Friday, April 10, 2009

Yellow and Blueberries

Happy Good Friday to all my Garden Friends. It was a wonderful week for spring break in our neck of the woods. We were very productive during this time planting and cleaning up the garden. Only a true gardener would know that we are not 'done' with that spring preparation until summer arrives.

On my list of jobs to complete is to finish moving those native tree starters to the shady area that I cleaned up and to plant 4 new blueberry bushes. So I have to share with you what happen when we found this great starters at our local Tractor Supply company. Hubby and I were checking out how well these starters were doing on the shelve at the store and this gentleman comes up behind us and says ' oh blueberries don't grow in Ohio. You won't have any luck with those.' Of course I giggled and replied ' oh really?! I heard they grow great in sandy conditions.' This is all I had and he stood behind us gazing at those bushes saying ' they won't grow!" SO I put the four plants we were looking at in my cart and wished him luck with his garden adventures in Ohio. The only thing I could figure was he wanted to bushes I was looking at??? I couldn't help but take a look at what he was doing with the bushes as we moseyed over to the rabbit supplies.
Bag full of blueberry starters and some great reads from my collection.

I have had these bushes for two weeks now and I finally got the area near my raseberries prepared to plant in. This is the research I found concerning blueberry growth in my area that I would like to share with you all. Growing Blueberries in the Home Garden / featured at the Ohio State Extension Office. Some of the key points I found in this article was that
  • Blueberries could make a good fruit crop for home gardens since they require small space.
  • The plants requires highly acidic soil conditions for best results.
  • The pH must be corrected before proceeding to establish the planting.
  • Blueberry plants begin to produce fruit in the third season; however, they do not become fully productive for about six years.. Once in production, it is necessary to protect the fruit from loss to birds.
The eHOW network also had some fabullous points about growing the blueberry bush so be sure to stop by there page if you are thinking about giving these healthy treats growing in your garden. I found this step the most interesting at there site 'Place mulch around the base of your bush. The mulch will ensure adequate drainage of the soil as well as add additional acid to the soil as it deteriorates.'

I will be planting two different varieties in my garden - Patriot and Northernland. Hoping to keep you posted on that progress on my blog entries to follow. Any tips or information you could share concerning the blueberries would be greatly apperciated.


In case I have not shared enough of the yellow going on in my yard..........

Enjoy your Good Friday

14 comments:

Debbie's Garden said...

My goodness what a crotchity old man. I hope you got his address so you can bring him blueberry muffins next year.

Dirt Princess said...

Don't you just love when someone tells you that you can't grow something, and you prove them wrong! HA! I would have asked him why they sell them there if you can't grow them there!!! I have berried on my blueberry bush already. I am so excited...of course you have to beat the birds to them! I also have a blackberry bush. I can't wait to make cobbler from them

Janet, The Queen of Seaford said...

Blueberries are nice to grow...be ready to share with the birds!! Love the close up of the daffy.

Victoria Williams said...

Love your daffodil picture.
I always think we should grow blueberries, who doesn't love them? And our soil is very alkaline. Thanks for the resource for growing them.

Roses and Lilacs said...

Good luck with your blueberries. That's something I haven't tried growing. Our soil here is very alkaline and we have prolonged dry spells.
Marnie

Bren Haas said...

He was a grouchy old man..... I kind of felt sorry for him after I giggles at him.

I am going to put some netting over the bushes when we get that far. I have to do that to my raspberry bushes as well. The birds and the deer seem to love them as apposed to the ones growing wild in the meadow on our property. GO FIGURE!!?!

Corner Gardener Sue said...

I hope your blueberries and other plants and seeds you got do well. I grew raspberries and strawberries where we lived 12 years ago. I may see if I can find room for them again, but the birds ate as many as we did, and here, the squirrels would probably eat them before they were even ripe.

It's 58 degrees right now. I hope your weather is getting more and more spring like.

Happy Easter!

Sharon said...

LOL. Good luck with those berries.

Catherine@AGardenerinProgress said...

I love having fresh blueberries in our garden. I think they are pretty in the fall when the leaves change. I guess I'm lucky the birds haven't found mine yet!

Tara said...

YUMMO. Love blueberries. Wishing you much luck with those. Sounds like you have done your research and you know exactly what to do. We have a blueberry farm about 10 miles from our house. I love to go pick them and eat them in everything! Happy Easter.

Phillip Oliver said...

What a gorgeous photo!

Tatyana@MySecretGarden said...

Very good post, thank you Bren! I love blueberries and have three shrubs in my garden. You reminded me about mulch, will do that today. Costco has great good size blueberry shrubs right now, bigger and bushier that I've ever seen. I bet they will give fruit sooner! Got one and happy!

Rob (ourfrenchgarden) said...

Bren, that's a beautiful photo.

It's a little difficult to grow blueberries here in limestone country. I love 'em tho.

Rob

Lesley said...

Perhaps his experience at trying to grow blueberries wasn't so good. I hope you have lots of success with yours. :)

I love the picture. That magazine 'Birds and Blooms' looks interesting. I've never seen that one here in the U.K.