I've grown raspberries at every home I've lived in for the past twenty years. In our area of Michigan, raspberries are a pretty natural fit for most yards and soil types. We get just about the right amount of rain for them and they don't seem to mind the clay soil - probably because raspberries prefer an acidic soil and clay likes to hold the acid.

This year, however, I decided to test the soil and discovered it was more alkaline than the patch would probably prefer. I considered some solutions and finally settled on broadcasting raw coffee grounds over the patch.

Unused coffee grounds aren't usually recommended for gardens precisely because they make everything too acidic. Once they're used they make great compost because their PH level neutralizes and they become very nice ground organic matter. But we needed the acid and we found a large can of Maxwell House coffee for $5 at the local Value Center. I waited for a day we were expecting rain and spread it over the whole patch and shook it down a little so the coffee went off the leaves onto the soil.

The spring canes responded by exploding in height. I've never seen raspberry canes get so tall. Now at the tail end of August they've begun producing their fruit on canes that have surpassed the seven-foot height of the fence they're growing against. The bees are having a field day with the large flower clusters and the birds actually can't get to the fruit since they usually steal from the lower canes and these are just too tall.