Give your blackberry plants the best "friends" to keep them healthy.

 While tidy rows of blackberry bushes offer the simplest harvesting opportunities for self-sufficient gardeners, you may prefer to "mix it up" by growing blackberries under a canopy of complementary trees, as well as mingling them with other food-bearing shrubs. It's also helpful to use herbs and flowers that help maintain shrub health. Blackberries thrive in a number of climates and soil conditions, although they dislike boggy or nitrogen-depleted soil. They can even tolerate part shade, although the shrubs won't produce quite as much fruit as those planted in the sunniest spots.