The Berry Grower's Companion [Paperback]

Barbara L. Bowling (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: November 1, 2000

Berry fruits have long been used and appreciated in the kitchen, but the aesthetic and practical benefits they bring to the garden landscape are all too often ignored. Whether for the ground cover effect of a strawberry plant, the colorful autumn foliage of a blueberry plant, the climbing trait of a grapevine, or the hedge potential of an elderberry bush, these plants are highly versatile contributors to a range of garden environments. And growing such gems in your own backyard means convenient access to savory fruits for the table or for sale.

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

The only thing missing from Bowling's berry book is some freshly whipped cream and fluffy homemade shortcake; otherwise, this is as complete a guide to growing these delectable fruits as a gardener could want. Beginning with the basics of berry gardening, Bowling devotes subsequent chapters to individual fruits and fruit types--strawberries, blueberries, and grapes, as well as brambles (raspberries and blackberries), and the minor crops of currants, gooseberries, elderberries, kiwi, and cranberries. What makes this treatise unique, however, is its advocacy for incorporating berries into the ornamental landscape. For the home gardener unfamiliar with berry-producing plants, Bowling illustrates their versatility, and offers suggestions for using specific fruits in the landscape--as ground covers or hedges, for fall color or vines. At once philosophical and practical, Bowling combines legends and lore with fascinating facts and personal digressions, offering advice for the backyard beginner as well as the production professional that is extensive without being overwhelming. Carol Haggas
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review

The most comprehensive berry book we have seen. The expert author extensively explains cultivar selection, diseases, soils, pruning and using berries in your landscape. It even includes grapes, currants, gooseberries and minor fruits. Beautiful photos and illustrations. A must for the serious home berry grower's library.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 308 pages
• Publisher: Timber Press, Incorporated (November 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 088192489X
• ISBN-13: 978-0881924893
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.4 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,664,278 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A very useful book, April 28, 2001

By 

"petersonreviews" (USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Berry Grower's Companion (Paperback)

Barbara Bowling's book is well organized and well worth owning. There's an opening chapter about the general principles for growing all kinds of berries (or small fruits, as they are called, not because of the size of the fruits, but because of the size of the plants they grow on). Then, surprisingly, there is an interesting chapter about using berry plants for landscaping. It says, for instance, that elderberry bushes make good hedges.

There are separate chapters for each of these fruits: strawberries, brambles (raspberries, blackberries and the like), blueberries, grapes and minor berry crops (currants, gooseberries, hardy kiwi, elderberries, highbush cranberries, amelanchiers and still more minor berry crops such as cranberry, edible honeysuckle, jostaberry, ligonberry, maypop, rugosa rose and wineberry).

There's a highly useful appendix listing nursery sources for berry plants. Also, there's a glossary, a valuable list of references and 12 pages of plant name index and subject index.

If you're interested in growing one kind of berry, such as raspberries, you can count on having about a hundred pages of information that are directed toward growing raspberries, including the part applicable to growing any berry. And this is true for each of the other kinds of berry.

The chapter on brambles gives historical background and describes the biology of brambles. It lists many different cultivars of raspberries and blackberries, telling the hardiness, time of berry maturation and relative productivity of each berry cultivar.

Bowling tells how to select and prepare a site, plant berries and establish their growth, apply nutrition and fertilization, prune brambles and make trellises. She tells how to cope with pests such as viral diseases, gray molds, anthracnose, Phytophthora root rot and a long list of insects. Surprisingly, she chose not to include birds in her list of raspberry pests, although she mentions them in connection with other berries. She doesn't mention any mammals as raspberry pests, either. Most likely, these will be local issues. Not everyone has deer, black bear or rabbits in the neighborhood.

Of course, you should supplement this book with information from your local ag extension service or nursery. They will have a finer level of local detail about favored cultivars. Sometimes, your local ag extension agent will disagree with this author. For example, this author says that the "Blackhawk" black raspberry cultivar is tender, with medium productivity. The extension service at North Dakota State University, a state with a brutal winter, says that "Blackhawk" is "one of the hardiest black fruited varieties."

You'll need to adjust the book's information in terms of your specialized knowledge of your own local climate. For instance, this author describes the "Boyne" cultivar as a summer-bearing red raspberry suited for the climate of New England. She doesn't mention it in connection with the Midwest. The North Dakota State University Extension Service, on the other hand, says that "Boyne" is "excellent for [North Dakota] home gardens ... moderately vigorous, sturdy, winter hardy and very productive."

The important thing is that Bowling has listed many, many cultivars, together with enough information for a grower to know the right climate for each one.

24 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a book brimming with love and information, February 15, 2001

By 

Jonathan Lynch (State College, PA USA) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: The Berry Grower's Companion (Paperback)

I had the pleasure of knowing the author when she was a professor of horticulture at Penn State. She is a remarkable person, combining genuine love for berries with an encyclopedic knowledge of their biology and growing requirements. This book distills that enthusiasm and expertise in a very usable and enjoyable form. If you are interested in growing strawberries, raspberries, blueberries, grapes, or other berry crops in your garden, this is the book to have. It is engaging, authoritative, supremely practical, educational, and downright fun to read. Some garden publications are thick on pretty pictures but thin on substance, or may actually propagate horticultural myths not founded in scientific fact. This book is different. Reading it, you will learn a lot about how these plants work, and how to grow them successfully, including delightful sidebar "digressions" about the history and biology of berry species. Although packed with important information needed specifically by berry growers, the book is written in plain language, with clear drawings, color photos, and zest that makes it a delight to read. This is bound to be the best book on the subject for some time, that is, until she writes a second edition!

44 of 57 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Western gardeners beware, July 18, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The Berry Grower's Companion (Paperback)

In the intro, the author warns (paraphrasing) that her experience is mostly in the eastern and midwest US - and her comments will be of most value for gardeners in those regions. That is a fair thing to state.. What I have a problem with, is the complete neglect of the Southwest - to the point I sensed that she doubts people even garden there - and its all commercial growers.

For example: in all the tables that mention regions, she has breakouts for New England, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, South Central, Souteast, and Pacific Northwest... Uh, what about West, or Southwest? We're here trying to grow these things too.

Other things that bothered me: in her very thorough list of Strawberry cultivars, she omits one of the most common varieties grown in the West (Sequoia). In her list of southern highbush blueberries, most of the best ones are omitted (O'Neal, Georgia Gem, Misty, Reveille, Jubilee are all missing).

The ommissions themselves are not so significant, its what it implies - which is the lack of consideration for what Western gardeners would deal with including chilling hour issues, high heat, etc. And in the minor berries, there is a dicussion of hardy Kiwi - but why not mention the regular Kiwi which can be grown many places (my point being the bias toward her native region)

On the positive side, this author has a solid academic background and covers many issues in the kind of detail I enjoy. But that's what makes it frustrating for me to read her book - because she does not apply that know-how evenly to what I consider important and did not seem to spend any time researching what's going on out West.