Its easy enough to dig out an 18 inch diameter circle, and plant a raspberry seedling in the grass. In the fall, I cut our bed of everbearing red raspberries down to 10 inches, and then mulch heavily with shredded tree leaves. Not too many weeds survive the mulch, and compete with the raspberry canes. I do have a problem with bindweed, though.

Personally, I use #1 method. You don't want to use a weed barrier because the plants have to replace themselves through runners, which come up several inches to as much as several feet from the original plant. This is vital because the original plants only live for 2 growing seasons max, so if you don't allow the runners to grow, you will not have any berries after 2 years. That also brings up a problem with #3. After a couple years the runners will have filled in the gaps between the original plants and you will not be able to use the weed whacker.

I'd go with 1. You don't need to amend the soil at all, raspberries will grow in anything. The raspberries will eventually get so thick they out compete any weeds or grass that might try to grow near them. But it's nice to give them a head start on the grass so tilling up the grass would help them get established faster. Any sort of mulch you have would be nice to keep out weeds those first few years and it helps the soil too.

Goodness, thank you so much for the responses!

Well, so far there are 2 votes for #1 and one vote for #3. Truth be told, I am the one who is hoping for #3, because I'm trying to make this as little work as possible, but I have to admit, #1 is probably a better idea to help them get established. I did not think about the point that they grow by runners! Very good point! I do want the raspberries, so I guess I'll just have to put in the work. Nothing worthwhile is easy as they say. :)

ericwi, I really liked your idea of mulching with the leaves and we'll be sure to do that when we plant the canes. I feel your pain on the bindweeds, I have a few of these at my front door every year and they drive me crazy. They grow so fast I can hardly keep up! Mine always break before I can pull the root out, arrgh!

We spent yesterday going to our local nurseries to see what they had in raspberries. We were thinking if we found any they might be larger than the catalog ones. We found very nice large and healthy plants for a good price, but they are another variety, Tulameen. I'm told this is a late variety. I think we may go back today and get a few of these too, just to mix in with the others and hopefully stagger the crop. The nursery suggested we plant them about 3 foot apart.

G.O. #3 should work, infact I will be doubling my plot this Fall that way. Use a weedwacker or some tool to reduce the existing vegetation to a minimun, and and then mulch heavily. Mulching is the key and use what ever is available. I use wood chips only because I have free access to as much as I want. Tree service contractors and or municipalities are always dumping it. 3 foot is as close as you want; In two years I'm over run with canes.

I planted my first red raspberries this spring and they are doing great at this point. I will cut them back and mulch late this fall or on a nice day this winter. I planted a 75 ft row with plants that I got from a friend, not even sure of the variety, but know that they are everbearing and I had a sample taste last year. The best part is the shoots are free. So, if you know someone with a patch ask if they would share after they come up in the spring. I tilled up sod 4 ft. wide and mixed in alot of compost before I planted, and added 12-12-12 after they got started. this seemed to really give them a kick. I want my berries to be weed free,just me I guess, so the heavy mulch makes it easy to weed. I guess that my advise would be not to rush things. It only took me 62 years to get mine planted. Good Luck, Earl