Transplanting blackberry and raspberry vines

The rental property we had been living in since 2013 was a duplex with a two bedroom unit on the street side and a one bedroom apartment on the back side.  The entire property was derelict when we moved in mid 2013 and the property management company told us we could do whatever we wanted with the yard.  Being a gardener, I of course went to town on it.  Once the property sold in 2016, the new owners wanted to live in the larger unit so we moved to the apartment in the back.  The young couple that had rented there before us had planted an apricot tree, a nectarine tree and a thornless blackberry vine all together against a side fence.  We moved the trees to a better location in the back yard but left the blackberry next to the side fence.  From 2016 to 2021, the blackberry vine expanded to a huge clump that covered the entire side fence.  The berries have good flavor but large seeds so we use them to make delicious jam and syrup.  Once we found our property in Redmond and decided to move, our landlords let us know that whatever plants we did not take with us, they were planning to rip out to streamline the landscaping down to low maintenance since we were not going to be there to take care of what we had grown over the years.  The blackberries were the first plants that we moved.  In the fall of 2021 I severely pruned the vines to 4' tall stalks.  We dismantled the structure that held up the vines and moved it along with the plants.  We dug a raised bed, amended the soil and planted the vines at our new property in mid November with our fingers crossed.  I usually do not like to move plants that late in the year but we really did not want to leave all the major moving to the spring when we were so busy with the remodel and knew we would be finishing up the project and moving at the same time.  The first picture shows the pitiful stalks in their new home.  

Originally the raspberries were volunteers that came up under the fence from the property to the north of the apartment we were renting.  Raspberries like to travel and they are hard to contain when they are seeking water.  We watered our side of the fence so they naturally decided to move over toward water.  I have witnessed raspberry sprouts coming up many feet away from the parent plant in search of water.  My husband was happy to nurture and expanded them on our side of the fence so we ended up with quite a large clump.  Once our landlord purchased that house and moved in next door in 2019, they did a yard rehab and eliminated all the raspberries on their side.   Spring 2021 we were hard at the construction project and took one day to move the raspberries to their new raised bed.  Thankfully the raspberries and the blackberries survived the move and are still thriving.  

The second two pictures show what the raspberries on the right and the blackberries on the left looked like in the early spring 2022.  we added two strawberry beds with everbearing strawberry plants from Wilco and other garden stores.  It is the beginning of the berry garden!  

Saving and moving plants

 Not an exciting title but one of the first things we did in the fall of 2021 was to move plants from our rental house to our new property.  I crammed as many pieces of perennials that I could into our 4 large wine barrels and dug up the daylilies, Iris and lily bulbs.  We transported the wine barrels to the property to winter over in an out of the construction zone spot.  The property has a large dilapidated shed that had a relatively protected spot next to it on one side that served as a temporary spot to put the daylilies, Irises and lilies.  I had to remove a very large clump of yucca that had been growing there long enough to grow partially under the shed.  The dirt is about 50% gravel in this spot but with a little amendments it has served these plants well.  Our next project was to move the blackberries and raspberries.  We chose a spot next to the back fence to dig raised beds, amended the soil and planted them with our fingers crossed. Moving them right before winter is risky but we didn’t have much choice.  In the spring of 2022 we added strawberries and a second raspberry bed with plants from a former neighbor.   

I am back!

 Well that was a long hiatus from blogging.  It seems like 4 years went by in a flash!  What has been happening? We purchased a 1934 little fixer upper in July of 2021.  September we started demolition and for the next 8 months we were in rehab mode.  We took one day off, Christmas Day 2021. We moved in March of 2022 and continued to work on completion of the interior.  This old house could be a blog all by itself but I am a gardener so I am going to stay in my lane.  The 900 square foot house sits on a large lot near downtown Redmond and it was a rental property for many years before we bought it.  The yard was filled with dead weeds, junky trees, multiple fences, old septic tanks, piles of wood and tons of broken glass.  The irrigation system was mostly stubbed off and buried.  Once we dug it all up and found all the heads, repaired the breaks and added to it, it works fine.  We excavated loads of dead tree roots, old tools, car parts, metal pipes, toys and more glass.  A good friend who is an arborist came and removed the two large trees for us and ground up the stumps. Once that was done we tilled the entire yard and removed the dead sod. June 2022 we started with dirt and an old but functional irrigation system.  My husband doesn’t like mowing so we determined that landscaping with retainer block and gravel paths would be best.   The first order of business shown below was to remove two trees and the piles of debris left by the former residents.  This is a view of the back of the property after most of the great clean up showing our friend grinding the last of the cottonwood stump.  I like starting with a clean slate.