Hello! I’m new to gardening and want to start a raised bed to plant some perennial fruits and vegetables (mostly berries.) I live in northern virginia. When researching, I found that most people recommend planting right after the last frost. Is it possible that I could plant them in august? I know I probably won’t get fruit before the dormant season but just curious. Thanks!
1 Like
Potted items can be planted most any time, but not bare root, which probably aren’t available anyway.
3 Likes
If you have the material on hand, plant whenever BUT be very mindful of watering needs in summer. If you don’t have the material, I would wait til fall just to make it easier in terms of watering.
1 Like
I have transplanted potted trees from a nursery in the hottest part of summer a few times and the trick was to prune off all of the terminal buds from each branch. This slows down the energy demanded by the new growth (provided by the roots) and gives the roots some time to recoup from any transplant damage. If this isn’t done there is a potential for the top growth to drain all of the energy from the roots and the tree will start to die back, possibly all the way dead.
I’m not a professional, but I got the idea from Jim Putnam on YouTube, who is.
1 Like
Thanks for all the input!
Like others said you can plant potted plants during summer. The challenge is potted plants are more expensive than bare root and if you are buying online there is more stress on the plants because the plants will heat up more in the package. Also most of my plants put out most of their growth in July and June then start to slow dow in August-October. After October my trees are generally dormant and in May they are just waking up. In others words you are not going to get much growth on the trees or bushes by end of year either.