Tuesday, June 14, 2016

Black raspberries


The black raspberries change color almost by the hour, now. The plants - acquired from the defunct Liberty Garden Center in Red Hook (I began with one, it made more, some died in a drought last year) - have traveled from an all-sun Cobble Hill rooftop, to a Harlem terrace with four hours of midday sun (and a sweet crop),  to Carroll Gardens, where the hours of sun yaw wildly from full-shade winter to sunny summer, with about five to six hours of direct sun, now.

I met a formidable black raspberry the other day at the Gowanus Nursery, which is 10 minute walk away, over the pedestrian bridge that crosses the roaring eight-lane BQE. I wrote a story about the nursery and its owner, Michele Palladino, for Gardenista - many of her plants are rooted in our new garden:

Shopper's Diary: Gowanus Nursery in Brooklyn.


3 comments:

  1. Yummm!! I planted red currant, black currant, and raspberries this year, in addition to a couple of strawberry plants I had from last year. I'm praying the birds and critters will let me have a few - they are already attacking the currants and they aren't even ripe yet!

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  2. Blackcaps are my favorite. They used to grow wild hereabouts, but I've not seen them for years. Beautiful photo.

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  3. When we bought our house in Minneapolis 20+ years ago it came with 15 feet of black raspberries growing along the fence. Except for literally cutting them to the ground every 3 years and tossing old grille ashes on the dirt, we don't do a thing! Last year I froze 20 bags with 2 cups each, ate bowls and bowls of fresh and made black raspberry vanilla jam. With going grocery store prices those bushes must produce about a $1000 worth of raspberries year after year, it's incredible!

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