BUILDING A BERRY PATCH

“With careful selection and enough space you could have an extended berry harvest from spring, throughout summer and into autumn”

Winter is the perfect time to prepare your patch for that crop of summer berries you’ve always wanted. No more plastic punnets, an unrivalled depth of flavour and the joy of being able to pick the sweet taste of summer straight from the bush.

Coming in many shapes and sizes, berry bushes and vines are a delicious and prolific addition to the edible garden. The group of plants we commonly call berries includes cane-grown fruits like raspberries, bush-grown fruits like blueberries and small plants like strawberries. Cane-fruiting berries can be unruly ramblers and usually require trellising, while bush-fruiting berries grow as compact-sized bushes or low spreading plants, and can be well suited to growing in pots.

SO MANY BERRIES

With so many different berries to choose from for the home gardener, what to grow and how many of each will come down to what you like to eat and how much space you have to dedicate to growing berries. Climate is also a determining factor. Raspberries and blackberries prefer cooler climates, while blueberries and strawberries are tolerant to a wider range of climates, variety dependant. Some blackberry hybrids like loganberry, boysenberry and thornless blackberry also tolerate warm temperate and subtropical zones with careful positioning. Less common in Australia, but