Blackberry/Raspberry Fence

One of the projects on the new property is that we decided to create a living fence along one of the edges. After discussing the options and what we could afford, we decided on a blend of blackberry and raspberry bushes. We've made a point to get 3 of each variety so that we can have a good chance of at least 1 plant living even if they are all poor quality (which is a given since we were getting most from box stores). We also decided to only pick varieties with thorns and to alternate 3 reds and 3 blacks at a time so that it shifts along the length of the 'wall'. Lastly, we decided to use golden raspberries as the end caps just to change it up.

In theory the berry canes can be trained to crisscross along the length of the yard and root down so that there's no spaces between them. Right now, we've gotten about 1/3 of the berries in by doing a few every day after work.  Another element is that we are treating these bushes as a fence in terms of our calculations. Since there is a lot of foot traffic past the house on that edge of the yard, it is likely that a lot of random people will be grabbing berries from the outer edge. Anything we get from these bushes in terms of food is going to be a bonus. Since we've kept track of which berries are planted were, we can easily decide to plant more if there's one we like and choose to buy them or gift cuttings to others.

Anyway, I was wondering if anyone else here has already done this and if so, do you have any advice having already walked the path?

Remember you will have to re weave this fence every year.

You mentioned foot traffic.
These cane fruits will sprawl, how much space are you allowing for?
I have rasberries out front along our sidewalk, but I have to tie them up, otherwise they will invade the public space.
The hardy orange and Siberian pea shrub nearest to the street both have thorns but also a naturally upright growth pattern.

As a child, I visited a friend's cabin in the Virginia mountains near Skyline Drive. There were several homes on that particular mountain that had blackberries and raspberries shaped into huge plant walls that were so thick you could barely see through them. As I recall, they had grown to look about 8 to 12 feet high and probably almost as deep. I was hard to tell because they were on a steep slope that made them look taller than actual height.

They were useful in routing local bear traffic away from the houses, and provided a bounty of fresh berries to be picked for breakfast. I remember thinking that I would love to have a big berry fence like this one day. I'd rather see the bear on the other side of the fence than in my trash can or front yard.

William Bronson wrote:You mentioned foot traffic.
These cane fruits will sprawl, how much space are you allowing for?
I have rasberries out front along our sidewalk, but I have to tie them up, otherwise they will invade the public space.
The hardy orange and Siberian pea shrub nearest to the street both have thorns but also a naturally upright growth pattern.

Despite the high amount of foot traffic, there is no sidewalk. Due to the incline on our side of the road, no one steps off of the road on our side. Based on the varieties we purchased, none of them is supposed to sprawl more than 5 feet. Most are leaning towards 3 and 4 feet instead. Our intention is to use the canes that would move towards the road as the ones to turn to the sides and pin down. Even so, to be safe, we allowed 4 feet from the road so that only the most extreme canes are able to try reaching it. It means less work trying to wrangle every cane and only needing to focus on ones that try going longer.

C. Letellier wrote:Remember you will have to re weave this fence every year.

William Bronson wrote:The hardy orange and Siberian pea shrub nearest to the street both have thorns but also a naturally upright growth pattern.

Indeed. That was something we had discussed. It wasn't ideal, but right now money is still not flowing like water and it was important to us to get something in place for the foreseeable future. I would personally love having some hardy orange, but that was for down the road. The funding limit meant getting most of the huge number of plants needed from an inexpensive box store. Once funds are a bit less strained from so many projects, we may end up digging out the berry bushes to relocate elsewhere and replace them with something lower maintenance plants. I will have to look into the Siberian pea shrub though. I don't have experience with that one at all. Thanks for the suggestions.

This is one of my future goals, though probably more decorative than as a barrier.

Knowing next to nothing about berries, would any work with traditional hedging techniques?

That sounds like a perfect situation for cane fruit.
Basically you have a barrier that can also be a nursery.
You can eliminate any need to mow, and any maintenance will produce a better stronger barrier and maybe material for propagation.
It will be perfect place to toss fruit tree seeds.
I hear you loud and clear on planting what you can afford.
Cane fruit are an incredible bang for the buck.
I also like that they don't need to be harvested.
I have had to clean up a lot of fruit that could not be eaten by humans because of disease or pests.
If we left it, we had to deal with wasp and fly infestations.