Taming the blackberry jungle

Cooler weather means it's more enjoyable to work outside (and less risk of succumbing inadvertently to heat stroke!) Today I worked on pruning, fertilizing, and mulching some sadly sun-stressed blackberries in a narrow raised bed between our lemon and orange trees. Blackberries do rather well here and spread like wildfire, but to produce fruit they need some shade during the summer. Otherwise they scorch and dry up before fully ripening. We didn't shade the ones in this location soon enough last May, so we didn't get any edible fruit.(Here's a link back to a post with a picture of the shade we constructed in another location and another one that discusses how to build shade screens. Next year, we'll put one in this location too)

After a given cane produces fruit, it's done. It won't produce any more from that cane, which will eventually die, and should be removed to give the new canes space to grow. This should be done right after fruiting, when it's relatively easy to differentiate this year's fruit-producing canes from the ones that will produce fruit next season. I didn't do it then, but better late than never.

After removing the floricanes, I attempted to remove as much of the Bermuda grass, nutsedge, and dollarweed invaders as possible, sprinkled the area with a little organic fertilizer, and mulched it with pine straw. I'm very appreciative of friends with a cabin in Flagstaff who regularly bring us bagfuls of the stuff. It's great for keeping weeds down, lowering the soil temperature, and conserving moisture. It doesn't break down as rapidly as bagged mulch, and as it does, it helps acidify our alkaline soil.

Here's a link to an article on blackberry cultivation in the low desert with detailed instructions and drawings explaining how to prune them.

 (Totally unrelated to gardening, but the source of my pine straw supply is a writer with several published mystery and Austen variation novels. If you enjoy reading those genres, you might be interested in the descriptions on her  blog  and website.)