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[Campo Girl]

Blackberries and their hybrids are extremely useful in the fruit garden. Not only do they have high ornamental value but their sprawling habit also allows them to easily occupy spaces in the garden such as arches, pergolas, treliswork and walls, as well as native hedges.

You can allow less vigorous varities to scramble through large shrubs, although this can at times make access for picking difficult so think about how you are going to get to your fruit before planting it!

Their flowers require insect intervention to be pollinated, so position plants in a sheltered site because they flower relatively early in the year, ours is growing up a fence, with an olive tree fairly close and so far so good and we do get fruit every year.

Blackberries and they hybrids prefer moisture retentive but free-draining soil, so dig plenty of bulky organic matter into chalky, sandy or heavy clay - we have clay so we built a good top soil of compost and horse manure. Many varities, especially the hybrid forms, are extremely vigorous and require at least 3.75m (12ft) between plants when trained against a wall or fence. Our raspberries are growing beside the blackberries to encourage them to meet one day.