Berry beginner
I'm planning to get some started in my home garden in a raised bed. We're in Nebraska in zone 6a and the university extension has a decent sized list of varieties that are good for our area. What I'm looking for is some advice from the hive mind on what varieties people like, when to plant, and where to get plants.
I'm wanting to do June bearing plants, but probably 2 varieties that fruit at different parts of the season. I'm thinking AC Wendy for an early season variety and possibly Jewel as a late season. I've also looked at all star, flavor fest, or Cavendish as mid seasons instead of the jewel variety. Would it be wiser to do the early paired with late or should we go with the mid season?
When should I be trying to plant? I've come across some places that seem to say I could plant in fall this year and be harvesting next spring already and some places that say I need to be planting in the spring and won't get to harvest the first year.
I have been able to find AC Wendy plants that will ship in fall from Gurney's, but my understanding is that they are sketchy at best for quality and the reviews seem to confirm that. The later maturing plants seem to be out of stock and ship in the spring from the majority of places I've been able to find. Realistically we only need about 10 plants in total for our space.
So where should I be looking to buy our plants and when? Bonus points if I can get raspberry/blackberry starts at the same place.
Thanks all!