On this first day of April we awoke to a gorgeous sunrise. The skies are crystal clear.  I put back on my Pallina leather gloves in order to tackle the marionberry trellis which is 25-30 feet long.

Marionberries are a type of delicious blackberry here in the Pacific Northwest, and they are somewhat well known because they were featured in a marionberry pancakes episode of the TV show Portlandia, although they never did appear, if I remember correctly.

Today’s task was tiring and challenging because these canes are thick and thorny. Floricanes that were clearly no longer bearing fruit had been left entwined, but I decided to thoroughly  clean up this trellis. I used my brain and even wore protective glasses. I did my best then had some help from Hubby to add the removed canes to the burn pile so we won’t have to touch their thorns again.

One week ago:

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and after three hours of work today:

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The weeping crabapple tree in the background has changed this week!

 

3 responses to “Marionberries”

  1. […] wrote about pruning our marionberry row back on April 1st. Since then, this hedge of “Marion blackberries” which are also known […]

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  2. […] These luscious berries are favorites during August, and I’ve written about them here and here. Their upkeep includes cutting away spent floricanes and pruning first-year primocanes to […]

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  3. […] 5 quarts of huge, frozen berries. (I’ve written about our marionberries many times including here, here, and here.) Applying heat  from below and pressure from above with a potato masher brought […]

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