ANOTHER PROJECT DONE

Today’s homestead project involved the boysenberries.

I planted the boysenberries in containers back in 2021 and 2022. The first berries appeared last summer. (I just let the birds have them as there weren’t enough to harvest.)

Last summer is when we also had wild blackberry bushes start growing on the property. While prevalent in North Carolina, they were not on the property in all the years I’d lived here so I don’t know why blackberries suddenly appeared. This is an issue if you want to successfully grow boysenberries. You see, boysenberries were developed from a combination of blackberries, raspberries, and loganberries. You cannot grow blackberries around boysenberries, or the boysenberries will revert. We struggled all last summer to remove each blackberry runner as they appeared.

This spring I decided to move the boysenberries. That’s one of the lovely things about growing in containers – they are portable.

We moved the boysenberry pots to their new spot at the back of the house and set up a cattle panel to use as a trellis. This position is far enough away (greater than 15 feet) from any blackberry bushes, which have only been growing along the side of the property. We will continue to whack out any blackberry runners we see but they are very invasive so I believe they will be an eternal problem.

An extra benefit is that they will be easier to water over here, too. As soon as I see berries, I will put netting over them – these ones are for me, not the birds!