Sunday, April 29, 2012

Planting Berry Bushes

I just planted weeds in my garden.

Growing up, blackberrys were considered a wild plant, a weed that grew in the woods, something to be ventured out into once a year (twice if we had the time) to gather blackberrys for free, for apple and blackberry pies, blackberry jam, and really just for fun. We would come home with our stomachs full of this wonderfully sweet berry, juice stains on our hands, bramble scratches on our arms, and my Mum would get to work preserving what we wouldn't eat right away. They were a wonderful food, but when a plant "invaded" our back yard, it had to go. It was invasive, prickly, a pest. It would take over everything, my Dad said. And I just planted one in my back yard.

Of course, back in England, a four foot by eight foot plant was huge for most gardens. And when you could go to the woods and pick them, why would you need one in your garden? But here where I live now in America, wild food is scarce, and my back yard has plenty of room. Still, I do worry that my Dad's dire prophecies will come true, that it will turn into a triffid and take over, especially as I planted a very similar plant right next to it; a raspberry bush. Time will tell. As of right now, they are tiny!


We apparently managed to grab a very well sought after breed of raspberry, so we are very excited to see what it produces. I am more hesitant about the blackberry as it has some very fond memories to live up to! Time will tell whether it manages that feat or not.

As for that tangle of weeds in the background, we are tackling that too. More in an upcoming post!

Have you ever planted something you once considered a weed in your garden? Have you ever dug something up thinking it was a weed and then regretted it later? Do you have any fond memories of "foraging" for food?

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