Filed under: Berries, Gardening, Triangle Bed | Tags: blackberry, blueberry, pacific northwest gardening, strawberry
We have long dreamed of a yard with many varieties of berries: blackberries, blueberries, strawberries, even raspberries. That said, other than the tiny little alpine strawberries we are seeing, we haven’t eaten any appreciable amount of berries from our own gardening efforts.
The strawberry plants in the Triangle Bed have tripled in size since last year. The strawberries themselves remain small. The strawberry plants are beautiful, though. A friend’s friend, who was touring the garden today, mentioned that her neighbor has strawberry plants all over the front yard because the plants are so lovely. There is so much fruit, the neighbor asks her to send her kids over to take care of the surplus. Given the decorative value of the strawberry plants and their ease of growth, I am seriously considering decorating the front yard with many strawberry plants.
Blueberries have been a dream for us for many years. I planted one bush in the Triangle Bed with the strawberries last year. It’s grown but no berries yet. Two years ago, I planted three blueberry bushes in the front yard. The front yard is essentially very blueberry friendly. We have three large fir trees in the front yard. Growing under fir trees is a blueberry bush’s natural environment. This year we are seeing many blueberries beginning on the bush closest to the mailbox. We hope we will get to them before the birds do!
Now we come to the subject of blackberries. Many of us here in the Pacific Northwest consider this prickly bush to be a very sturdy weed. I personally say any plant that grows something as tasty as a blackberry should be cultivated. So we began treating blackberry brambles with a certain reverence. Now the brambles are “making moves” to re-take over the Triangle Bed as well as doing the same in the Railroad Tie Bed. We will be cutting the blackberries back this year while hoping they will still bear fruit.
We haven’t made any progress on getting raspberries included in our garden. Our understanding is we need to order the raspberries “rods” from a nursery and then put them in the ground. I’m sure we’ll want them in the Triangle Bed, where most of our present berry effort is.
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I always love reading about berries. Not as much as I like eathing them, mind you. But I do love a good berry story. I also laughed about making refrieds for 100. Now I’ll need to share that story with Jorge. I’ll send off your url to Tina since she is “named” in the berry entry. Great fun to play in your gardens yesterday! Great to just plain see you!
Comment by rapunzelsbloguser June 25, 2009 @ 3:46 pm