Comments on: Country Living in the City

By: Buy Oranges

Buy Oranges — Mon, 18 Oct 2010 16:15:38 +0000

We always buy oranges during the citrus season to help alleviate the winter blues… I relate it to the blackberries because they always remind that summer is here!

By: Florida Fruit

Florida Fruit — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 22:04:00 +0000

Loved your blackberry photo. Living down here in Florida we have blackberry bushes that grow wild everywhere. During June we typically wander out into our back yard with my kids and begin picking blackberries. After about 30 minutes we all have lightly blue fingertips and “Sampled” more than our fair share of this succulent berry.

I’m glad you’re using making good use of the yard you have. More people should follow your lead.

James
Fruit Scientist

By: Leah

Leah — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 12:14:03 +0000

Hi Clara,
I enjoyed this post so much as I grew up in the South end and then Forest Park sections of Springfield. I like to read the blog, of course for the content, but also because of all the familiar places that are mentioned. Over the past 70 years I have lived in Springfield, W. Springfield, Westfield, Westhampton and now Cape Cod.
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We’ve grown food in our yards for 50+ years ranging from small plots like yours to 6 1/2 acres in Westhampton with two large gardens, goats, pigs, and chickens. The current garden is 4′ by 30′ and amazing we can feed two from it.
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Also garden in SW FL in the winter and I can tell you firsthand that red bellied woodpeckers also love oranges and grapefruit and can hollow them out quickly.
Regards, Leah

By: Shreela

Shreela — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:06:40 +0000

I made it through! Apparently Spam Karma2 doesn’t like wordpress.

By: Shreela

Shreela — Sat, 02 Aug 2008 08:05:12 +0000

Testing, testing, so Jim won’t have to post my comments via email anymore 8^)
I’m using my gmail address instead of my yahoo address. I’m using the same website as before: wordpress.

OOPS! I’m still spam using Gmail/Wordpress. Now I’ll try leaving off my website.
—

Thanks all for answers about whether tomatoes cross-pollinate. Other than my 6 poorly-performing tomatoes, I missed planting this season due to health reasons. But now that’s resolved, and I’ll be trying again our 2nd season somewhere around September.

Clara - I’ll be searching online to see where I can get blackberry bushes. It would eventually give us enough berries that he didn’t have to go into snake territory, while keeping out those blasted dob packs that occasionally get out of their backyards.

By: jwsharrard

jwsharrard — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 19:09:05 +0000

correction 7/30/08—it was a red-bellied woodpecker that ate the cherries. Post updated to reflect that.

By: jim

jim — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 17:20:29 +0000

I just did a little checking, and it appears that cross-pollination of tomatoes is an issue only if you want to keep your seeds for the next year’s garden. It’s the next generation that would be impacted.

By: Clara Lee

Clara Lee — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 16:45:35 +0000

I know that corn cross pollinates but I don’t think tomatoes do. At least, I’ve never had that issue with mine. My biggest problem is forgetting how big the plants grow and having them so close together that they don’t get enough sunlight.

The blackberries are definitely wild and have LOTS of thorns. We tie them up when they lean over too far. The blackberry bushes might really help with the dog problem. It takes them a few years to get going but once they become established, you can easily get too many. Blackberries only bear on the canes one year–the second year of their existence. The first year they come up in the spring and grow for the entire summer. The next year they blossom (they are truly beautiful) and bear fruit. As soon as they have finished bearing fruit, you can cut them out because they will just die anyhow and by thinning the patch, you give next year’s bushes more room to grow.

If you do decide to try growing blackberry bushes, snip the top off of the new growth when it reaches about 4 feet tall. This will cause the bush to branch and thus produce more fruit the following year.

Personally I don’t do snakes and won’t go anywhere near where they might be no matter how much I may want the food growing there!

Good luck with getting a blackberry patch established in your yard.

By: shreela

shreela — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 13:42:59 +0000

Hi Clara, lovely post!

So different varieties of tomatoes can be planted near each other without concern of getting mixed up genetically? I’ve read corn is bad about getting mixed up with other varieties of corn, but don’t know if that applies to all veggies/grains.

Your blackberries are next to your driveway? How often does your car pass them? Also, are they the non-thorn kind? We have wild brambling blackberries in the field next to us, and ever since I brought home a small bowl, hubby’s been out there yearly — he LOVES blackberries. But the thorns aren’t the biggest problem; there’s snakes in that field after rains, often poisonous! Thankfully he grew up around snakes, and knows to wear
jeans and boots, and carries a stick or my walking cane. He used a stick to protect himself against a copperhead once! Thank goodness for the field cats me and the neighbors feed, because they’re better at catching the snakes than us humans LOL.

So, I’d rather have bushes in the yard of course. They don’t even have to be thornless, because some neighbors are lax about their dogs getting out, and they’ve jumped our fence quite a few times hoping to get the rabbits (their cages are hanging from the boat shed rafters now LOL). But if blackberries could help keep out roaming pitt bull packs, they’d serve two purposes.

Hope to see more of your posts Clara 8^)