For two and a half years I babied my precious blackberries.

I spent hundreds of dollars and hundreds of hours watering them, fertilizing them, weeding them, pruning them, building a trellis for them, painstakingly tying up each cane to make them grow better.

The first two seasons we harvested little more than a couple handfuls of berries.

But as the third season approached, the vines had burst into activity.

Here they are just after planting them in the spring of 2010:

And here they are in November of 2012:

Then...

Stephen Palmer is a writer and entrepreneur devoted to helping people conquer limitations, maximize their potential, and achieve true freedom.