Fruits of his labors

Starting years ago with a cane or two from a neighbor's yard, Tim has built his raspberry garden. This year, he's taken it to a whole new level. I gave away my perennial gardens in the front yard this spring and Tim took over the space, more than tripling his total space under cultivation. He and several other friends who also fruit garden swapped varieties and one gave him a grape vine cutting which after playing dead for weeks has leafed promisingly. He remediated the soil, put in poles and support strings to keep the canes upright, mulched, and watered faithfully. He was very frugal- using up all the soil improvements we had leftover in the garage from previous years, expanding with free canes from friends and neighbors, using homemade compost from our own bins, and spending a minimum amount on one bag of vermiculite and one bale of straw mulch for the whole yard.
And within the last week, raspberry season has begun! He and the kids love walking out in the cool of the morning to pick day after day.


Not only are we eating the yummy results, I am also inspired by his pursuit of what he likes and his refusal to cultivate what doesn't please him. Yeah, Tim!