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“There’s no way of eating a gooseberry that isn’t a divine experience.”
~Monty Don
I love Big Dreams, Small Spaces. I’ve seen it a billion times, but it’s still usually on my TV to keep me company when I’m home alone. (It’s on Netflix, so if you haven’t seen it, you should go watch it!) Everyone is just so cheerfully enthusiastic about gardening, especially the host (and “Britain’s favorite gardener”), Monty Don. There’s a moment in the first episode of the second season where Monty in trying to convince his garden mentee to buy a gooseberry as he gets really excited about the endless culinary possibilities with gooseberry fruit. Quite a glowing endorsement! So when I saw them for sale around my new town, I knew I was going to get one eventually.
Yesterday, I bit the bullet. I hadn’t planned on getting one just yet. But as I was wandering Molbak’s (my new favorite garden center), I saw they just got a new shipment of fruity shrubs including a few gooseberry bushes. They looked great! Better than the specimens at Home Depot. So I grabbed one. I planted it as soon as I got home. And now I feel like my garden is officially started!
I’m not 100% sure what variety of gooseberry I have. I noticed after I got home that there are two different tags on my plant. The tag that was wrapped around the plant says it’s a Pixwell Gooseberry (ribes hirtellum), but the stabby tag says it’s a ribes uva-crisp. The receipt also listed it as a Pixwell. So I’m inclined to say it’s a Pixwell because I believe that wrap-around tag traveled with the plant from the nursery. The care instructions are basically the same, so I’m not sure it matters too much.
A Little About Gooseberry
Gooseberry are hardy! They can handle temperatures down to -40 degrees (zone 3). However, they don’t like being super hot. In temperatures above 85 degrees, they benefit from shade or other protection from the heat. According to all the weather trends I’ve read online, Seattle tends to stay within a narrow temperature range not getting too hot in the summer. So I should be fine.
They like full sun, but can handle some shade. They enjoy fertile, well-draining soil. Fertilizing on a regular basis can only help.
According to the nice man at the garden center, gooseberry shrubs are fast growing. Great! But they also get pretty big growing anywhere from 4-6 feet tall.
The berries start off light green and turn to pinky/purply colors as they ripen. I wish I could describe the flavor, but I have no clue! The nice lady at the garden center said they have a tart taste, which she does not like. I’m all for it though!
They’re susceptible to powdery mildew and bird carnage. Fungicide and screaming out of your window should help.
How I Planted It
Putting a plant in the ground is pretty straight forward. These steps may seem familiar to you. 😛 But I had a couple moments during planting that might be of interest.
I dug a hole. Like you do, but this was a bigger learning task in my case because this was the first time of digging into the soil at my new home. And of course it couldn’t be that simple. As I stuck the shovel into the ground, I came across a familiar enemy. Something I was hoping to never see again…
Introducing my arch nemesis:
Landscaping fabric!!!! The felt-like kind! I hate it. I wrestled with so much of this stuff a couple of years ago when we re-sodded our lawn. Look, I get why people use it. But it’s not a product that really works long term especially if you cheap out on the fabric. Which many people do (I don’t blame them). After having a poke around the garden bed, I found that it’s everywhere. There’s grass and weeds growing through it. It means that if I want to plant out in this bed (And I do! I bought other plants! I have plans!), it’s going to take a bit more work. It also makes me nervous about what I’m going to find when I start digging in the back yard to create the vegetable garden…
On the plus side, the soil is really nice and loamy. That’s great news! If you’re planting something like this, a good, general rule is to dig the hole to twice the size of the root ball you’re planting to make sure those roots have room to easily spread.
I added fertilizer. I used Espoma Plant Tone as my starter fertilizer. It has just a slightly higher nitrogen ratio that Bio-tone making it good for leaf production and growth. But either of those fertilizers would work. Also, I can’t find my bag of Bio-tone. I’ll be fertilizing regularly throughout the spring and summer.
I filled the hole. Nothing special here. Just put the dirt back in the hole. Don’t pack it too tight in there, but make sure the soil is somewhat firm around the root ball.
I watered it in. I had a much more emotional response to busting out my garden watering can than I thought I would. Pure joy! I gave the gooseberry shrub a good drink. Then I mulched a bit using the nature that’s already on the ground.
And that’s about it! I’m really excited to watch this grow. I don’t know if I’ll get any fruit this year, but if I can just keep it alive, next year should be amazing!
If you have experience growing gooseberry or have any recipes you’d like to share with me, I’d love to hear about it in the comments.