| Did you know there's an annual berry that you can | | | | the soil around each plant when you transplant your |
| grow just like you grow a tomato? They're called | | | | seedlings. |
| garden huckleberries. | | | | They're thirsty like tomatoes too, so keep them well |
| Garden huckleberries are in fact related to tomatoes, | | | | watered. Remove weeds, or better yet, mulch to |
| as well as peppers and potatoes. They're a member | | | | suppress weeds and conserve moisture. Small white |
| of the nightshade family and their Latin name is | | | | flowers appear in July. Remember to feed with a |
| Solanum melanocerasum, syn S. nigrum guineense. | | | | liquid fertilizer weekly, especially after the flowers |
| They produce deep purple or black berries beginning | | | | open. |
| in early fall. But wait until the berries have been | | | | In early fall the garden huckleberries will begin turning |
| kissed by frost before you pick them, they'll be much | | | | black. They will be ready to harvest about two |
| more flavorful. The fruits are bitter and must be | | | | weeks later, when their skin changes from shiny to |
| sweetened and cooked before eating. | | | | dull. They'll be rather soft and their insides will turn |
| Start huckleberry seeds indoors about 6 to 8 weeks | | | | from green to purple. Try to resist picking them until |
| before your last spring frost. Grow the seedlings just | | | | after they have been exposed to at least one light |
| like tomatoes or peppers. Keep them well watered | | | | frost. Afterward, pick the ripe ones and leave the |
| and feed them weekly with a liquid fertilizer applied at | | | | unripe ones on the plant. They too will soon ripen, so |
| half of the manufacturer's recommended strength. | | | | don't give up on them. |
| Move them outdoors and harden them off beginning | | | | When I used to think of growing berries in my |
| about two weeks before your average last frost. | | | | garden, I thought of perennial berries like |
| Put them in the shade during the day. Gradually move | | | | strawberries, raspberries or blueberries. But it can |
| them into the sun and leave them outdoors for a | | | | take a couple of years for these plants to produce |
| few more hours each day until they're outside all the | | | | fruit. |
| time. Bring them indoors if frost is predicted. | | | | Now I think of garden huckleberries. The produce |
| Plant them in full sun in the vegetable garden after all | | | | fruit the first year and each plant produces just |
| danger of frost has past, about the same time you | | | | enough berries for one pie. |
| plant your tomatoes. Add a trowel of compost to | | | | Pretty convenient, don't you think? |