Basil and blackberries

Until about two hours ago, I thought I was going to have a dismal report on the basil seeds I mentioned last week. But I discovered that if I looked very closely (a magnifying glass would help) I can see the beginnings of green poking through the soil. Two little basil plants! My seeds are looking to be not a total failure as I had worried.

Then a little later I another surprise. As I did my almost daily rounds, assessing the status of my tomatoes (no red ones yet, but they're getting bigger!), I checked on our volunteer blackberries.

I had forgotten to mention the blackberries in earlier posts because we do nothing with them. They first sprouted up along the fence where we put the leftover lumber from building our house. We didn't plant them, we didn't tend them, and we forgot about them for a couple years. Last summer we remembered them just in time and enjoyed several handfuls of berries.

I suspect this year, all we will get again is a handful of berries. I have no idea what kind of blackberries they are and if they are truly wild. These are things I need to figure out. We have hopes of providing a better support for them to grow on and and would like to plant another couple of plants. In the limited reading we have done though, we learned that wild blackberry plants do not like cultivated blackberry plants and vice versa. So for the time being, we are doing nothing except picking the few blackberries we are blessed with. If anyone has any expertise or experience growing blackberries, we would love advice and suggestions!