I’m not big on ornamental shrubbery. Especially evergreen bushes … they just catch tons of JUNK. So last summer, we ripped out the evergreen bushes that were in our alley. In their place we planned to put raspberry bushes but we never got around to it. So we finally put them in this summer.
Neither of us really thought we’d get much off of the bushes this summer, but four of our five bushes are heavy (as in BENDING OVER) with gorgeous ripe raspberries. They taste every bit as good as they look.
Tabby is hugely enthused about having a raspberry patch behind our house and is dying to pick ALL the berries (even the not-so-ripe ones). Unfortunately, the wasps like them as much as we do and we have to pick them at strategic times in order to avoid them.
I also bordered our front flower beds with strawberry plants. They are yielding some pretty tasty strawberries as well, though the bunnies seem to get most of them before we can get our hands on them.
I would love to have berry bushes and pretty flowers in a garden around my house, but the bees. THE BEES! That's what stops me. I'm afraid I'd never go outside again because they'd be constantly hovering.