Because this photo didn’t get into the last post — here are the raspberries, including 5 new bare-root canes, in three or four inches of straw mulch. They seem happy. They’re leafing out. They like this corner of the yard better than the other corner, where it was too hot, and where the previous raspberries went to die. The leafy ones were 2 year old plants I bought in pots last year. Since they did so well, I took a flyer on some bare root starts this year. We’ll see, like I said, I’ve killed raspberries before. My dream is…

All the signs are pointing to a long, hot, dry summer this year. For one thing, it’s currently almost 80 degrees outside. In April. In Montana. Stick a finger in the dirt in my raised beds, and it’s powder dry just below the surface. Powdery. In April. All of this has me worried. I don’t like to water much, but since our average annual rainfall is 17 inches, one has to irrigate if you’re going to grow much of anything here. My other inspiration was a rapidly-sprouting crop of weeds. I filled the new beds with semi-composted chicken shitty straw…

Spring arrived this weekend –real spring — sunny and 60 one minute, cloudy and 40 and raining the next. I broke out the clothesline again (does anything smell as good as sheets dried on the line?) But this is not one of my many paens to the clothesline — this is a post about berry bushes. Because this weekend I planted berry bushes. I planted three gooseberries, four red lake currants and five bare-root raspberries (sticks, basically). I also planted a grapevine in the hot stony place off my porch where I’m hoping it will grow up the trellis eventually. I’m…