Hi everyone!
I'm looking at building a bed for some of my berry plants. I originally planted them in wooden bushel buckets (about 18" wide and 12" deep), but I'm thinking a bed may be better. The berries I have are; gooseberry, raspberry, blackberry, tayberry (similar to both blackberry and raspberry), and rhubarb. I also have strawberry, but those seem to be pretty happy in the buckets. Bearing in mind that I garden on my roof, so hauling soil up 40 ft is a massive pain in the ass, and my car cannot carry wood longer than 5 ft, what dimensions would your recommend for those five plants? Would 5'x2'x20" be large enough? Should I split it into 2 beds? Should I just keep them in buckets? Should I do some combination of the above? Please advise. Thanks!
I personally would continue to use containers for your plants Ace.
You would have great difficulty containing the roots of Tay , Rasp and Blackberry in a bed without them becoming tangled.
Gooseberry grows well as a cordon so is easy to control and keep say down one side of your bed, but the other fruits have roots that like to spread unless you can keep them separate from each other.
So those three need to be in separate beds. If that's possible great. If not ..then large containers will do the trick, with good soil, good feeding and plenty of water.
Your going to need good support systems though. Two wire systems are the best as they keep the new cane out of the way from the fruiting cane.
The Rhubarb is fine in either..but would prefere a deep bed.
You would have great difficulty containing the roots of Tay , Rasp and Blackberry in a bed without them becoming tangled.
Gooseberry grows well as a cordon so is easy to control and keep say down one side of your bed, but the other fruits have roots that like to spread unless you can keep them separate from each other.
So those three need to be in separate beds. If that's possible great. If not ..then large containers will do the trick, with good soil, good feeding and plenty of water.
Your going to need good support systems though. Two wire systems are the best as they keep the new cane out of the way from the fruiting cane.
The Rhubarb is fine in either..but would prefere a deep bed.