According to all the books fall is the best time to transplant raspberries. However, sometimes you just have to do what you can. When we first moved to Vermont 18 years go we bought some raspberry bushes and planted them in our lower field. Not exactly convenient and over the years they have been overgrown by weeds, and although they multiplied, the birds always got the fruit before we were able to.
In the process of downsizing our garden and moving to raised beds we had a large patch of garden soil that was going to be empty. I no longer am growing the same amount of vegetables I did when our four children were at home. However, the soil was beautiful and I didn’t want to turn it into lawn that needed to be mowed. So we decided to go down to the lower field and dig up as many of the raspberry bushes as we could.
There are more raspberry bushes than we could ever transplant but we carefully dug up about twenty bushes and moved them to our new raspberry patch! 
We created two rows of about ten bushes each.
It’s been a week since we did this and they all seem to have survived. I’ve been watering them and keeping an eye on the bushes. When I see signs of new growth I’ll know the transplanting was a success.
We still have quite a bit of room left and I’m thinking I’ll go back down and dig up another twenty bushes. Just want to wait until we have some rain in the forecast.
The next step is to put up some supporting wires. We’ll dig two posts at either end of the rows and run wire between the posts. I think the bushes would appreciate some support!
I’ve always wanted a raspberry patch. Hopefully this patch will be more of a success.
Do you have a raspberry patch, any suggestions for this newbie?
Nancy on the Home Front 