Saskatoons and crabapples. And Doug really, really wanted raspberries. Our landscape planner cautioned about growing raspberries as they have crazy roots that shoot up in the middle of the lawn and grow under fences. She said that given the size of our yard, she'd create some kind of box to grow them in.

So Doug came up with the raspberry coffin. He decided to use wood he had left around which consisted of 2X6's and sheeting from the playhouse. So it's a very sturdy box. It took him a day to build, and then two days to dig the hole. As it turns out it is pure clay where the raspberries were slated to grow, and he could have used dynamite it was so tough. I seriously thought he was going to have a heart attack. But our raspberries have truly been laid to rest.  Want to see a raspberry coffin?

Is it everything you'd imagined it to be? After digging and digging the thing would just not go in the hole, so Doug had to finesse it a bit:

And in the end?  Well in the end all you see are raspberry bushes.  But one would hope that with all the effort he put into the thing, that they will remain contained!

p.s. The hair -- chin length?? Really?  I think that is the worst length on me. I think it makes my face look rounder and older.  But geez, you all seem to like it like that!  So I asked my "in real life" friends (although of course Jill and Emily have seen me in real life!) and they seemed to agree that they liked it a bit shorter than now -- although still long. But the consensus was on the wavy, messy look. Which my mom hates!!  What to do, what to do??

Comments

[Amy F]

We have black raspberries and their main way of propagating themselves appears to be by having the viney tops grow down to the ground and establish new roots. If yours are like that, I'd recommend training them to go back to the box and not out and away from it. But red raspberries might be different, I'm not sure.

I love the idea of getting as many fruit-bearing plants into the landscape! We planted a cherry tree this year (Evans Bali, it was developed in Canada for northern climates) to add to our strawberries and raspberries. We'd like to add an apple at some point, too.

[Summer]

"Saskatoon" is the name of something edible?

Also: if your mom hates your hair and your friends love it, you have picked exactly the right style.

[Jenn]

Summer -- here's a bit about Saskatoons. They grow everywhere here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saskatoon_berry

Amy -- apparently these red raspberries throw off roots underground -- and they shoot off from the plant -- they don't need to be connected if I understand correctly. But if they do start to bend over -- I'll be guiding them into the box for sure!

[Cheryl Inkpen]

Hey, hey, hey!!! Summer, I've never met you - why the dis!!?? :) Jenn, I don't hate your hair curly......I just prefer it straight.....when it's longer. I'm not a fuddy duddy - Beyonce and I are twins, separated at birth - just ask Jenn!!!!

Jenn's Mom

[Jenn]

Uh mom -- did you just use "dis" in a sentence?????

[Cheryl]

Yup, that's the kind of vocabulary we cool people use......matches my shoes!!