Since our yard has the potential to be a GINORMOUS time-sucking black hole of yard work, and I don't like to sweat on purpose, I've mainly focused my gardening efforts on the front yard. This has the three-pronged effect of a. looking nice from the street, b. locating most of my gardening work in close proximity to the kids' pool, and c. creating a woodsy backyard that I don't have to stress over. Yesterday, I discovered another major plus. The slope along the side of our house that I've allowed to go all to hell (goldenrod, wild bramble roses, bee balm, and impossible-to-extinguish yucca) has become a treasure trove of blackberry vines! To most gardeners, blackberry is an invasive weed. And while I don't want it showing up in my flowerbeds, it happens to be my favorite berry on the face of the earth. Bear and I stood and chowed all of the ripe berries right off the vine, and plenty more will be ripening in the next few days.
Score! Chalk one up for neglect.
2 comments:
Your story reminds me, I think I told the Bear and Bug this story sometime ago, of the forbidden mulberry tree at one of our friends yard many, many years ago. Our friend's parents had two huge mulberry trees in their back yard. One had red berries and the other black. One of the trees hung over their garage which was separate from their house with a slanted roof. Her parents very clearly stated to the children in the neighborhood that we were not allowed to eat the berries, ever! Well, that is all I, our friend and my older sister had to hear, when we began thinking of a way to get on the garage roof, undetected and part take of the forbidden fruit. So, one summer afternoon we claimed over their fence behind the garage, stacked some lumber that was laying around to create steps and up we each went. We laid flat on the slanted roof and ate until we could eat no more. What we did not know was the berries could leave stains. After we had had our fill we climb back down to go play on her swing. When her father step outside and took one look at us and he accused us of eating the berries. Of course we all denied that we had. So he took us into their house to the bathroom and told us to look into the mirror. Oh my gosh, we were shocked at how dark red and black our mouths were :-) No matter what the punishment, it was worth every berry we ate.
Your fruit looks so yummy. Wish I could have joined you without having to sneak around:-)
Oh, the punishment was, we could not play with our friend the rest of summer. The restriction did not last long because whenever they had a BBQ our family was always invited! We never ate anymore of their forbidden fruit, the birds did and they loved it so much that they got drunk eating them.
How neat to have berry bushes in your yard!
Good berry story, Grandma!! :)
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