I am the lady that has discovered a wild blackberry on our property. I know NOTHING about berries until a few kind people posted links for me. These are really nice you tube videos. One is on pruning for production. The other is also about that, but two different types of berries. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjFz4I_31mU#t=16 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OxN9v1PtYhA

Hi greenbean08 A couple of things come to mind. As for the strawberries, chipmunks ate all of my 100+ strawberries this year. Next year, IÂm considering building a hardware cloth box that even goes underneath the plants so there is no chance the chipmunks, birds, or anything else can get in. Perhaps you might want to do the same if you have problems with chipmunks or something else? As for the raspberry beds, 2' wide, 6'-8' sounds about like what I have, and that seems to work fine. Using the lawnmower to keep them in-bounds is a good thing the only issue you may have is with the distance between the rows of 2-3 raspberries can tunnel a very long way underground, and so with that small of a distance, pretty soon youÂll have co-mingling varieties. YouÂll want to read up on either spacing them out further, or using a very very deep root barrier to prevent their spread. As for yields, I donÂt really know how many raspberries I produce in a season itÂs hard to say, because the girls and I go out an eat them fresh each day. I have 10 different varieties (so as to lengthen my harvest) of beds approximately that size, and we could still eat quite a few more (because they are never ripe at the same time). Next year, IÂll be planting at least 20-30 more bare root plants. As for the plants, IÂd recommend checking out www.NourseFarms.com, though they are a little bit far away for you. As far as quantity, I think my best yields come from my blackberries. It took 3 years to get them fully producing, but I feel my 2 plants produced over 600 berries this season. IÂm going to plant some more next season, but a different variety which will be harvested at a different time. Otherwise, it would be too many to eat fresh. As for the black raspberries, these are the thorniest of the bunch and some times I wonder if they are worth it over the reds/yellows. IÂd concentrate more on the reds/yellows/and blackberries first. Good luck! -Glenn

Ground ivy says "oh please don't put down mulch" like brer rabbit said "please don't throw me in the briar patch." I've been fighting ground ivy for 22 years. Don't leave it on soil or mulch after you pull it. It will just reroot. You can put it on something it can't grow on and leave it in the sun. When it is totally dried out then you can compost it. It doesn't seem to produce many seedlings. It doesn't need to. If you leave a tiny bit of stem or root behind when you pull it it will be back. I haven't used Round-up on it. I just pull it and then it comes back bushier. If you don't have half an acre of it and you think you can get rid of it by painting it with Round-up I'd say go for it. Show it no mercy. I must have spent thousands of hours pulling it with no end in sight.

The suggestion of clearing a pathway and using a barrier is a total waste of time. I raise coastal and a couple of other varieties of hybrid bermuda. The root systems of these grasses will extend down beyond 6 feet. To encourage growth and thicken up a stand I plow and disk as if i was trying to kill it. The only way I know of to control it is with the repeated use of that terrible word we hate to hear, herbicides. Not only in the path but for a good way beyond the path. The roots will simply grow beneath the surface an into the berries if you don't. When I mentioned repeated use I was serious. I spray hay fields in the spring with roundup, after the emergence of the coastal. The grass is knocked back a bit but comes back quickly. I have been trying to kill it out of a 2 acre garden for 5 years now. Good luck.