By
eHow Home & Garden Editor
Difficulty: Moderately Easy
Things You’ll Need:
- Fertilizer Analyzer
- Manure
- Compost Makers
- Fertilizers
- Garden Hoses
- Mulch
- Plants
- Rototillers
- Shovels
- Thick Leather Gardening Gloves
Step1
Choose a site that gets full sun, preferably a gently sloping hillside where the cold air drains away. Bramble fruits will tolerate some shade, but the more sun they have the more fruit they'll produce, especially in cooler climates.
Step2
Till the planting area well (remember, this is a permanent bed) and dig in plenty of compost or well-cured manure to provide the right soil conditions: well-drained but moisture-retentive. The soil should be slightly acid; 6.0 is ideal, but plants will do fine in any pH from 5.5 to 7.0.
Step3
Buy plants from a reputable nursery or mail-order catalog, and make sure they're certified to be free of diseases and root nematodes, both of which can give your garden problems you'll never get rid of.
Step4
Plant in early spring in USDA zone 5 and north; in fall or late winter in zone 6 and south. Keep the plants moist until you can put them in the ground, then dig the holes and moisten the soil.
Step5
Set blackberries into their holes at about the same level they were in their pots; plant raspberries a few inches deeper. Place red and yellow raspberries about three feet apart, plant blackberries and black raspberries about four feet apart, and place trailing blackberries five to six feet apart. Keep rows about 10 feet apart.
Step6
Cut blackberries and red raspberries back to six inches above the ground, but cut black raspberries to ground level. After cutting back, water well.
Step7
Apply a thick organic mulch such as salt hay or compost, give plants a constant supply of moisture - especially when they're setting fruit - and top dress in early spring every year with compost or well-cured manure.
Step8
Harvest raspberries and blackberries when they're a deep shade of red, black or gold, depending on the variety. Don't tarry in getting them off the plants or the birds will beat you to it.