This blog post is on growing and harvesting blackberry. A hardy woody easy to grow shrub. Once it’s established it is so easy to grow that it can grow out of hand if it’s not pruned to keep it from growing all over the place.
However blackberries are great to eat. Children love them. It’s a great fruit to eat fresh, made into fools, tarts and many other dessert recipes.
Growing and harvesting blackberry
To grow blackberry one needs to get hold of canes which can be found in garden centres sometime in the winter or early spring.
Either than or find some wild blackberries shrub grown in the wild or parks. Where matured plants throw up canes and shoots than can be harvested easily without doing any damage to the plant.
Plant in some well-drained compost and water them regularly when they are young and you are good to go. Water them regularly in hot weather. Plant them in a sunny spot. Once it’s matured they don’t much attention. They grow well with some support like a fence. Train them to grow around it. As they get older do trim the unwanted bushes but that also means there will be less fruit production.
As they are full of thorns it’s great to plant where you don’t want any unwanted visitors in your garden.
Blackberry plant are winter hardy and it doesn’t need much protection. The plants just go dormant and there is not much growth in the winter.
Harvesting
Once the fruit starts to turn dark and starts to soften it is ready to harvest. Don’t wait too long a the fruit will go bad and it will be unedible. Eating them as soon as you can otherwise they will go mouldy even if it’s stored in the fridge.
Do be mindful of the thorn when harvesting the berries as they can be in the way of harvesting the fruit. One tip is to wear gardening gloves when harvesting the berries/ fruit.
