Cleaning Everest

Having a variety of berries growing in your garden is a lot easier most gardeners realize. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, loganberries, boysenberries, blueberries, and along with grapes have a better taste, more economical, very healthful along with being easty to grow.

Strawberries produce a large amount of berries in a small area and because of this are considered to be the most productive. If you have never tried to grow them this might be a good time to start. They can be planted just about any time of the year but the warmer climates are the only areas that you can plant in the winter. The fall is the best time to plant in the colder climate regions. Planting them during the fall months helps in the development of a good and sturdy root system and they will be bushier in the spring. You will have to remove all the flower buds and pinch back the runners in order to get a good growth the following season only if you plant your strawberry plants in the spring or summer. The June-bearing varieties of strawberry will give you a much better yield that the “ever-bearing’ varieties.

Raspberries are available in red, yellow, purple, and black, but the red raspberry has the best tangy fruit flavor of them all and will yield more fruit. Raspberries will do better if they are planted in fall in colder regions and during the early days of winter in the warmer regions. You want to plant your berries in a fertile soil that has ben endowed with leaf mold or compost. This soil also needs to be well cultivated during the first few months. Raspberries produce canes which grow at the base of each plant. Several canes are important for the plants development. Once you have harvested the last of the fruit you should prune back the plant to about 6 canes per plant.

“Tamed” blackberry plants, as opposed to the wild blackberries, will grow better and offer more. Their crop is a very juicy and much larger than the wild blackberries. Since the thorn-less blackberry and dwarf variety have arrived they are easier to care for than the plants with larger berries. Blackberry fruit plants will do well in different soil types but prefer an acidic soil. Boysenberries and loganberries have a similar flavor to the blackberry because they are hybrids of the blackberry plant. Garden compost should be applied every year between spring and fall. Berry patches do like the weeds so you want to remove them as often as needed.

Several varieties of blueberry need to be planted in order to grow blueberries and to produce a healthy amount of berries. The soil needs to be high in acid but if your soil is not you should work in pine needles or wood chips 6 months to a year before you start planting. The upper twiggy branches on each blueberry bush should be cut back for better root growth; this pruning will need to be done again after three years. Blueberry bushes will make great hedges for the garden.

There are number of grape varieties that can be grown but your own taste will determine the type. The most popular grapes for eating are the Concord grape, Thompson seedless and the Flame seedless. The early part of spring is the best time for planting grapevines. You need to work in plenty of compost or organic material; to guide the grapevines place poles approximately twenty feet apart and string a No. 9 gauge galvanized wire between the poles. Now plant the vines 8 feet apart along side this wire fence. After your first season of growing grapes prune the old vines branches and another set of branches will grow over them. For season 2 and beyond prune back to four main branches; this will give you a healthier supply of grapes.