Poor Little Blackberry

I love to eat berries. All types of berries. For years my favorite was strawberries, but when I got older I developed an allergy to them. This made me very sad because strawberries are easy to grow and harvest, and as a consequence are cheaper to buy at the store.

So, I try to grow the other types of berries that I can eat. I don't do a very good job of it and I'm not terribly successful at it, but I try.

When we first moved into our house eight years ago I decided to plant some thornless blackberry starts. Well...that has been an interesting adventure! The first year I had it, it grew one berry, and it was yummy. The next year my son decided it looked like a stick because leaves hadn't grown on it yet, and he cut it to the ground. The next year he did it again. He was five and six at the time, if I remember right.

Every year, something has happened to this poor blackberry start to prevent it from growing. It was finally starting to recover the last few years, enough so that this year I was looking forward to actually having a crop of blackberries...and then, when my father in law was over helping us smooth out dirt in our yard....he backed over it with the tractor.

So, we are back at ground zero. Maybe it will produce beautiful blackberries for whoever ends up buying our house!