DrB Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Was looking at mine and am not sure they will do much this year from the cold spring. Time will tell. How are yours? Dave.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Historian Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 When i was a kid we had a half acre lot that was covered in black and raspberries. It was amazing. I have some spots in the wild that are good if the deer don't get them. One of my favorite things is a fine blackberry. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrB Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 BlackBerry pie.. Love tnem. Hopefully I can get enough for one. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs.Cicero Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 I think I'm going to have a bumper crop this year. The bees were all over the blossoms, and there's a ridiculous number of unripe berries on the plants right now. I hope so. I need some blackberry-lavender jam. Of course, my lavender plant is doing terrible, so I have to fix before the berries are ripe... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walt Longmire Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Grew up picking and eating several varieties in the PNW. Sadly none around here. But we do have blue berries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maccabeus Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 (edited) We have some wild blackberries along the edge of our property. Very small fruit and fairly bitter. I don't care for them plain, but eating them on something sweet is fine. They're not coming in strongly this year. Our nursery-bought thornless blackberries planted in the yard years ago are doing just fine this year. Several bowlfuls already picked and many more on the way. Blueberries are doing great, too. Unfortunately, my kids eat most of them before they get into the house. My strawberries and raspberries died out a few years ago and I never tried again. Edited June 29, 2020 by Maccabeus 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tadbart Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 Thornless? I have read that they make a decent hedge, but I assume the thorns are a big part of that. Obviously not here in the hood, but I will probably give them a try when I get out west. If the critters come eat them, so be it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maccabeus Posted June 29, 2020 Share Posted June 29, 2020 4 hours ago, tadbart said: Thornless? I have read that they make a decent hedge, but I assume the thorns are a big part of that. Obviously not here in the hood, but I will probably give them a try when I get out west. If the critters come eat them, so be it. My thornless plants (I don't recall which variety we put in several years ago) would not make much of a hedge. You could step over/on them fairly easily. The taller portion is growing over a small trellis. Naturally, they are just 12-18" off the ground. But they produce some tasty fruit! The wild blackberries are covered in wicked thorns (you have to zoom in close to see them), which tear me up just picking the berries. they make a much better barrier. Any given plant isn't too large, but they grow together with the other wild grasses, weeds, & shrubs and make for some good discouragement. Then there are the blueberries. I have a half dozen bushes. Not enough to make a hedge, but enough to produce fistfuls of fruit for the whole family. 1 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrB Posted June 29, 2020 Author Share Posted June 29, 2020 17 hours ago, Mrs.Cicero said: I think I'm going to have a bumper crop this year. The bees were all over the blossoms, and there's a ridiculous number of unripe berries on the plants right now. I hope so. I need some blackberry-lavender jam. Of course, my lavender plant is doing terrible, so I have to fix before the berries are ripe... Lucky you. Hopefully mine will pick up. The usual suspects are lurking around though (snakes)... Was cold wet spring here. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs.Cicero Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 6 hours ago, Maccabeus said: My thornless plants (I don't recall which variety we put in several years ago) would not make much of a hedge. You could step over/on them fairly easily. The taller portion is growing over a small trellis. Naturally, they are just 12-18" off the ground. But they produce some tasty fruit! The wild blackberries are covered in wicked thorns (you have to zoom in close to see them), which tear me up just picking the berries. they make a much better barrier. Any given plant isn't too large, but they grow together with the other wild grasses, weeds, & shrubs and make for some good discouragement. Then there are the blueberries. I have a half dozen bushes. Not enough to make a hedge, but enough to produce fistfuls of fruit for the whole family. I'm jealous of your blueberries. Mine never produce enough to make. handful, and they get eaten by the animals anyway. Eventually I will plant some closer to the house so I can water them regularly and cage them to keep the deer from chomping them to the ground every winter. But not this year. Tooooo much to do already. 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrB Posted June 30, 2020 Author Share Posted June 30, 2020 11 hours ago, tadbart said: Thornless? I have read that they make a decent hedge, but I assume the thorns are a big part of that. Obviously not here in the hood, but I will probably give them a try when I get out west. If the critters come eat them, so be it. Thorns...Yepp... Mine have thorns like fishhooks. They will rip you open if not careful. Somehow they do not bother the snakes though. I'm guessing the snakes hang out for the birds that land to eat the berries. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
26isbest Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 Back in the early 80s I lived up on a hill that had wild blackberries in back. It was pretty nice that for a bit of effort we'd have enough for a cobbler. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walt Longmire Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 Used to throw planks out on the blackberry patches where I grew up to get access to more bushes, rather than just the perimeter. 3 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tadbart Posted June 30, 2020 Share Posted June 30, 2020 7 hours ago, DrB said: Thorns...Yepp... Mine have thorns like fishhooks. They will rip you open if not careful. Somehow they do not bother the snakes though. I'm guessing the snakes hang out for the birds that land to eat the berries. Cool! So they'd be a good addition to a pasture fenceline? The goats will keep it trimmed on the inside, the deer and turkeys can have at the outside. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gwalchmai Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 We have blueberries. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Maccabeus Posted July 1, 2020 Share Posted July 1, 2020 A blueberry salad. Slap the whole branch onto a plate and enjoy - leaves, stem, ripe, and unripe. If you do that too often, you'll run out of blueberry bush. ? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmohme Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 Fresh blackberries and vanilla ice-cream! I doesn't get much better than that! 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jmohme Posted July 2, 2020 Share Posted July 2, 2020 On 6/30/2020 at 7:27 PM, gwalchmai said: We have blueberries. We planted a half dozen blueberry plants this year. They were loaded with berries and the damned birds got every one of them! 2 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrB Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share Posted July 3, 2020 Looked at my wild black Raspberries the other day. Going to have some but not a big crop. I am looking forward to picking them if I am still around. Dave.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Al Czervik Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 (edited) One of our previous homes was in rural NE on about 30 acres. Wild blackberries were everywhere. Of course, you'd be covered in deer ticks, chewing lice, and ready for a trip to the ER for Lyme after you picked a handful. ? Edited July 3, 2020 by Al Czervik Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrB Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share Posted July 3, 2020 31 minutes ago, Al Czervik said: One of our previous homes was in rural NE on about 30 acres. Wild blackberries were everywhere. Of course, you'd be covered in deer ticks, chewing lice, and ready for a trip to the ER for Lyme after you picked a handful. ? Here it's the Chiggers...and the snakes that lurk in the bushes. I can handle the snakes but the chiggers have me itching... Ticks are starting to get worse here also. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Huaco Kid Posted July 3, 2020 Share Posted July 3, 2020 On 6/29/2020 at 9:07 PM, DrB said: Thorns...Yepp... Mine have thorns like fishhooks. They will rip you open if not careful. Somehow they do not bother the snakes though. I'm guessing the snakes hang out for the birds that land to eat the berries. When we were little, there were a bunch of us in the middle of a huge patch that took up a whole hillside. Then we stumbled across a nest of ground bees and they took offense to our presence. We all bolted in different directions and all got away with only dozens of stings and ripped to spaghetti. Then we heard our friends very little kid sister still in the middle, screaming like a banshee. The brother charged back in and got her out by holding her over his head. She was relatively unscathed. He looked like he just lost a fight with Michael Myers and Freddie Kruger. 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DrB Posted July 3, 2020 Author Share Posted July 3, 2020 9 hours ago, Huaco Kid said: Then we stumbled across a nest of ground bees and they took offense to our presence. I have a story from when I was a boy about a yellow jacket's nest and a dumb a** who stomped on it. That is for a different thread though. Dave.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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