Ed Stuart said:

First, what is, "a permanent mulch"? Also, what does bone meal or
phosphate rock do for soil?

A permanent mulch is one that persists from year to year (though any
organic mulch will need topping off from time to time as it decays).
Finely shredded aged hardwood makes a good permanent mulch.
I prefer a thick layer of shredded leaves, which will disappear in a
year.

Bone meal and rock phosphate add calcium and phosphorous to
your soil. Best practice is to get a soil test to find out what your
soil has lots of and what it is lacking. Some soils have abundant
phosphorous and adding more isn't neccessary (and can even
be counterproductive).

Next, they wrote:

After Christmas, roam around your neighborhood and pick the nicest
looking Christmas trees to recycle in your garden. You can cover your
flower and veggie beds with the branches. In spring remove them from the
rest of garden and pile them on your raspberry patch. Or just put them
on from the git go.

Why would I recycle Christmas trees in my raspberry garden?

I dunno. Can't imagine doing that myself without running them through
a shredder.

How do I create "sandy-loam soils"?

It's best to have them from the get-go! You can improve clay soils
towards a loam by adding masses of compost and sharp sand.
You can improve sandy soils by adding masses of compost (and
some good clean clay soil, if you can find it).

On the whole, my experience in two different gardens, with different
soils, if that raspberries are happier with sandy soil (and plenty of
water and mulch) than they are with clay soils.

Previously someone wrote:

a planting should not follow directly after a sod but rather the
planting should follow a cultivated or cover crop.

Maybe ideally, but my best new raspberry bed came right after sod.
Of course, I stripped all that sod off and improved the soil with plenty
of compost.


--
Pat in Plymouth MI ('someplace.net' is comcast)

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.
(attributed to Don Marti)