Garden Berries, Part I: Le Fruitful Yield

It's been over 3 years since we started the backyard garden and our most consistent (and delicious) output has been from our strawberry and raspberry plants. They are both hardy perennials in zone 4 and would take over the entire yard if they were given the chance.

The strawberry starters we purchased from Dehn's Nursery at the Minneapolis Farmers Maket were June Bearing, Everbearing, and Alpine. The June Bearing and Everbearing names are a bit mis-leading because both tend to flower in mid-May and stop producing in early July. 

Late March 2012

Early April 2012

Mid May 2012

These plants practically grow themselves. They are so densely packed now that the soil rarely sees any sun, which keeps the weeds down.  After the most of the leaves die off after the first frost we usually just crush them up with our hands and use them to mulch the bed before it gets too cold. They are not fussy about water or about heat. It just doesn't get any easier!

Since they like to spread like crazy, we have no idea which berries are June bearing, and which ones are Everbearing. The Alpines are easy to spot. They have smaller leaves and produce a much tinier fruit than what you see in the market.

Alpine

June/Everbearing, no idea which is which!

 Although the June and Everbearing plants spread more and produce more fruit, the Alpine variety is the most impossibly delicious strawberry I have ever eaten. When you are spending a half hour every day for a month harvesting berries in the hot sun, the Alpines are a nice treat to enjoy while the bigger berries get hulled and prepped for freezing. The alpines have a deeply colored (and very tender) flesh with a bright white center. They practically melt in your mouth if you wait until they are very ripe. I could go on forever about how delicious they taste, but......

On to the raspberries. We acquired the plants from Chris's Aunt and Uncle and transplanted them to the south facing area on the side of the deck. Raspberries are notorious for spreading under the soil so we made a 12" deep box to try to keep the roots from taking over the lawn. They are still finding ways to spread outside of the box but the problem isn't too bad.

After we pruned ALL the plants the fall of 2010 (little fruit production), we decided to not prune at all in the fall of 2011.

Raspberries: Late March 2012

Raspberries: Late April 2012

 As you can see, the plants are taking over. The harvest was delicious and plentiful! We were taking in a sheet pan (below) per day for about 3 weeks and eventually ran out of space in the freezer. At that point we just had people over to come and eat (or take home) whatever they could pick.

 The garden-to-freezer procedure is as follows:
1.)    Pick and Wash (big yogurt containers work great for collecting and washing)
2.)    Air dry on tray (with paper towels) in refrigerator for 8 hours or so
3.)    Remove paper towels and freeze on tray for 4 hours or so (best results if the berries don't touch)
4.)    ??????????
5.)    Profit!

Look forward to Garden Berries, Part II: Le Preservening

Sheet Mulching

So we're FINALLY getting around to updating the blog with the new sheet mulched area in our yard. Our wonderful friend, Emily Graves, has a lot of knowledge when it comes to horticulture and gardening. Early in the spring she told us about sheet mulching, where you mimic nature by making layers of decomposing materials. Basically we liked the idea of not ripping up any grass because we are lazy, and the fact that the soil underneath the layers will be ideal by spring 2013. Since we already have a lot of garden area with the raised beds, we didn't mind waiting until next year to use our new expansion. The spot we chose is on the north side of the yard near the fence.

Before we began

We gathered a lot of non-dyed or bleached cardboard for our initial layer. You can put a layer of compost and dirt on the grass first (before the cardboard layer) but we chose to skip this step because we planned on waiting a whole year before actually planting underneath the layers of cardboard.

Tearing tape and labels off

So we managed to get a bunch of old cardboard that got wet in the loading dock at my work, and we STILL had barely had enough to cover the area.

Working area

At this point we started to realize how big of an area needed to be covered. We (unfortunately) only put one layer of cardboard, and that was a HUGE mistake (grass has sprouted up through the overlapping areas). We just used the resources we had and continued on. We also had a lot of old denim and khaki pants of Chris's that we used to cover up the irregularly shaped areas around the rocks. We made sure they were 100% cotton and didn't bother to remove the rivets or buttons.

Layering the soil and compost on top of the cardboard 

For the first layer above the cardboard we put a layer of mushroom compost a few inches thick. We also used some garden compost (free dirt!) when we started running out of mushroom compost. Then we added some garden soil (Miracle Gro Organic Garden Soil), about 4+ inches thick and mixed it in with the compost. We forgot to get mulch at first so that's why you see the silver tarp keeping our new soil out of the sun.

Layers

We then added 2-3 inches of mulch on top. The mulch helps keep moisture in the soil, and keeps weed down a bit.

Almost done!

So it took us about 8 hours total (including the MANY trips to Home Depot) and cost around $350 total for all of the soil/compost/mulch. It was more expensive than we expected, but the countless amount of "free" food that will result is well worth the cost.

Final result

So what we've learned so far since the installation is that we should have had MUCH more cardboard. About a week after we finished we had grass creeping up through the layers in many spots. I think we needed at least 3 layers of cardboard, but didn't really think about that before we started. We'll probably uncover some of the problem spots this fall and add another layer or two of cardboard so we don't have to worry about weeding or using an herbicide to keep the grass at bay.

That's it for now! More (belated) updates are on the way!