A good choice for organic gardeners who live in rainy climates is growing organic berries. Organic berries don’t need pesticides or chemical fertilizers to grow as they are pretty hardy.
Keep your choice of berries to the wild variety that are from a similar climate as your own country.
A lot of varieties that are cultivated have been hybridized. This is done so they produce larger crop sizes.
The outcome is that the fruit is heavy and watery with not very much of the flavor of the their native, wild counterparts.
Below are some berry varieties you may want to try in your organic garden:
Blackberries
If you introduce a thorny, wild blackerry bush into your garden you may have trouble keeping the brambles out. A blackberry bush is very invasive, has suckers that spread far, long trailing branches and may be difficult to control. Although a cultivated blackberry bush is non-invasive and mostly thornless, it doesn’t have that sharp, sweet flavor of the wild blackberry.
| Blueberries
There are many varieties of blueberries to choose from and some have more flavor than others. You have Highbush and Rabbiteye strains of blueberries and in each of these strains there are many different types. If you live in a climate that is cool and has regular frosts Highbush types will be better for you to grow. If you live in a climate that has hot, dry summers and a heavy, less acidic soil, Rabbiteye varieties would grow better for you. |
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You will more than likely only have a small crop from your second year but it will increase each year until the bush is mature at five years and then it will begin to need pruning annually.
Cranberries
Cranberries like the strawberry bush, grow close to the ground. This fruit is great for urinary tract infections and makes great jelly. I especially like to mix it with other juices and the sour-taste of this fruit is a great addition to smoothies as well.
Chilean Cranberries
This shrub produces sweet, red berries that taste almost the same as strawberries. In spite of its name, Chilean Cranberries are not related to the cranberry. This plant survives frost pretty well and is very hardy. It has many different names such as, Chilean guava, murta and uni. In its native country of Chile it’s know as murtilla.
Gooseberries
Gooseberries can be very acidic unless you pick them when they are very ripe. Some varieties of gooseberry are yellow when they are ripe but most are green.
Raspberries
These are my favorite even though they need lots of care. They grow on canes and you will need to tie branches, use mulch, water them and deal with the suckers. Sounds like a lot of work but they will gift you with big crops and incredibly scrumptious fruit. Make sure not to plant them anywhere near any nightshade plants such as tomatoes, potatoes, peppers or eggplants. Don’t even plant them in the soil that these plants have grown over the last few years because they will not thrive.
| Strawberries
For the best organic strawberries you will want to plant an old variety with small to medium sized berries. Captain Cook is a good choice. You won’t find better tasting strawberries as these are closer to the wild kind than the oversized, water-logged ones you find in the supermarket. Wild strawberries thrive in places such as between stones in a path that receive lots of sun and are well-drained. |
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Taking Care Of The Berries In Your Organic Garden
You will have many avian visitors to the berries in your garden, so protect your berries by covering the bushes with net or a cage that the birds can’t get into.
Make sure you don’t plant your berry bushes too close to fences or hedges. You will want to get all the way around them to harvest the growing organic berries. Also, make sure to plant them in a spot that sheltered but not in constant shade. Most berries do love the sun and use it to ripen and come into the fullest flavor they can.
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