Tara Austen Weaver became smitten on growing fruit in Seattle after planting raspberries during an extended summer visit. Later, she moved here permanently to a house with nine mature fruit trees and proceeded to add 14 more plus many berry plants. Her new book, “Growing Berries and Fruit Trees in the Pacific Northwest,” is based on that experience and is an excellent choice for the beginning fruit grower in Washington, Oregon, or British Columbia, especially west of the Cascades.
I found the book is especially helpful for cultivating berries by giving recommended varieties and culture methods specific to this region. The emphasis is on the most popular, including strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries, but the author is adventuresome. She maintains a small but controlled (she claims) patch of Himalayan blackberries and recommends trying wild fruit such as our native huckleberries, or even salal. Her definition of “berry” is broad and she also recommends kiwi, lingonberry, currents, and even elderberries.
Excerpted from the Fall 2020 issue of the Arboretum Bulletin