It’s ironic that a plant that has widely been regarded as a wild, thorny menace should be the one that provides the ingredients for one of our tastiest desserts.
But that’s the bramble for you – a prickly nuisance that every summer and autumn produces such delights as raspberries, blackberries and boysenberries.
All you need to do is combine these with other berries and a bit of bread, to make a luscious summer pudding.
But getting the berries isn’t so easy. Instead of scrambling down stream banks and through the long grasses that edge country roads to pick them, why not plant your own?
Brambles are easy to grow, can be controlled and the summer fruiting varieties thoughtfully ripen right
after strawberries, creating a succession of lovely crops that make it seem as if the season lasts forever.
Brambles require good air circulation and drainage, so choose a site that’s higher than the surrounding ground. It’ll also reduce disease and pest problems.
Brambles will tolerate a wide range of soils but do best when planted in a deep, fertile soil high in humus.
If you’re unsure whether your soil is good enough, throw in some Dynamic Lifter Plus Fruit Food. It’s full of chook manure and will suit most fruit.
If you’re concerned the brambles might take over your existing garden, grow them in a rich compost mix in a big container.
The bramble bushes will send up long, arching canes that flower and set fruit in the second year of growth. This means the current new shoots (canes) in a season from spring to autumn are the canes that will fruit the following season.
After fruiting, remove the old canes at the base. Normally this is the only pruning needed, but if they get too tall you can cut the ends off.
To keep an eye on what canes have fruited and what ones are new, tie a marker on all the canes that fruit in one season so you can identify them later on.
once you start looking for berries to plant you’ll find plenty of choice. Raspberry, blackberry and dewberry are the originals, but there are also hybrids such as loganberry, boysenberry, tayberry and youngberry.
To find out all the information you’ll need before planting, visit berrypropco.co.nz. It lists the named hybrids that are grown commercially, some of which are available through garden centres for the home garden. These varieties will generally grow in most areas of New Zealand.
If you’re completely at sea when it comes to choosing what to plant, follow the example of those who have the odd flutter on the horses and choose them for their names – Black Satin, Burlee, Waimate, Aspiring, Ivory, Karaka Black, Ranui and Brulee.
Make sure you set up some bird protection as soon as fruit begin to appear, since birds are not discerning when it comes to ripeness and you don’t want your dreams of summer pudding going out the window.
While you’re enjoying your berries, feed a few leaves from the plants to any captive stick insects your kids are keeping.
Top picks
I never thought I’d become the sort of person who would spend longer comparing the relative merits of different garden tools than brands of mascara.
However, the difference between lash-building, waterproof and tear-proof makeup no longer interests me, at least to the point of not spending much longer than a minute making a choice.
on the other hand, the difference between various types of secateurs is endlessly fascinating. It warrants at least half an hour in the hardware store and, hopefully, the knowledgeable advice of a salesperson who actually knows how to garden, rather than just how to talk about it.
I also need garden gloves to go with the secateurs. I’m a recent convert to using gloves, as my fingernails will testify, and I’m still looking for the perfect pair.
So far, nobody has invented a model that’s light, supple, thorn-proof, sting-proof, dirt- proof, waterproof, washable and has a locator beacon, but I live in hope.
oy major problem with weeding is a tendency to yank the tops off the weeds without getting the roots, so I’m always looking for a tool that works on long roots. It would also have to be very easy to use.
This season there are a number of new gadgets on the market, so you’ll have plenty of choice when searching for the perfect tool.
If you buy no other tools this summer, here are the two things that I would thoroughly and wholeheartedly recommend for use in any garden.
One is a three-prong cultivator. I use mine to scrape off shallow-rooted, ground- cover type weeds, to aerate the soil around plants and, best of all, to comb the dead foliage out of grasses.
The other is a child’s spade. It’s perfect for digging over the soil in the raised vegetable garden and it’s saved me many a sore back.
Even better, there are certain people who think it’s really silly, so they won’t borrow it and leave it somewhere you can’t find it.