The Kind of Berries and Grapes Money Can't Buy

Image Gallery Strawberries

BERRIES and grapes are one of the best investments you can make. Here it is early December and this morning for breakfast we had some of our own delicious raspberries and cream. When some friends came to dinner a few days ago we had straw berry shortcake made with our own strawberries. Soon we hope to have currant jelly and our own grapes and lots of delicious fruit juices - perhaps some home-made wine.

Even the smallest place can provide an abundance of mouth-watering small fruits and berries with only a few hours work a year. Home-grown fruits, especially blackberries, gooseberries and currants (all of which are almost too fragile to be handled commercially) offer a family delicacies they'd never otherwise have. Few people, according to government studies, get enough of the so-called "protective" fruits rich in vitamins needed for good health. And most city people never have the chance to indulge in all the fun of growing these fruits on a place of their own.

You can plan your garden so you'll have a succession of fresh fruits ripening from June to October. And all winter you can eat berries you've canned or frozen. Strawberries, raspberries, currants, and grapes are the best known favorites. If you prefer something a little different, you can choose gooseberries, dewberries, or mulberries. (Edible mulberries are delicious fresh, canned or for vine. They grow on a bushy tree.) If space is limited, the bushes make fine hedges and shrubbery. Probably nothing you do will give you more for less cost. By all means choose the better varieties that are too tender and delicate to be found in prime condition in the store. Your local nurseryman can advise you on this and supply plants best adapted to your climate. Before you decide on your planting of grapes and berries, you should learn when each has to be sprayed, pruned and mulched and figure out a schedule for doing this. It's worthwhile to read up on this. Meanwhile, here are some things we learned about growing these fruits that may help you.

Strawberries

There's a big difference between strawberries you buy in the stores and those you pick sweet and fully ripe on your own place. Growing them is not difficult. You have a choice of planting them in hills, in matted rows or in spaced-rows. We used the spaced-row system and we think it's easier because it requires less pruning and makes weeding and picking the berries simpler. We planted 100 plants in the Spring and got 55 quarts the next year. Plants usually bear for two or three years, after which they need replacing.