Spring has officially sprung in Central Florida (even though today it was in the 60s-highly unusual for mid April here) and with Spring, brings a plethora of berries for our growing area!
Today, as a part of my fruit series, I’m going to share my top 3 favorite berries for the home garden for this time of year.
STRAWBERRIES
Everyone is probably familiar with strawberries by now, but are you familiar with how easily you can grow them yourself? OR how delicious a home grown strawberry is? If not, I invite you to find out.
While most of the US can grow strawberries during the summer in their home gardens, in Central Florida, we typically plant them in mid-October and get continual harvests through June(ish). This time of year, strawberries are still producing harvests of delicious berries!
Harvests of course depend on the variety of berry you find at your local nursery, watering, amount of sun and feeding schedule.
TIP: Strawberries like sunshine
BLUEBERRIES
Blueberries are a delicious spring time treat and now is a great planting time. They do require some additional planting steps at the beginning (as they prefer acidic soil), but if planted properly and watered regularly, they will provide you with years of berries. For a more in depth explanation of planting blueberries, head to the Urban Harvest LLC youtube channel!
MULBERRIES
These may be the least familiar berry on the post today, but not for good reason! Mulberry trees grow prolifically and with minimal care. They are delicious, nutritious and a great food source for humans and wildlife alike.
As far as flavor, they taste like a sweet blackberry with less seeds. My tree at home is COVERED in literally 1000s of mulberries right now and my kids are (impatiently) waiting every day for them to ripen.
Mulberry trees come in dwarf sizes as well, which require no pruning, can fit into even small landscapes and produce an abundance of delicious berries nearly year round! (Can you tell these are my favorite?! Ha!)
Are you currently growing berries at home? If so, what kind?
If not, what’s stopping you? Email Peas and Love today so we can get you growin your own berries!