I harvested 2 lbs 9.6 oz of blackberries this morning, and that wasn't even half of what's out there ready to pick! At the current rate of $0.67/oz for organic blackberries at the store, that makes this a ~ $28 harvest! Woohoo! 🙌 To celebrate, here are some fun facts about growing blackberries. 😊 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗹𝗼𝘃𝗲 𝘀𝗹𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁𝗹𝘆 𝗮𝗰𝗶𝗱𝗶𝗰 𝘀𝗼𝗶𝗹: A pH of 6.0–6.5 is their sweet spot, the same range as blueberries and strawberries. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗻𝗲𝗲𝗱 𝗳𝘂𝗹𝗹 𝘀𝘂𝗻: Less sun = fewer berries. They want at least 6–8 hours a day. 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝗿𝗲 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝘁𝘄𝗼 𝘁𝘆𝗽𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗻𝘁𝘀, 𝗳𝗹𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗽𝗿𝗶𝗺𝗼𝗰𝗮𝗻𝗲: - Floricane varieties produce on second-year canes. So you plant, wait a year, then harvest. - Primocane (everbearing) varieties fruit in their very first season AND again the following year, giving you two crops from one plant. 𝗣𝗿𝘂𝗻𝗶𝗻𝗴 = 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 𝗯𝗲𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀: It feels counterintuitive, but pruning canes during the growing season encourages branching, which means more fruiting sites. Don't skip it! 𝗞𝗻𝗼𝘄 𝘄𝗵𝗲𝗻 𝘁𝗼 𝗽𝗶𝗰𝗸: - Wait until there's zero red or pink left on the berry, AND it comes off the cane with almost no effort. If you're tugging, it's not ready. - Bonus tip: ripe blackberries lose their glossy shine and look slightly dull. That matte finish = peak sweetness. Pick those! 𝗧𝗵𝗲𝘆'𝗿𝗲 𝗹𝗼𝗻𝗴-𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗱: A well-maintained planting can produce for 15+ years. Plant them once and enjoy them for a long, long time. ⚠️ 𝗚𝗶𝘃𝗲 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗶𝗿 𝗼𝘄𝗻 𝘀𝗽𝗮𝗰𝗲 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗸𝗲𝗲𝗽 𝗮𝗻 𝗲𝘆𝗲 𝗼𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺: - Blackberries spread, and they spread fast. New canes will pop up beyond where you planted them, so you want to be able to spot and remove any strays easily. - Keep them away from your main garden beds and annual veggie areas. They will absolutely take over if given the chance. A dedicated spot with clear boundaries is the move! Are you growing blackberries? Thinking about it?

Some of my carrots have started to bolt! So, it felt like the perfect time to share with you why that happens & what it means. 𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐝𝐨𝐞𝐬 "𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠" 𝐦𝐞𝐚𝐧? - Bolting is when a plant sends up a flower stalk and starts producing seeds. - When carrots bolt, they create clusters of tiny white flowers that look a lot like Queen Anne's Lace, which is actually a wild relative of the carrot! 𝐖𝐡𝐲 𝐝𝐨 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐬 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐭? - Carrots bolt in response to stress, typically associated with heat. - Since carrots are a cool-season crop, they do best in cooler temps (think 60–70°F/15-21℃). - When the weather turns warm and stays warm, they interpret that as a signal that their window to reproduce is closing. 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐞𝐬𝐬 𝐭𝐫𝐢𝐠𝐠𝐞𝐫𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐧 𝐢𝐧𝐜𝐥𝐮𝐝𝐞: - Temperature swings — a period of cold quickly followed by heat - Inconsistent watering — drought stress puts plants into survival mode - Being left in the ground too long — the longer they sit past maturity, the more likely they'll bolt 𝐂𝐚𝐧 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐞𝐚𝐭 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐜𝐚𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐭𝐬? - Unfortunately, no. Once a carrot bolts, the root becomes woody and fibrous. It's a bummer, but not all is lost! ✨ 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐒𝐢𝐥𝐯𝐞𝐫 𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 - The flowers are incredible for pollinators, especially beneficial insects like parasitic wasps and hoverflies. - If you're growing an heirloom variety, let the flowers go to seed, collect them, and you've got free seeds for next year! 𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐭𝐨 𝐚𝐯𝐨𝐢𝐝 𝐛𝐨𝐥𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐧𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 𝐒𝐨𝐰 𝐢𝐧 𝐟𝐚𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐚𝐫𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠: - If you have mild winters & hot summers, sowing them in the fall is my preferred time of year. They’ll germinate in the mild fall weather, overwinter in the ground, and are ready to harvest in late winter/early spring before it gets too hot. - If you have cold winters, sow in early spring, once your ground can be worked. 𝐊𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐝𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐭𝐨 𝐦𝐚𝐭𝐮𝐫𝐢𝐭𝐲: - If you live in a short growing season or are sowing them later, choose a carrot variety with a shorter days to maturity. - Longer season growers have more flexibility here.

From a garden... This is my disclaimer ☺️ Now if you keep on watching and reading, you've been warned. I've been gardening since I was a child, with my parents and my grand parents. So I am very familiar with a neat garden where everything has its place and is tidy. I did actually practice for a while when I lived in California. But when we bought our house in Brittany, France, that type of perfect gardening didn't make any sense to me any more. Some might say, a shame because our newly acquired 2.5 acres had it all, a French flower garden that bloomed all year round, a traditional veggie patch and perfectly trimmed trees everywhere. I started to read about permaculture and watch videos about how to create a haven of peace. My goal was to make this peace of land as inviting to wild life as possible. So we stopped trimming everything and started to consider what was needed for an entire ecosystem to take place. It's still too cold for us to plant where I live (or it could be and therefore I wait until mid May to plant most of my veggies), so what you'll see here are mainly the perennial plants or bi yearly. The white half circles you can see are used to cover crops when necessary (cabbages particularly). It looks messy, but hopefully you can see and understand how things are setup and get how everything is working together. Oh and our plan has worked! We now have many red squirrels, hedgehogs, ducks, salamanders, newts, rare birds, moorhen, frogs, toads (I could probably go on for a long time) and all sorts of insects that regularly stop by and stay with us ☺️ We also have 7 hens. A weasel lives in one of the barns and foxes regularly come by, but so far everyone has enough to eat so they don't need to kill our retired chickens (who we got from a nearby farm). Right this is it for me ☺️😅

Hello I’m Barbara and I garden in the Pacific Northwest and I love to pull weeds in my spare time. Just kidding. :) I would love to learn more about permaculture. Currently I am dealing with slugs and snails with daily patrols and slug traps. Hope everyone is having a good day.