Hi nguyena1- Good questions! 1.) I've found there really is no stopping blackberries. You can tip them at 3' to encourage lateral growing, but they're still going to go up and up. The top of my trellis is about 8', and I'll probably top them 4 times throughout the season... they're that vigorous. (Though perhaps not quite as much in their first year.) 2.) With the everbearing raspberries... Do not tip them. Just let them grow. You can prune them back at the very end of the fall/early winter when their tops die. (or just do that in the spring). 3.) When you prune off the dead tops is really up to you. You can do it in the beginning or end of the dormant season. For me, I wait until early spring because at that point youâÂÂll see a nice dividing line between the green lower part which is still alive, and the dead top (so I know IâÂÂm not cutting off too much, or leaving some dead cane). DonâÂÂt forget, youâÂÂll also need to prune out the dead 2nd year (floricanes) after the give their fruit on the lower part of the cane in late summer. 4.) As I understand it, youâÂÂre right on the edge of where of the climate where raspberries can grow. IâÂÂve read that the âÂÂBabaâ variety would probably be your best bet for someone in your situation. But, since I donâÂÂt live there, or grow that variety, take my advice with a grain of salt. Others here may be able to give advice on the shade. I do know, even around here in 6b RI, that I do get some raspberry druplet disorder which is caused by excessive sun/UV, etc. 5.) YouâÂÂve got some good varieties there, but IâÂÂm still worried about your climate when it comes to the raspberries. Might you want to start with some test varieties first before you jump all-in? Having grown Heritage, Caroline, and Prelude, I would toss the Heritage and put in Baba as mentioned above. I havenâÂÂt grown Boyne, but according to my Nourse chart, it (and the Caroline unfortunately) might be slightly less tolerant of the heat? You might want to put Anne on the end as for me it doesnâÂÂt grow very tall/vigorously⦠but, it probably has the biggest and best tasting raspberries that I grow. 6.) Yes, containment is extremely important. Without it, all the varieties will grow together and you wonâÂÂt be able to tell where one starts and the next one ends. That may not sound too bad, but if you have one variety that does well, and another one that does poorly, you wonâÂÂt be able to remove the slacker. For me, I get containment by mowing around all my patches. In one area, I have a barrier that goes down 10âÂÂ, and they havenâÂÂt gone under that yet. But, others have talked about raspberries tunneling down 15â or even more. For more on the varieties I grow, you can see my âÂÂMy Pageâ link. Hope this helps! -Glenn Here is a link that might be useful: Nourse Farms raspberry chart

Naturegirl- It depends on a number of things starting with how sensative a plant is to juglone to begin with. The juglone itself breaks down pretty quickly. Twigs, leaves, bark and other debris tend to lose what little punch they have after a year of just being exposed to the open air. Roots may take a bit longer but, face it, roots grow where they can get oxygen so at least they will start to lose their punch quickly. One thing I didn't mention in my earlier post is that I've found Abies to be the most intolerant of juglone with the possible (and I stress possible) exception of Abies lasiocarpa. tj

In this day and age, there really is no reason to eat something from the wild that you haven't investigated. I always mean to look for books on what is edible, but haven't. Growing up, we ate poke salat, dewberries, blackberries, elderberries, hickory nuts, walnuts and probably other things I can't think of right now. I've been told that sassafras makes a drink like root beer when you harvest the roots at a certain time of year. We picked wild honeysuckle flowers and sucked the nectar out. I've seen passionfruit and pawpaws, but didn't know what they were. Mullin is supposed to make a great tea that helps you sleep and you can use it for toilet paper. Wild onions come up in the spring, but we didn't eat them. I've had 'lemonade' made from sumac berries. It was nothing special.

Thank you Chipped.....I had to go to the Dr. this morning...afterwards I went to another nursery on my way home...Spring is late coming this year. I'm so weak..no resistance whatsoever. I picked up the only Philodendron they had left, pretty sure it's a Zanadu, (no tag), a pink Syngonium, 6 pack of light purple Pansies, 6 pack yellow/purple violas, a pink carpet rose..(mine died with the 2 -20* nights we had), 6 pack variety of coleus, 3 clay pots, bayer 3n1 for the fall...My Mr. grabbed 4 creeping flox for our retaining wall, and 2 more perennial somethings I haven't checked out yet... I asked if they had any Verbascum (it's a very old perennial)...They had no idea what I was talking about. It'd been around here for a long time. I'll go to my no. 1 nursery, they'll have them...they have everything...'Gardeners Dream' in Ct. not far at all, 15 min at the most...They have all 11 greenhouses open. outside there must be 4 acres of stock. Next time I go there I'll bring my phone & take pics.