Still trying to finish up the veggie garden. I better hurry or the season will be over! Still need to transplant some cabbages and amaranth that Alessandra and Chris gave me and some chard. Going to Italy for 2 weeks when I should have been planting put me behind but it was worth it–L’Italia è così bella!
Today I planted 4 Blackberry plants on the garden fence nearest the greenhouse for those of you who know my garden. Triple Crown is the variety and I got them at Newman’s Nursery. Triple Crown is a thornless variety that I first saw in the Master Gardeners Herb Garden that does very well here in Santa Fe. The ones I bought were in 2 gallon containers and cost $15 each which is a bargain and they are in great shape.
Part of the main veggie garden is being devoted more and more to perennial fruit as I have the room. Years ago I planted Himrod grapes, Victoria rhubarb and June-bearing strawberries and added more strawberries this year. All are doing well. In addition, this spring I planted a 30 foot row of Polana raspberries and now these Triple Crown blackberries.
I planted the blackberries this morning before the heat hit. I added some soil amendments and polymer crystals to help keep the water in the the root zone, made a well, put in the drip system with extra emitters as they like water and gave them seaweed and Vitamin-B mix to help with transplant and heat stress. Then I put straw around them to help keep water from evaporating and row cover over them to cut back the sun and heat on the new plants. I’m super excited to be putting in so many berries and can’t wait till next year when I hope I get some to EAT!
giantveggiegardener 
berries!!!!
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Berries are rad, but it is impossible to fit all of the desired cultivars into one garden, and no one wants that many berries anyway. I will be getting all my blackberries from the wild this year, and only a few raspberries from the garden. I still want to plant blackberries, just so that I can prune them properly. I don’t want to do that in the forest.
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Lucky you that you can gather blackberries in the wild!
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It is nice that they are there, but cultivated garden varieties are of better quality and easier to pick.
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Hi and good Tuesday!
I have my garden going….first year of being in Northern New Mexico. Would you please describe for me the leafhoppers that live around here? Thank you.
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:)) I found a previous post of yours that describes it, “The beet leafhopper is very small-about 1/8 inch long, pale green to light brownish green and has wings that look like a tent when folded up vs spread out like a moth.”. So, I’ve been seeing a larger brown bug that has similar shape. Its body is about a half inch long, and it has clear wings that are twice the length of its body. When I approach them, they hop-fly quickly a short distance away. Is this another type of leaf hopper maybe? I am in Abiquiu….might be different leafhoppers here? Thanks again.
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Hmm, not sure but there are several leafhoppers in the world but I’ve only seen the one. I do know the small one I describe above is the bug that gives tomato plants Curly Top virus (CTV) and I do not know if any bigger ones carry that virus or not…
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Here is a link that shows the bug and the damage from one of my previous posts. Good Luck!
https://giantveggiegardener.com/2013/06/06/curly-top-tomato-virus-and-beet-leaf-hoppers/
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Thank you for your input. Today I saw more of the larger brown bugs with clear wings, but they seem uninterested in chomping on my plants. Not quite sure what they are up to other than making sure I can’t touch them. 🙂
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Hey there- can you take a picture and send it via a text message? would love to see it to see if we can ID it. Send it to: 505-660-4986.
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I looked for them this morning, but I didn’t see any! I got to thinking there is a possibility they were baby dragonflies, although I sure didn’t detect a double set of wings. However, you know how a dragonfly looks when it hasn’t filled out yet? Well, these were sort of like that, I will keep watching to get a pic, and will send it over.
I did take your advice on erecting a row cover tent over some of my peppers to protect them from the heat. A few of the larger ones fainted a bit the last couple days. I suspect that it’s because they are still young and have recently experienced semi-rapid growth in the last one and a half weeks because I had fertilized them. Other than the top half fainting they look healthy.
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Ok, got a pic of what I believe is the same type of bug. I will send it in a second…….and, it’s a cute type of dragonfly I was not familiar with! I must’ve had a bunch of new young dragonflies before they filled out. Now I have a few adults.
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Monsoon???J
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Ha! Ha! Hit 100 in Santa fe today. Hope we get some soon!
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