It’s February, and and in zone 5b, now is the perfect time to trim down your Elderberry bush! Pruning an elderberry bush in the late winter helps prevent shock by taking cuttings when the plant is in a dormant state. Every year, I trim my Elderberry bush all the way down to the ground, and give the cuttings away to anyone that might have an interest in growing this powerful and easy medicinal plant. This is a weak attempt at keeping it’s size in check in my small backyard food forest in progress. Despite trying to keep the size in check, every season since the backyard food forest began, this bush reaches over 5 feet tall and produces more than 5 lbs of berries. This is one of my favorite plants to grow in the Rock Island Backyard Food Forest because of its’ low maintenance nature, and heavy crop yield.
Follow along with me in this short tutorial on how to propagate elderberry cuttings!
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For the past 2 years, I’ve been working on turning my backyard into an urban food forest, and documenting the process. In this process, I try to spend as little as possible, as with most hobbies (especially gardening!) the amount of money that you can spend can be limitless. Personally, I enjoy the challenge of using what is available to you.