Choice Morsels

Blackberries are on!  We're picking handfuls daily and have collected a pint already! So today's Garden Pic is a collage showing both blossom & berry: These are upright, thornless blackberries that range in height between 4 and 5 feet tall. (They have to be tied up) I fertilized them well last year, so the berries are big and fat this year. For best results, I dig in some granular garden fertilizer around the roots after fruiting is finished to nourish the new growth, then again in middle fall before it's cold. Today's Garden project was cleaning up the large back rain garden. It needed a bit of raking & weeding, a little thinning out of the Flag Iris and Liriope and the addition of some fresh river pebbles. *** Stop back tomorrow for Mama Kat to hear a good sleepwalking story!

Because for tomorrow's Mama Kat I'll be doing the "illustrate emotions with photos," prompt, which will involve flower pictures, I'm not using any flower pictures today! So for today's Garden Pics I have a nice shot of my Blackberries, which haven't turned "black" yet and also a Purple Finch! The Promise of Blackberries: These are a thornless hybrid breed of blackberry with an upright habit. They get around 5 feet tall, so I have to keep them tied to tall stakes. I have around 9 stakes worth with 2 to 3 stems on each. They propagate themselves easily by root underground, so I'm always having to dig up and move little sprouts, which is how I get so many.  My plan for these once I harvest them all: blackberry jam. The Beautiful Purple Finch: I captured this photo in Alabama actually, in March on the way to Indiana.  This was in front the motel, where a small flock of them were flitting among the trees.  A sparrow size...