Each time you pop a plump, sweet berry into your mouth, do you fall in love with summer all over again?
Small fruits, fresh from the garden, are a delight and worth giving a bit of space in the planting plan.
“Five years ago, people didn’t want plants that bore fruit or attracted bees because they thought it was messy,” says Mikl Brawner, co-owner of Harlequin’s Gardens in Boulder, “but now that attitude has completely changed, and it’s a booming area of interest. People realized ‘Hey, this isn’t a mess; it’s food.’ “
It’s not just food; it’s tasty food — food that inspires creative ways to preserve or share the bounty by swapping treats or inventing new recipes to liven up kitchens and pantries. And kids love berry bushes, Brawner said, because they’re the right size for small hands to harvest.
Easy to grow, small fruits love moist soils and sun. Put them in a sunny area, but give them plenty of mulch with a drip line “Build the soil before you plant,” says Brawner. “It supports a vibrant microbial population that creates better tilth, so roots and water sink deeper.”
Weeds are a challenge for berry patches, especially grasses. Keep them from crowding your plantings and stealing water or nutrients from the crop.
Birds, deer, bears, rabbits and squirrels love fruit and can nibble up your crop before you can pick it. Mesh netting covering berry patches is ideal for keeping birds and squirrels away, and sturdy fencing can dissuade deer and rabbits. Bury 36-inch-tall chicken wire at least 6 inches into the earth, bending the bottom slightly outward to keep rabbits out. Deer fences should be at least 8 feet tall.
And think beyond the raspberry and strawberry patch. There are other fruit delights waiting for you to grow and taste them. Here’s a tour of the menu.
Currants (Ribes spp.)
What: A medium-sized shrub that bears clusters of fruit on 2- and 3-year-old wood.
Uses: Well-known for jams or jellies, tart-tasting currants are also excellent dried, fresh in dishes, or as a liqueur.
How: These tough natives thrive at elevations to 10,000 feet but struggle in hot days above 90 degrees. Put them in dappled shade — or a sunny area with plenty of mulch.
Pests: Imported currantworm, a green, caterpillarlike sawfly with black spots, can chew off all the leaves overnight. Currant aphids curl and blister leaves. The good news: Both are easy to control with insecticidal soaps or a strong jet of water.
Tips: Branches older than three years lose production. Keep currants producing by pruning old wood, and allow new shoots to come up from the crown.
Varieties to try: Red Lake gives big yields of bright-red currants; White Imperial and Blanca are ideal for cooking or juice; foodies will love Blackdown, a black currant suited to sauces and jams.
Gooseberries (Ribes grossularia)
What: A thorny shrub that produces large, sweet, juicy berries.
Uses: Pick ripe berries for fresh eating and tart green berries for preserves.
How: Plant in full sun to part shade, out of wind. Before planting, cut the canes to 5 inches long and sink them 2 inches lower in the soil than they previously grew, spacing them 3½ to 4½ feet apart.
Pests to watch for: European varieties may suffer from powdery mildew. Thin the newest canes to allow air circulation and decrease disease. Currant fruit fly is also problematic for gooseberries. Adults lay eggs on fruit, and larvae burrow into it, causing berries to redden and drop.
Tips: Young wood is the most productive, so prune out 3-year-old wood in early spring before bud swell.
Varieties to try: Invicta is Brawner’s favorite, or try Tasti Berry. Both are less thorny than another reliable gooseberry, Comanche.
Raspberries (Rubus idaeus) and blackberries (Rubus spp.)
What: Bramble fruit growing onarching canes.
Uses: Fresh, baking, jams, jellies, sauces.
How: Give this perennial room to grow, planting them 2 to 3 feet apart in spring. Summer bearers are biennial; their canes need two seasons to produce fruit, so support them with wire or twine corrals. Fall bearers fruit during their first season and don’t need support.
Pests to watch for: Raspberry cane borers burrow through cane centers, causing wilting and death of the plant. The raspberry crown borer also causes canes to die by tunneling through them and girdling at the crown. Remove and destroy all droopy, dying canes.
Tips: For easiest care, try primocane varieties, which fruit in fall on first-year canes. Mow down primocane types in late winter to rejuvenate the patch, ensuring big yields year after year.
Varieties to try: Heritage is a popular producer of medium-large, sweet red raspberries. If you want ruby berries, try Autumn Britton; yellow-raspberry fans will love Fall Gold or Anne. Triple Crown Blackberry is a vigorous producer of sweet fruit.
Strawberries (Fragaria x ananassa)
What: The darlings of the garden, these berries come in three types, named for when they produce fruit. Junebearers fruit all at once early in the season, then stop flowering or fruiting for the rest of the summer. Everbearers set a heavy crop early, then give smaller amounts through the remaining season. And Day Neutrals produce all season long.
How: Deep, rich soils are what strawberries need, so work compost into a sunny area before planting. Plant Junebearers 2 feet apart in rows 4 feet apart, Everbearers and Day Neutrals 1 foot apart in three rows spaced 1 foot apart. Replace the straw mulch every spring to thwart pests and disease.
Pests to watch for: Slugs and millipedes love the fruit as much as we do, so mulch to keep the fruits from touching soil. Control slugs by placing small tubs of stale beer in the bed — the slugs will crawl into the beer and drown. The gross part: You’ve got to change the beer daily.
Tips: Young plants fruit better than mature ones, so change your strawberry bed every three years. Collect the young, rooted daughter plants in spring, remove the rest of the plants, till in compost, and replant.
Varieties to try: Junebearers: Earliglow. Everbearers: Ogallala has sweet, medium strawberries; for huge, tasty fruit, try Fort Laramie. Day Neutral: Tristar finishes the season with loads of medium-size flavorful strawberries.
Read Carol O’Meara on her blog, gardeningafterfive.wordpress.com.
Two Colorado native berries
Itching to add some natives to your berry patch? Try two of Brawner’s favorites:
Crandall currants (Ribes odoratum) — A clove currant variety, this heirloom from Kansas has been treating gardeners to scented, golden yellow flowers redolent of sweet cloves and fall color that blazes in autumn landscapes. But the bonus is the berries: clusters of grape-sized currants that surpass the flavor of their European counterparts.
Gwen’s Buffalo currant (Ribes aureum) — Slightly more cold- hardy than Crandall’s currant, Gwen’s Buffalo grows taller and sports tasty, teardrop-shaped fruit.
— Carol O’Meara