The Benefits Of Blackberry Gardening

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Blackberries are juicy and delicious picked warm from the summer sun. If you crave fresh-picked, sun-warmed blackberries but balk at cultivating blackberry shrubs (Rubus fruticosus) because they gang up on you in the backyard, remember that growing aggressive plants in containers prevents them from taking over your garden. Just give them a location with at least six hours of sunshine a day and acidic, sandy, well-drained soil, and they'll flourish in U.S. Department of Agriculture plant hardiness zones 5 through 10.
Container Benefits

It's not hard to find good reasons for planting blackberry shrubs in pots instead of your garden beds. If your backyard has alkaline soil or clay soil that doesn't drain quickly, cultivating berries in containers lets you avoid all the soil amendments required for growing them in the ground. If you live in a house with a small garden or none at all, containers may be your only option. Perhaps the most persuasive reason to think container gardening when it comes to blackberries, though, is their tendency to spread rapidly and clump densely, making an established patch of them difficult to eradicate later. …show more content…

It should be at least 18 to 24 inches wide and 12 to 16 inches deep. If your container is deeper than 16 inches, use a trowel or shovel to add wood chips to the bottom to reduce the depth. Fill the pot to within 6 inches of the top with 1 part peat moss to 1 part potting soil. Add several inches of organic, weed-free compost and blend well. Remove half of the soil with the trowel or shovel and set it aside for planting time.
Picking Your

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