A Berry Berry Good Garden

After nearly 8 weeks of relentless gray gloom and drizzle, the sun finally came out today. This late in the spring, the gardens are well into their growing season with the berries leading the way.

Pretty much everywhere you look, the vines are filled with them. Here’s a quick look.

Strawberries

First up are the strawberries near the back deck. These are Sequoia variety, which is a hybrid developed specifically for coastal California.

The strawberries are enjoying the extra sun

I pruned the Cherimoya tree that grows over them about a month ago. The strawberry plants seem to appreciate the extra sun as they’ve been chucking out fruit for almost a month now.

Raspberries

A little to the west of the strawberries are the raspberries on the slope path that leads to the native garden.

The raspberries ripening on the west-facing slope

This garden used to be grapevines, but the ground squirrels killed them (turns out they love grape roots). I planted a single raspberry plant propagated from a cutting several years back. That plant has now colonized most of the slope below the yellow guava, so now we’ve got plenty of fresh raspberries most of the moth of June.

Blackberries

Last, but not least, are the blackberries that grow along the western edge of the vegetable garden.

The blackberries recovered quite well from being cut to the ground back in February

They grew out of control for a couple of years, so last winter I went in and cut the whole bramble to the ground. The chopped down canes went into the bottom of the raised beds, so they’re feeding the vegetables now. The blackberry plants recovered quite well and are thick with green growth once again.

Because the fruit grows on last year’s canes, there aren’t quite as many berries as there are in other years, but next year will, no doubt, be a banner year for them.