Homegrown berries like the red mulberry can be grown and cultivated in your backyard.
Berries are some of the healthiest foods you and your family can enjoy. Better yet, they are easy to grow at home, with many berries growing on shrubs that are relatively easy to care for. If you want to undertake a gardening project or begin an educational lesson for your kids this season, we encourage planting the following shrubs. Tending to these shrubs will help create an attractive landscape that also gives you delicious and healthy homegrown berries.
Red Mulberries
This shrub native to Maryland and Virginia grows bright red berries that turn dark purple as they ripen. This sweet fruit is packed with vitamin C, B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, and iron, which help extend your body’s youthful vigor while protecting you from disease. Kids will love plucking these homegrown berries, which you can enjoy straight off the branch.
Elderberries
The elderberry is enjoyed most for its immune-boosting properties. The flowers and berries of this shrub mature at various intervals throughout the season. They attract a lot of birds which will make your landscape an exciting, nature-packed space. However, the unripe elderberries can be toxic to eat, so you must make sure that fruit is only harvested once it has matured to a dark purple or black color. A single cup of these berries can provide more than half of your daily vitamin C and provides you with valuable vitamin B6. If you want to undertake a large project with your family, you could use your harvested elderberries to make a fresh batch of jam.
Goji Berries
Goji berry plants require a lot of patience. This bush, originally cultivated in China, prefers full sun and relatively infertile soils. You may harvest a few berries in your first and second seasons, but from year three onwards, you will yield an abundance of berries in late summer. These bright orange-red berries ultimately contain more vitamin C than oranges and more beta-carotene than carrots.
Huckleberries
The huckleberry is another native shrub for the Mid-Atlantic region and produces a dark blue, black, or red fruit from July to October. These fruits are believed to contain even more antioxidants than blueberries, but they are also tasty. The huckleberry can bring a punch of flavor to jams, puddings, cakes, or breakfast cereal. The huckleberry is also another homegrown berry you can enjoy right off the branch.
Gooseberries
The gooseberry fruits range in color from green, to red, to purple, and can be enjoyed fresh off the branch or in wines, jams, and syrups. Like these other delicious, homegrown berries listed above, huckleberries can provide you with immunity-boosting vitamin C.
In addition to providing your family with these delicious fruits, planting these shrubs will also help provide food for native birds and flowers for native butterflies and bees. By planting these shrubs, you not only give yourself a rewarding gardening project, but you help to nourish your local wildlife populations.
Scientific Plant Service Is Your Go-To Source In Landscape Healthcare
Scientific Plant Service, located in Baltimore, is a privately owned corporation, chartered in Maryland in 1957 by Frank J. Burke. We started as a full-service Arborists specializing in the care of shade trees and ornamental shrubs, but today we are a Lawn Care company that is a huge part of the community. From aquatic environments and snow management to deer and mole control, SPS has services tailored specifically for your lawn and landscape.
We offer services in Maryland, Washington, DC, and Virginia, including: Harford, Baltimore, Carroll, Frederick, Howard, Anne Arundel, Montgomery, Prince Georges, Talbot, Queen Anne’s, Calvert counties in MD, as well as Loudoun County, Fairfax County, Arlington, Alexandria, and Falls Church in VA. For more information, contact us online, or call us at 410-321-0970. Be sure to follow us on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Pinterest!