What variety of Blackberry bush.........

I need a wind break for my 30' X 30' veggie garden. I am considering planting Blackberry bushes on the south end of my garden. I garden in in Hutto , Tex Zone 8B located in Central Texas close to Austin. What variety will do best in my area? How fast do they grow? When can I plant? Do I purchase a bare root plant? How far apart do I plant? Can I plant now (June 2)?........Lot's of questions, thanks in advance for any answers.

I would recommend any of the Indian series such as Navaho, Cherokee, etc. from OU...most are thornless, hardy to our weather and don't seem to mind our soil...I'm about 40 minutes north of you at Lake Belton. They grow quite quickly and I would suggest using some of our limestone rocks to create some raised beds so they do not get too wet and to curb some of the suckering....they are available bareroot or in 2-gal size...and my opinion only, bareroot planting is best in spring and in fall to minimize stress on the plant. Planting now would requite a soaker hose and/or twice-daily watering since we are still faced with drought measures for our area...they do not mind hard-wood mulch...and good compost in the early spring...other than that, very hardy and productive plants for our area.

txaggiegal......Thank you for your response. I did a google search, and found a grower north of Denton that shared much advice. I have raised bed ready for planting as soon as my tomato's die off.

If it's important to you, pick the Indian varieties. that are thornless. All are good to eat but the thornless are more fun for me to pick.

In case you were confused, the Univ of Arkansas has developed a whole stream of very large fruit blackberry varieties (I ate 9 of them from my bushes this morning). They all have been named for American Indian tribes like Navaho, Arapaho and about 8 more (I'm guessing how many as they keep coming). Some have thorns and most do not. The label or catalog listing always states which each variety is. I can't tell any difference in taste or size between thorned and thornless varieties so I have mostly thornless varieties.

I hope someone else will tell us why we might want to buy the thorny varieties.

Good luck