Volunteers Needed: Raspberries ready for planting in Polly Judd Park

[Mariah McKay]

Hello Phil & Friends,

I finished digging out the raspberry starts from my yard that I would like to donate to this summer's plantings.

I believe they are red summer bearing plants.

It would be ideal if a small team of volunteers could pick them up from my house at 1024 W 11th Ave. (The Dharma Dorm) within the next week or two, and take them to the park for planting.

Attached is a photo.

Thank you!

Mariah

--

Mariah Rose McKay
509-939-0015
mariah...@gmail.com

On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 12:17 PM, Philip Small <e.phili...@gmail.com> wrote:

That would be wonderful. Do you know what kind they are (red? summer or everbearing?). Regardless, this is an opportune offer. Last frost to early summer is the time to plant raspberries. What we need to make this happen is for someone (not you, b/c we need you concentrating on co-housing!) to step forward and shepherd the planting and watering of the raspberries.

I have been envisioning sections of buck-and-rail fencing placed on the perimeter. The stepped rail structure a B&R offers shelter for nurturing our food forest understory and ground cover plants from off-leash-running-dog impacts. Access to the water is straightforward for plantings on the perimeter, compared to plantings well away from the perimeter and hose bibs. I see fruitful vines and shrubs but also plants selected for deer forage (lettuce, and more) and public foraging of vegetables like rhubarb and fruits like tomatoes. Shelter structures make sense considering the other uses happening around the garden.

Another name for buck & rail fence is jack-leg fence. I would leave 2' gaps between 8' sections to avoid being a formal (exclusionary) fence. The  sections become shelter and support structures, while also serving to identify the garden perimeter. 

Interesting that when I looked for complementary polyculture plants for raspberries, tansy, the invasive plant slowly taking over the park, is listed. Hmmmm. 

Wyatt Plastino, FOPJP's resident neighborhood Certified Arborist determined in May that FOPJP will need individual permits from Urban Forestry to plant each fruit and nut tree in the park. Until we have a more formal organization with a proven track record of accomplishment, Urban Forestry will limit us to nut trees because (my paraphrasing  of what Wyatt learned from Angel Spell, Jeff Perry) fruit trees are high maintenance, and if the garden/food forest fails, Urban Forestry and the taxpayers would be left holding that bag. 

I assume that we don't need a permit to plant raspberries on our garden perimeter, but would be good if Wyatt can confirm that for us. I base that on the fact that the city doesn't have a list of shrubs and vines approved for street plantings the way they do for trees. However, raspberry canes grow 7' every year, so maybe that triggers some process with the city, it certainly is a maintenance issue on the level of fruit tree husbandry.

Hops grow 14' every year, similar issue, similar potential for planting at the park.

Perimeter plantings are going to happen. Grant Park community garden has a wide variety of plants along their fence perimeter. They have exclusionary fencing, but it wasn't as effective at holding off damage to the beds from vandalism and opportunistic harvesting of the tomatoes until it was planted.

Separately Nancy McKerrow, myself, and the neighborhood council would like to see the Polly Judd Food Forest also be a Susie Food Forest. Maybe these could be a Susie raspberry planting.

Thank you for the kind offer of the plants! 

Phil

On Mon, Jun 5, 2017 at 12:09 AM, Mariah McKay <mariah...@gmail.com> wrote:

I have a half dozen baby raspberry starts with thorns that might be useful in a growing "fence"?

Mariah

--

Mariah Rose McKay
509-939-0015
mariah...@gmail.com