If you love Raspberries and most people do then the earliest part of spring is your last chance to get in a crop of plants before the season begins. Unfortunately you might have a difficult time finding plants at your local big box store so you are going to have to be creative and reach out to some quality garden centers or possibly try visiting a local farm that sells retail and asking if they would sell you a few plants. If they do be very thankful because it will mean they won’t be selling you berries any time soon and they will know that.
You should try getting the plants in by the end of March or as soon as you possibly can.
You want to plant your crop in an area that is free of regular application of pesticides. That means if you have a flower garden around your home and would want to put them there it could be a problem if you normally use pesticides in that area to control spiders or ants.
Once you decide on the area you want to make sure the soil has good drainage or you could end up with root rot. Do not plant in a low area that normally sees pooling of water during a storm and if the soil has a lot of clay you will need to dig it out and supplement it with mushroom soil, peet moss or other products as necessary.
You should also add fertilizer when you are supplementing and turning the planting bed.
As the plant grows it will need additional support by the way of a wire structure or fencing.
Often green fence posts can be picked up for $3 each and a wire placed once every foot to a height of about 3 feet to support the plant as it grows. You do not need a lot of support such as a tomato plant cage but you do need something to support the fruit and make sure branches are not injured.
In most cases raspberry plants do not require a lot of water so they should not be regularly watered as often as your other garden vegetables. If you do go through a drought you will need to care for them. Never let the soil get hard.
You will eventually need to trim your plants but for the first season you can let them grow and hope you get some rewards. Depending on the size of the plant you place you may or may not get fruit the first year so don’t expect it.. just enjoy it if you do.