There are only two potentially complicated parts of growing blackberries and raspberries --- variety selection and pruning.  Otherwise, care is simply a matter of annual fertilizing, mulching, and (most important) eating all those fruits.


Choosing your brambles
As I mentioned previously, blackberries and black raspberries do better in the south while red raspberries like areas with cooler summers.  Over large parts of the United States, you can easily grow all three types of brambles, but your life will be a bit easier if you begin your experiment with ones that are well suited to your climate.

Once you decide which type of brambles you want to grow, your next step is to settle on which additional characteristics you're looking for.  Thornless blackberries are easier to work with, but I've noticed they don't seem to be as cold hardy as the thorny varieties, so northerners should bear with thorns.  Among raspberries, you'll need to decide whether you're interested in a spring or everbearing variety --- unlike with strawberries, I have had very good luck with everbearing raspberries and recommend them highly.

Bramble plants tend to be more expensive than strawberries, often costing several dollars apiece, but you don't need to start with many.  In my garden, one everbearing raspberry plant became a clump large enough to provide lots of fruit that fall, and by the next spring I was able to transplant yet more new raspberries to fill up a whole row.  The third spring, I gave away gobs of raspberry starts, and by the fourth year after planting all of my friends stopped answering the phone when raspberry-planting season came around.  So --- choose your variety wisely, but don't be concerned about starting small.


Planting and training brambles
Blackberries and raspberries have a tendency to try to take over the world, so plan ahead when selecting their location.  I find it helpful to plant brambles in mulched rows about eighteen inches wide, then mow anything that tries to grow beyond the mulch boundary.  Unlike most other garden plants, brambles can handle tough clay soil and even some degree of waterlogging, so feel free to put them in that spot where nothing else will grow.

If you're turning lawn or weeds into a berry patch, lay down a thick kill mulch and plant your brambles into holes in the cardboard.  The best time to plant is in early spring, which means you'll probably be putting in dormant, bare-rooted stock.  The young brambles will have a dead-looking cane poking up out of the roots --- the cane is indeed dead, but the plant will send up a new cane once warm weather rolls around.  Mulch the patch well, preferably with something a bit more carbon-rich than you used for your strawberries.  (See Weekend Homesteader: July for more information on types of mulch, or just use well-rotted wood chips.)

Brambles don't need an extremely sturdy trellis, but it is helpful to find a way to tie the plants so they don't bend down over the path.  I use light-weight metal fence posts about five feet apart with two strands of thin wire running between them.  Twist ties are a simple way of attaching canes to the wire temporarily --- you'll need to be able to unhook them when you prune out dead canes next winter.

This week's lunchtime series is exerpted from Weekend Homesteader: February, which is available for 99 cents from Amazon's kindle store.  The ebook also includes a primer on choosing and caring for a backyard flock of chickens, information on buying in bulk, and tips for creating your own apprenticeship.  If you enjoy the book, please consider leaving me a review.

This post is part of our Easy Berries lunchtime series.  Read all of the entries: Easy berries Choosing and planting strawberries Maintaining a strawberry bed Choosing, planting, and training brambles Pruning and maintaining brambles