Luxury Housing Trends & Home Improvement Ideas

Up here in the Pacific Northwest, we tend to classify blackberries as weeds. At least those Himalayan ones that run rampant through our landscape. Oh, sure, they’re fine by the bike trail when you can stop and pick a few on a hot August day (and someone else is handling the trimming), but let them invade the yard, and we want to get rid of them. They’re even on my county’s “Least Wanted: Invasive Weed List.”

But blackberries do taste good, don’t they?

If you can grow them responsibly (and you’re not planting those evil Himalayan ones), they might be worth adding to your edible landscape. After all, a pint of blackberries is pretty expensive at the store.

And even better, there are several varieties these days that are thornless, making the fruit picking experience that much sweeter. One example is the Apache thornless blackberry. Not only are there no thorns, but the canes of this one grow upright so they don’t need to be trellised against a fence to keep them from sprawling all over the lawn.

And if you’re worried about a hostile takeover, you might want to try growing them in a pot. According to the Raintree Nursery site, upright blackberry types can be grown in pots, so grab a wine barrel planter, and give these a home in a corner of your yard.