Do they produce fruit the first year? Or is the moderate growth rate too slow to expect fruit for a couple years? This is one reason I'm a big fan of strawberries and blackberries and raspberries and elderberries - all quick to bear their fruit. I ordered two packs of these to sow in the fall, the year my husband died. But then I lost my mind and didn't have a clue where I put all those seeds that came in. My mind was a fog for months afterward and I couldn't find the energy for gardening when spring came. He was the reason I got so heavily into growing herbs. He was spending a fortune at vitamin shops for stuff I could grow. Didn't even know how easy it was to grow some stuff like St. John's wort, Valerian, speedwell, mullein, etc. Started off such small pots, not thinking most would even germinate. Then realizing, "Oh, I can do this!" He wasn't overly excited for me to run in the house frequently shouting, "Look what's growing!"
Of course, there was the many fails of blueberries. That was his favorite fruit that I spent a lot of money every year trying to grow before giving up and suggesting, "How about some nice, full of antioxidants wolf berries?" I don't personally like blueberries, and was saddened that he thought the goji berry was not a good consolation prize.
Odd that I'm still interested in growing a lot of things I grew for him. I don't have cancer, but I do take a lot of drugs for headaches, nausea, sleep, etc. None really work well. Obviously, as I'm lurking the forums quite a bit instead of tossing and turning. I never have liked taking pills of any kind. He would probably be shocked out of his shoes to see the pharmacy of pills I take now. But I'm still convinced I will be much better off to consume bunches of berries and teas. I think he called it, "One of those weeds and twigs freaks."
Which reminds me, I read that goji berry tastes better after the first frost, when they release more sugars? But are they palatable straight from the bush before the first frost? I'm a berry addict. The last berries I planted and never ate was my mulberry tree. It fruited the year I gave up on gardening. But, for several years, I could skip out to the garden in the mornings, bowl in hand, to pick strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries and they were absolutely the best mornings. Picking the elderberries was hard work, because then I was in the kitchen boiling up big pots of elderberry tonic for the year. My roommate says he loves elderberry wine, or was it brandy? I thought they would look great growing up and tall like the neighbor's bamboo on the other side. But then I didn't know if any would fall into her yard. Not sure if her chickens would like that. I don't remember them ever falling in my yard - the bunches were not at all easy to pull from the branches. And the birds totally ignored them. I planted a bunch thinking I had to share with the birds. I could have made tonic for weeks.
Hope I can find some drinks I can make with the goji berries. I love juice, but have to avoid the pulp-less store varieties. But eating them off the vine works well also. I don't mind thorny plants at all, the scratches are worth it as long as they produce enough fruit. I want to grow some of those fall gold raspberries again if I can fit them in somewhere. They were the only raspberries I like. I'd always imagined I would make raspberry-goji juice with them because those raspberries tasted good with everything.
Sorry, rambling again. It rained most of the day yesterday and last night. It is nice that I don't even have to think about going out to water my parched garden. Instead, I'm all relaxed and dreaming gardening stuff before I go to church.
