Trimming blackberry bushes

Based on my schedule and the behavior of some of my potential work partners, I knew on Friday that this was going to be a rough week. So, to make sure that I was prepared, I spent some time trimming around my blackberry bushes this weekend.

Trimming around blackberry bushes is an art form. Anywhere that the bushes can grow, grass and weeds can grow as well. As a blackberry fan, however, I prefer that nothing else compete with my scrawny but fruit covered bushes for resources. Something just has to go.

My only interest is to make it easier for the blackberries to grow. But the blackberry bush doesn't know that. Even if it did know that, I'm not sure that it could do anything to help me. You see, blackberries are equipped with rather nasty natural defenses in the form of thorns. These are great for keeping birds away from the berries I want to eat. They are not so great, however, when I'm trying to reach under and around them to get at interfering weeds and grass.


People, of course, are smarter than blackberry bushes. When they have prickly defenses, they have good reason. Some of it is just corporate life. Some of it is their perception of me. Sometimes, I suspect, it happens just because the wind is blowing the wrong way. There is only so much I can control in these situations.

So, I've been learning to be very careful. I work on moving fluidly. I flex through a number of approaches until I see what will work best. I stroke egos. I make jokes. I charm. I cajole. And, most of the time, I only come out of it with a few scratches.

This week, however, I just don't know. There are far too many variables. And they do not appear to be playing in my favor. The worst part is this. There are a whole bunch of green berries on the vines that I'm tending at work. And just this last week, I started to see the faintest bit of color in one of them. I am so close to getting it all to work! But tonigh I'm just pretty scratched . Yes, the scratches will heal (assuming that they don't get repeatedly inflicted)- they always have before - but honestly, folks, can't we just figure out some other way to do business?