Raspberries -vs- grass

Hi all! I planted some raspberries in a patch of lawn, dug up all the grass from a strip about 4' wide and planted the bare root plants a few feet apart as directed. I mulched heavily with wood chips, thinking this would suppress the weeds, but it seemed to only feed them! I resorted to using woven ground cover fabric, which I knew would block new growth but just to give the ones that made it up already a chance. I've seen these big bushy thriving raspberry patches online, super vigorous, like more than weeds, my question is, do any of you have raspberries next to grass and how do they compete? I really want a full thriving patch but maybe that's not realistic in my front yard 😅 My plants got eaten up bad by deer (I'm working on that too) and so the plants really had a rough go of it but the berries are SO tasty, I'm determined to grow more!

I used to grow fall-bearing raspberries. After the fall frosts, I would mow the canes. Then I would till the patch, which really knocked back the grass. Maintained it for a decade by that means.

Once you add wood chips to a piece of ground, I recommend against tilling them into the soil. They sap soil fertility.

As long as the grass can see daylight it will continue to spread.

Cardboard and 6 inches to 12 inches of mulch or wood chips might help.

I think raspberries don't like grass much....I plant raspberries in patches all over my tree field and let them spread where they like. Where they like seems to be under the trees where there is not much grass, even though it is super shady there. I think they do like nettles though, which doesn't make a comfortable polyculture in which to pick them! I have a lovely spreading patch of both at the top of my plot. You could try mint perhaps as an alternative? I think the nettles work by shading the grass out, but mint might work too and be nicer to walk in.

Very interesting discussion .. More thoughts: https://www.thespruce.com/raspberry-companion-plants-8639179

Hi Gina,
I had a row of raspberries and a row of black berries in the middle of grass that did quite well. But I did weed them for a while. The cardboard or newspapers covered in woodchips worked well for me.

One of the issues I think is that raspberries and grass both have fairly shallow roots that compete. Depending on the type of grass, you might be able to build a raised bed that would help. Or if the grass wasn't too aggressive, you might be able to surround the raspberry bed with some kind of barrier like bricks or metal to try and stop the rhizomes from coming through. But a lot of grasses are so aggressive that wouldn't work.

Coarse chunks of rotting wood, especially coniferous, are adored by raspberries. That is where I see them in the wild—around rotting stumps. It could also help to shift the soil to something more fungal (and acidic) which is not so much preferred by weeds. Some raspberries can thrive in ordinary soils though, even amongst the weeds.

Hypothetical but maybe introducing some saprophytic, soil/wood-dwelling fungi like stropharia could help? I know they killed off my garlic mustard where I put them.

I strongly recommend against ground cover fabric, which can become a place where weeds sprout up through the fabric and become embedded into it, making it impossible to weed.

Ac Baker wrote:Very interesting discussion .. More thoughts: https://www.thespruce.com/raspberry-companion-plants-8639179

Cover crop sounds like a possibility, I have the seed for buckwheat because its supposed to help with wire worms which I had in my other lawn converted area which I made a potato patch (a great bounty for them and none for me 😅🤦‍♀️) I wonder if tilling would disturb the plants or if they're deep enough, or if I'd be tilling around them.

Also I know mint is probably the only thing more vigorous than this grass/weed combo I have here, but I'm a little afraid to plant it in ground since it can spread so much.

Thanks for your help!

M Ljin wrote:Coarse chunks of rotting wood, especially coniferous, are adored by raspberries. That is where I see them in the wild—around rotting stumps. It could also help to shift the soil to something more fungal (and acidic) which is not so much preferred by weeds. Some raspberries can thrive in ordinary soils though, even amongst the weeds.

Hypothetical but maybe introducing some saprophytic, soil/wood-dwelling fungi like stropharia could help? I know they killed off my garlic mustard where I put them.

I strongly recommend against ground cover fabric, which can become a place where weeds sprout up through the fabric and become embedded into it, making it impossible to weed.

Loving this idea, I have some large chunks of wood that I could use almost like a larger mulch. That would most definitely stop some weed damage!

This is my second year using DeWalt woven ground cover, it's not like cheap fabric but more like a woven plastic . I'd rather not have plastic in the garden at all but it just makes my very large in ground plot manageable during our hot and rainy summers in 7b. It works amazingly and I do have a weed pop up through the staples here and there and all around the plant holes but it's nothing compared to weeds everywhere all the time! The only thing is for raspberries or asparagus when you have stuff popping up wherever it pleases, it's not a good option.

Thanks so much!