The Best Babysitter: Why Everyone Needs a Berry Patch
It’s the kickoff of berry season and I now know whenever the kids have gone missing, they will be in the berry forest munching on red/white/pink/black currents, gooseberry, jostaberries and raspberries of every color. When I drive through town and see the manicured landscaping and lawns, I can’t help but picture the alternative….beautiful kitchen gardens at everyone’s back door, pollinator flower meadows surrounding peaceful outdoor gathering spaces, but most of all I can’t wrap my head around why everyone doesn’t landscape with edible berries and fruit trees! Edible landscaping can be just as beautiful, low maintenance and beautiful as non-edible landscaping and has that extra benefit of being…well….EDIBLE. In the seasons our property has prolific foraging options for my kids they are more likely to go and stay outside, play nicely together with less conflict, not ask me constantly for snacks or tech time, and leave me for longer uninterrupted time to do my gardening, writing, garden design work, or self care activities. In short, they are the world’s best FREE babysitter. Berries in particular are easy to grow and manage, and they produce fruit more quickly than a fruit tree. Believe me, if you have kids, having a long season of different ripening-time berries is the best babysitter out there for those summer months off school. Plus, your kids get all those benefits of a rainbow of antioxidants, palette expanding flavors of unique array uncommon varieties, and time out in nature while fulfilling their evolutionary craving for foraging…but in real life rather than minecraft.
So how do you get started with edible landscaping?
Here’s my list of favorite berries and places to get them:
Currents - black, red, pink and white
Gooseberry
Josta berry
Raspberry - red, gold, black….get some everbearing and fall bearing for extended season
Alpine strawberry
Strawberry - June Bearing and everbearing
Pineberry
Thimbleberry
Service berry
Aronia Berry
Goumi berry
Salmon berry
Elderberry - for wildlife and medicine making only - do not eat raw!
Oregon grape
Huckle berry
In the Pacific Northwest, here are a few places to get berries :
Brothers Nursery (Port Orchard)
Woodbrook Native Plant Nursery (Gig Harbor, native berries only)
Portland Avenue Nursery (Tacoma, WA)
Rosedale Gardens (Gig Harbor, WA)
One World (Portland, OR, mail order available)
Raintree (Morton WA, mail order available)
If you you’d like to discuss edible landscaping, pollinator gardens, or how to design a garden for your (any size!) space that will grow way more food than you ever thought you could, schedule a free phone chat with me!
