hey there, just dug up a space for my garden yesterday! we were gonna have a 4x10 garden, but we went a little over board and dug up 8x20 it seems like! anyway, i'm psyched cuz then i can plant WHATEVER i want. I am definitely interested in blueberries and blackberries too for the end of my garden. Anyone ever plant these and have luck? Happy Gardening!
Blackberries grow like weeds here - my mom has wild blackberries choking out her hostas & ferns! Shouldn't need a lot of care or attention for them. They like full-sun, and they have wicked evil thorns like raspberries so you'll want to be sure you have a GOOD pair of gardening gloves before the berries are ripe for picking. Blueberries are new to us - this is the first year Mom is tackling them too, and if everything goes well we'll be trying them next year in containers. Here's the little bit I can tell you about growing them: Blueberries need acidic well-drained soil, and full-sun. They're highly recommended for raised or separate beds because of the high-acid soil. You need your soils pH to be betweeh 4.0 & 5.5, and it looks like the easiest/cheapest way to lower the pH is with peat moss. If you're in a colder climate, the half-high shrubs (18-24") are recommended... a few types we've seen mentioned a lot are Chippewa, Northblue & Northsky. If you're in a warmer climate, the highbush (6-8 FEET!) varieties should work for you. Either way, you'll want to plant at least 2 varieties for cross-pollination. Blueberries are also supposed to be susceptible to dry weather, so mulching around the plants is more important than with most plants... my mom's mulch of choice is wood chips, since it helps with weed control as well. And - this may be a bit disappointing, but don't expect your plants to bear any fruit for the 1st 2-3 years. After that you can expect 1-3 pounds from each half-high or 5-10 per highbush plant. I don't want you to be discouraged as I'm a huge fan of home-grown berries too, but it is a long-term time investment. Sure wish I could be more help, but that's about all I know for now. love, mom
As Homeschoolmama said, berries are very hardy and will basically take care of them selfs. What I would do is find a corner of your yard and make that your berry patch. Save your rototill ed garden for your veggies or flowers or whatever you plan to plant. Don't know what part of the country your in, when I was a kid in Northern Calif. Black berries would take over. We had to cut, dig and burn them out so they wouldn't clog up our irrigation ditches. Here blue berries grow wild in the woods and on the hillsides. Only know one gardener who has any black berries. He brought some cutting home after a trip to Oregon. He really has to pamper them, dont think their use to spending the winter under 4-5 ft of snow..... Good luck with your garden........Dennis... the Alaskan
Alaskan - are your friends' blackberries wild or cultivated? Mom's blackberries are all wild, and they do just fine under 4 feet of snow... probably not quite as long, but hers were buried for a good 4 months this year. And the only thing she ever does to care for them is prune them back when they get too big! love, mom
Mom:: You got me wondering about my friend "Russ" and his blackberries. Couldn't reach him at home, tried his cell and caught him on the steps on the U.S. Congress. He's in D.C. lobbying against a coal fired electrical generator here in our area. No wonder I haven't heard from him all winter. Well anyhow, he said his blackberries were of the cultivated type. He didn't want to introduce a new wild species into our ecosystem. Cant say I blame him. A few years back they hydro seeded banks along a hi way improvement. They had white clover in the mix. Never had clover here be for, now its everywhere and we cant get rid of it. Dennis....Alaskan
lol... yeah, that makes a LOT of sense. We've got problems here with a couple Japanese weeds (NO clue where they came from) & some sort of underwater plant choking out our lakes down here too. I did a quick check, and it looks like you do have a few "native" (might have been introduced pre-1875) types of blackberry. Check out Rubus ursinus or Rubus pedatus My sister worked in Denali several years ago, and she said there were wild blackberries along the paths there too - don't know how far you are from that, (AK is HUGE!) but I'd bet that the park rangers would know what types they are! love, mom
Japanese weeds - oh dear, Knotweed perhaps? Horrible stuff. Systemic and VERY hard to get rid of. The Victorians thought they were wonderful and there are various varieties. We call blackberries brambles in Scotland. We pick them from the hedgerows rather than cultivate them - there is no need to they are so abundant in the wild.
I do think it was knotweed - does it have pretty little yellow flowers and choke out everything it comes into contact with? Blackberries are brambles!!! I've been reading Beatrix Potter & Brambley Hedge to my kids for years... and I had NO idea what a bramble really was! Gotta tell the kids - they'll love to know love, mom
