Cultivating Pacific Northwest Weeds (i.e. Growing Blackberries)

I purchased 8 blackberry canes and 6 blueberry bushes about four weeks ago from a local backyard grower for a great price (yes, before we had even found a house, first things first).  I paid $3 each, compared to the $9-15 they charge at a home improvement store garden center.  However, good deal or not, I have since been informed that I am insane for buying blackberries because they grow rampant all over the region.  And now that I'm paying attention I've seen that it's true... every shopping center parking lot, highway median, unkempt backyard, and park are bordered by tangled mounds of blackberries.  They are nasty thorny things, and no one really picks them; they just rot on the branches and feed the birds.

I didn't know there were so many wild blackberries when I paid for these... but I did at least buy thornless blackberries that have been cultivated for size and taste and we will actually pick them and eat them, unlike all the wild ones that people just treat as weeds!  I love blackberries and have always wanted to grow my own, so I'm starting with these eight canes and we will eventually have a nice row of vine fruits (eventually blackberries, raspberries, and grapes) going down the long sunny fence line of the yard.

 Of course our livestock plans may put a hitch in all that... goats love to eat brambles and the "pasture" part of our yard is exactly where these plants are going.  So we may need to fence the berries in on both sides...  or tether our goats in areas we want them to eat down to the ground... or just get sheep instead, which (so I read) won't eat woody plants unless they run out of grass... that's a problem for next year.  It still made sense to use the long sun-drenched fence line that already exists for the berries.

I have to be very careful about not letting them spread into the neighbor's beautiful yard, since, as I said, they are Pacific Northwest weeds.  I saw a trick where you bury deep garden edging plastic in the ground alongside your berries so that they cannot send out their shoots in that direction.  I will need to do that along the fence line so they stay in my yard.  

I have high hopes for good harvests from these canes - if not this year then next, once they are established!  Whatcom County Washington is the #1 raspberry producing area in the country, and is near the top for blackberries and blueberries as well.  The plants love the soil and climate here, so God-willing we will have all we can eat in the summer and a freezer full of delicious homegrown berries year-round!