Today I continued development of our Wild Bramble patch at the personal residence of EdibleWow.com who is our partner on this particular crop we are developing.
The Land
Close to 3 acres of the finest northern suburbian property is home to our Jewel of a Wild Bramble garden. The area where these are growing has been free of lawn care of any kind except mowing for over a decade. There is a stunning red tailed hawk in the mightiest white pine on the property, deer everywhere (they don’t even eat the brambles!!!) an aspiring apiary – this is a really stunning lot we are working with. Video on it to come.
Why:
If you have tried to grow raspberries, of any variety, you are aware that they are tricky to grow. They seem to succumb to a series of problems from insects to fungus. The wild bramble in michigan is utterly easy to manage and produces in adverse conditions with ease. I have personally never seen them succumb to some dis-ease nor have I talked to a single person who has. In fact, this wild variety is said to carry a virus that negatively effects cultivated varieties of raspberry and thus the wild one’s should be eradicated from any area where cultivated varieties are to be planted. Huh. Think about that. That is like removing a peach tree that grows wild, with no effort on your part, to plant another peach tree that requires tedious management. Ornamentally speaking, yes, it is fun to play with varieties – but practically and functionally speaking, long term ease and sustainability…in my opinion it is the Wild Bramble all the way. I decided to begin managing and developing distribution for this crop because it is so easy to sell. It is easy to sell because I know it kicks ass and so does everyone else who has spent a little time around plants.
Management
Since this is a Wild Berry I want to be working with, I am careful not to over manage it. As you can see in these pictures what I am doing is removing invasive species like honeysuckle, buckthorne and grapevine to create more room for this patch to develop – by itself. I will, to a limited extent reach into less consolidated areas, remove those wild berries and concentrate them to a limitied extent within the patches we are supporting.
What I am experimenting with is what is the bare minimum we need to do to have great production, a great look and assist in the stream of evolution of this plant – careful to keep and maintain it’s hardy, wild and productive nature.
I will experiment with certain soil conditioners, of which I won’t disclose now because those are some gardening secrets I am not prepared to share – lol – but for sure it is 100% organic love stuff.
I will to a limited extent experiment with pruning techniques for this particular plant and possibly trellacing but this very idea starts moving down the path of additional maintenance which leads to additional investment which leads to additional costs which drives a desire for additional productivity until you have lost every sense of the word Wild. Still, I will play with a small area because I am curious…
Growth
Everywhere I see this plant with it is a really nice woodsy loam soil. I cannot recall seeing this plant growing in clay, but I would bet 100 bucks it would. Also, it can grow and produce in full sun, part shade and heavy shade. At a clients home in farmington, we transplanted full shade woodland wild brambles in later spring to a full sun lawn area – they produced fruit that season!!! Wow.
Design
One of my key interests in this project called indiEdibles is to show to you that you can use edible plants in your landscape that save you money, and or make you money instead of useless ornamental expenses. With little more than playing with what is already in these patches, my personal challenge is to work with these areas in a way that also increases their visual appeal. Since my palate will be ‘O Natural’ the design on this will be focused around seeing what has potential and assisting in that potential. Already, the back drop to these beauties are big buckthornes covered in grapevine. Two crap plants by most people’s standards. Yet, to remove the buckthorn is a ton of labor and time. Instead, I am going to manage the grapevine and let it climb and dominate the buckthorn. I will also try to get the grape to produce fruit. This was, the grapevine functions as texture and color, consistantly in a background, it produces food, it blocks the nieghboring property line of site, and it takes me very little effort to do so. I will show you as time moves on how this turns out and you can decide if I succeeded in showing how this particular approach is superior to the traditional way of thinking about a landscape.
If you would like these brambles in your landscape this year, holler at me now before we go to market with these. We have a limited number.
Tags: detroit farm, edible landscaping, gentlemens farm, indiedibles, local food, michigan berries, organic living, urban farming, wild berries