Bumbling in the Berry Patch

Over in the corner of our orchard squat two big boulders, surrounded on one side by a few brave wild strawberries, raspberries, and a lot of poison ivy; and on the other with a thick tangle of ferns that was slowly spreading into the orchard. Last summer, in a fit of rage and determination to make that corner productive, I ripped out a third of the ferns with a hand tiller. The boys and I decided it would be fun to turn it into a berry patch, and put in a lowbush blueberry that was moderately shade-tolerant, two thornless blackberry bushes, and two raspberry bushes. This spring, before the ivy started to grow, reaching furtive tendrils up the side of the rock, and before the ferns became so large that the job was daunting, i took the kids out to the corner with their hoes and my tiller, and we dug up the rest. Eventually, after two days of labor on our part, my husband brought a shovel out, helped dig up the rest of the fern roots, and edged the new bed for me.

Planting a berry patch in this corner made sense for a few reasons:

(1) it gets partial sun, making it a terrible place for vegetables, but a happy corner for fruit that can tolerate some afternoon shade;

(2) we only had one blueberry bush at that point, and wanted to expand our fruit selection;

(3) I was spending upwards of $50/wk on berries for my voracious children. [They can eat a quart of blueberries in two days. They are toddlers.]

However, I remembered the tangled, dangerous brambles of the blackberry and raspberry patches of my own childhood. I decided we’d need to trellis the plants – to contain them, and for picking ease – and buy thornless varieties when possible. The end result?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We found thornless blackberry varieties, and planted one more blueberry bush, a shade-tolerant northern varietal that should grow 4-5′ tall, putting it at approximately the same height as the blackberries and raspberries. Trellising the berries created natural pathways between the bushes, and has been a huge boon as they’ve grown – but not overgrown. In addition to controlling the plants, it provides a framework for pruning the plants.

After losing our first “crop” of raspberries to the birds and chipmunks, the kids and I threw bird netting over the plants. We saved a few berries; hopefully the fall crop will be more successful!