We live in southern Minnesota and want put some raspberry bushes in the backyard, being new to gardening should we wait until next spring or could they establish themselves well enough during the hot summer months to survive the winter without expert attention?
Early spring is when you want to plant raspberries. Planting this late runs the risk of them not establishing a good root system before they have to deal with the winter. Here is a page from your local cooperative extension covering the whole life cycle:
https://extension.umn.edu/fruit/growing-raspberries-home-garden#seasonal-checklist-331661
I like using the cooperative extensions pages because they’ll usually have more applicable local knowledge.