FAMILY TIME - BUILDING A RAISED BED FOR OUR NEW BLACKBERRY PLANTS!

We did a variety of things today, and this was one of them!

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Each task that we complete is one small step in the right direction. For some things, unless we do them in time, we forever miss our opportunity. This was one of those situations.

YOU DON'T WORK, YOU DON'T EAT!

If you saw my post about working on my friends dreadlocks in exchange for some plant cuttings, then you already know that I am about to attempt to propagate some food bearing plants. These cuttings are still dormant, so I wanted to get them into the ground before they wake up, and before they die. We started with our blackberry cuttings!

We already have some of our garden site covered in mulch. This is for multiple reasons, including building the soil, suppressing the weed growth, and retaining moisture. While we joke around about "you don't work, you don't eat" sometimes, in situations like this, the "fruit of our labor" is actually food. Perhaps that is part of why the @little-peppers were so eager to help.

Step one was to build a small rock wall around what would be the raised bed. Some of these things are more random and natural, while others are more planned, and a lot of life is trial and error. For some projects, you just do the best you can with what you know and hope for the best. Thankfully, hard work often pays off, and we sure don't mind working hard!

Once the rocks were in place, it was time for the rabbit manure! Yes, this is a great plant food and we like to produce a lot of it. Thankfully, we have many five gallon buckets of rabbit manure just waiting to be used in our garden. Since it is a "cold manure" it does not need to be composted first, which certainly can be helpful and time saving!

Also, the wood mulch and the compost (which has a lot of wood particles in it) requires a lot of Nitrogen to decompose. Since manure is generally high in Nitrogen, these will work together well. In the end we hope to build up our raised beds into healthy, living, nutrient-rich soil that will help our plants thrive!

While some children may be afraid of or grossed out by manure, the @little-peppers understand its place in the world and respect the beneficial role that it plays. They actually asked permission to help spread it, which, when they do it properly, helps me out a lot and reduces the effort that I have to put forth. A little effort in teaching and training the next generation can really help you out in the end. A rather small investment of time and energy can bring a rather large ROI!

TIME FOR COMPOST AND HOPE FOR THE FUTURE!

After the rocks were in place and the manure was spread, it was time to add in the compost. This is free compost that we can pick up in the nearest city to us, so it is a huge blessing. When you add in the fact that @bluerthangreen allows us to borrow his truck and dump trailer to pick it up by the load, that blessing exponentially increases!

The compost was showing more signs of beneficial life again too! We had found a large nightcrawler (earthworm) in the compost the other day and found a few more today too! This is good news for our garden!

To have the best potential for growth and rooting, we slid the cut canes of the blackberry plants under the compost and manure. With a long section beneath the surface and only a little bit protruding, there are many nodes beneath the surface that can potentially root. Hopefully many of these will be successful.

Actually, as long as at least one survives, we will have the opportunity to try again right at home. This is part of why I enjoy plant propagation and gardening. Though there may be a lot of error or failure sometimes, there can also be a lot of forgiveness and hope!

Once all the canes were "planted" we gave the whole bed a good watering. Hopefully the compost will remain moist and these canes will be able to root. Once we see new growth we will add a layer of mulch on top of the beds too, mostly to reduce the opportunity for weeds to grow and help retain moisture.

With as many helpers as I have tasks like this can go rather quickly. Many of you would probably be amazed if you saw everything else we accomplished today. Also, once a job like this is done, hopefully it'll last for years to come. Plus, if it works, we will have some tasty blackberries to enjoy in the future! We will see!

As always, I'm @papa-pepper and here's the proof:

proof-of-raised-bed

Until next time…

GIF provided by @anzirpasai

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