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Growing organic berries is a very popular choice for most organic gardeners, especially in climates with good rainfall. Berries are mostly hardy and will grow without need of pesticides or chemical fertilizers, making them a great choice for the larger organic garden.

To suit the spirit of the organic garden, choose berries that are native to your country or a similar climate, and keep as close as possible to the wild variety. Many cultivated varieties have been hybridized to produce large crops of heavy, watery fruit which means more profits for the large-scale grower but has very little of the flavor of the wild fruit. Stay away from these commercial varieties where you can.

Blackberry

Thorny wild blackberry bushes grow so well in the right climate that many people struggle to keep brambles out of their gardens. This is a very invasive plant and once introduced it is hard to control, with long trailing branches and far-spreading suckers.

The cultivated blackberry is almost thornless and non-invasive but the fruit does not have the same sharp sweet flavor.

Blueberry

Choose your variety carefully - there are many of them, and some are much more flavorsome than others. The two main strains of blueberry are Highbush (growing to about 6 ft tall) and Rabbiteye, but within each of those categories there are several different varieties. Highbush types will do better in cooler climates with regular frosts. Rabbiteye can handle hotter drier summers and heavier, less acid soil.

You can expect a small crop from the second year, steadily increasing until year five onward when the bush is mature. At that time it will start to need annual pruning.

Blueberries can also produce a wonderful display of fall colors. Take this into account when you are selecting your site.

Cranberry

The cranberry is a very nutritious, sour-tasting fruit with well-documented health benefits especially for urinary tract infections. It needs acidic, peaty soil. Like strawberries, cranberries grow close to the ground. The fruit makes good jelly, and you can also add it to juices, smoothies and desserts.

Chilean Cranberry

Despite its name, this plant is not related to the cranberry. It grows as an evergreen shrub producing a good crop of small sweet red berries with a flavor similar to strawberries. It is hardy, surviving frost well. It could make a very productive, delicious and unusual addition to your organic garden. Planting several bushes in a row will create a decorative low hedge.

The Chilean cranberry has many different common names including uni, murta and murtilla in Chile (its native country), New Zealand cranberry or tazziberry in Australasia, and Chilean guava. Look for the botanical names Ugni molinae, Myrtus ugni and Eugenia ugni.

Currants

Black currants, red currants and white currants all grow as bushes. They are very nutritious fruit with black currants in particular containing high levels of vitamin C.

Black currant bushes are not attractive and do not respond well to pruning, but the fruit has a stronger taste. Red and white currants can be pruned, even into a shaped topiary display, although topiary could look a little out of place in an organic garden.

The long sprigs of red fruit make the red currant very attractive at harvest time. White currants are more unusual. If you have enough space, mix red and white currant bushes, or even all three. The resulting fruit will make a delicious, healthy and very attractive mixture of berries.

Gooseberry

Gooseberry bushes were once a popular feature of many gardens in England but with the increase in other sweeter imported berries they are becoming less common. They can be an acid fruit unless picked very ripe, so home-grown gooseberries that you can eat right away are much better than store-bought. They are usually green but some varieties are almost yellow when ripe. There is also a red variety.

Raspberry

Raspberries are grown on canes and require a lot of care but will pay you back well with large crops of delicious fruit. There are several varieties, each suited to a different climate, so take advice on what is best for your garden. Expect to spend time tying branches, dealing with suckers, mulching, watering and getting scratched.

Raspberries will not flourish near plants of the nightshade family (potatoes, tomatoes, eggplants or peppers) or in soil where those plants have been grown in the last couple years.

Strawberry

The wild strawberry is a tiny fruit with a strong, intensely sweet flavor that can grow well in sunny, rocky, well-drained sites, for example between the stones of a path.

Cultivated strawberries require more work but can produce a lot of fruit. For an organic garden you will probably want an old variety such as Captain Cook with medium to small sized flavorsome berries, closer to wild strawberries than the huge watery fruit that we often find in stores.

Managing Berries In Your Garden

Birds love most varieties of berries and will steal them before they ripen so if you want a good crop, you will have to cover your bushes with net while the berries are ripening. Strawberries are especially vulnerable and you may want to enclose them in a bird-proof cage.

When planting, choose your sites with care. Most berries prefer a sunny spot to ripen and develop their fullest flavor. You will want a place that is sheltered without being in constant shade. Do not plant bushes too close to a fence or hedge - you will need to be able to get all around them to harvest your growing organic berries, without being scratched to pieces!

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If you have the time and the inclination to create an organic summer garden there are few better ways to go when it comes to the potential impact on the planet. A summer garden is a thing of beauty to be enjoyed by all you invite into your garden. That being said, there are certain pests we’d all like to keep out of our gardens as well. The problem is that the pesticides of the past have undetermined side effects that have the potential to cause lasting harm. If we can avoid introducing those chemicals to our own gardens we are protecting our kids from dangers we may not even be aware of yet and protecting the other animals that may innocently come in contact with our gardens such as birds and butterflies from being harmed by the chemicals present in most common pesticides.

What does this mean to gardeners when it comes to efforts directed towards keeping out potential pests? Quite honestly, it means we are going to have to get a little bit creative in those efforts turning to natural solutions rather than chemicals. One way in which this can quite easily be accomplished is by encouraging animals that prey upon the pests to make your garden their home. Of course, this could potentially bring about its own set of problems but from a gardening perspective it is often very sound reasoning.

Use organic mulch. While this isn’t necessarily a means of pest control it is a wise move when it comes to organic gardening. Not only does the mulch provide the very useful mulching properties throughout the growing season but once the growing season has ended can be turned over and used in order to boost the organic material within the soil. This in turns provides nutrients that are important to keeping the soil fit for sustaining plant life in future growing seasons.

Attract birds to your garden. This has a two-fold benefit for the organic gardener. First of all the birds are often natural predators for many of the bugs that make a nuisance of themselves in the average summer garden. Second, birds leave behind their own little fertilizing additions to the landscape of your garden. Don’t you wish all solutions were this simple?

Keep your garden healthy, well fertilized, watered regularly and appropriately, and free of weeds. A good offense is the best defense. A good immune system and constant hand washing are the best defense the human body has against catching colds and viruses. The same holds true for gardens and their ability to fight pests. Keep your garden strong and healthy and it will repel many of the pests that may cripple other gardens on its own. It certainly doesn’t hurt anything to keep this philosophy in mind and you may be amazed at how well it works.

Organic gardening is more than a plan for your garden it is a return to the ways of old in the world of gardening. For centuries before pesticides were created man managed to live off the abundance of his gardens. It makes sense that by returning to those ideals we can also enjoy great food and a bountiful harvest in the modern world. Make the choice today to make your summer garden an organic garden and reap the benefit in better health and greater enjoyment of the gardening process.

There are many reasons why you should learn organic gardening principles. Maybe you want to start a garden, but you don’t want to make a big impact on the environment. Maybe you want to change your current garden for the better. You can even put some delicious, organic fruits and vegetables on your table. No matter what your motivations are, you should always consider certain things when building a garden.

The goal of your organic garden should be to put out as much produce while using as little outside resources as possible. According to organic principles, this means that you should not buy any nutrients, fertilizers, or pesticides from the store. It’s even better to avoid using water from your hose, and instead gather rain water. Instead, you should try to use your resources as best you can to create a healthy crop. It’s a bigger challenge, but it’s worth it in the end.

Instead of throwing away vegetables and other food waste, you should start a compost heap. This is, by far, the best way to manufacture your own nutrients for your garden. You will find that there is no shortage of material to add to your compost heap. When you mow the lawn, put all of the clipped grass into the heap. Put all of your food waste into the pile. Once it’s hot and ready, you can spread it on your garden and watch the plants flourish.

Some people take organic gardening to the next level, and have chickens roam their garden. Chickens are surprisingly easy to sustain. They spread helpful manure for you, and you will probably never have to buy chicken feed. For food, the concept of the “maggot bin” is popular. Everything you can’t put into the compost heap – such as leftover meat products and dead varmints – for example, if you kill a rabbit that has been eating your vegetables. You place it all into the maggot bin, and within a few weeks it’s full of huge, scrumptious maggots that you can feed your chickens.

With these systems in place, almost none of your leftovers are put to waste. You simply have to start thinking along the lines of saving all of the nutrients you can, and converting them into energy that your garden can use to grow healthy, delicious fruits. It’s a cheaper way to maintain a garden, it’s healthier for the environment, and it creates better, more natural products.

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