My First Blackberry! 7/18/13

I picked my first apache blackberry on Thurs 7/18/13!  It was delicious! The blackberry bush has definitely been the pleasant surprise of the season so far! 

Blackberry Flowers! 5/30/13

Berry bushes budding and flowering!

All my berry plants have begun to bud or blossom.  From the strawberry plants to my container blueberries and even my blackberry bush!  The strawberries are beginning to fruit. The blueberries are in transition, there are flowers blossoming on some branches, while other branches the flowers have fallen off and hopefully the fruit will grow.  Finally the blackberry bush is budding! Just today May 22nd, I counted over 50 buds on my small blackberry bush!  

The blueberry bushes! 

The blackberry buds! 

Finally planted my blackberry bush! 5/7/13

After getting the thornless Apache blackberry bush for a mere $2 last fall at Lowes, I never got it in the ground before winter.  I was worried with the harsh winter it would have died.  However, I put it in the shed and it's been growing like crazy so far this spring.  So finally I planted it along our side fence.  It should get plenty of sun and some shade.  Hopefully it will produce some nice blackberries this year or next year! 

Finally got my Raspberry Plants!!!

I first pondered the idea if growing raspberries in my backyard last summer, however like all fruit plants, summer is not the time to plant or even find raspberry plants for planting. As fall arrived I kept my eye out for any plants on sale, all I found was some blueberry bushes and a blackberry plant (which I got an amazing deal on!). So as winter came to an end, abet very slowly here in the northeast, I once again began looking for raspberry plants, knowing that early spring is the best time to plant. I checked Lowes first but they only had 2 varieties, neither of which were Heritage variety. These two varieties were developed in Washington state and performed best with a gradual warm up in spring, something that is very rare here in CT! So I held off and decided to check other stores.
So I was ecstatic to see Home Depot had raspberry plants on sale. So I went hoping they would have red heritage variety and they did! So I got two red heritage variety raspberry plants. They had other varieties as well. The fall gold variety caught my eye and when I saw it was an ever bearing variety like the red heritage, I was sold! So I ended up with 2 fall gold raspberry plants as well!
Now I have 4 raspberry plants that should produce a fall crop this year and then a spring and fall crop every year!!! I can't wait to have some but first I have to find a good spot for them!