Sunday, December 28, 2008

Blueberries

Frank is turning out to be a great dog.  He is pretty good at rounding up the sheep.  A friend got me the book Nop's Trials and I just loved it.  Great book about a stockdog Border Collie named Nop.
We planted 54 blueberry bushes today.  Yes, on December 28th we planted blueberry bushes.  It was probably between 55-60 outside today and the ground was perfect.  Thank goodness because this was the batch that I assumed Shipping Immediately meant shipping immediately by your Zone.  I was the most worried about the blueberry bushes because they are not cheap.  

We'll probably get a few more bushes to round out this area and then we should be set!  Blueberries for life!  And plenty to go into the CSA shares.  Most of the bushes are 2 year plants but 12 of them are 4 year plants that will fruit this year.  

Ah--- now were do I plant those raspberry canes that are still in the Morton building? 

2 comments:

BoogaJ said...

Annette -- I'm curious about which varieties you planted. I just planted my first blueberry bushes last fall, and am looking forward to having at least a few blueberries this coming year, but we only planted three so far (as we are working within the confines of our yard :) I'm curious to know which ones you chose and why.

Annette said...

First, I didn't realize you had a blog- very cool and I just love the layout. I need to learn more about blog layouts- how did you learn?
Second, the blueberries and the kinds. I will recommend a book since I now know you are a book lover. The BackYard Berry Book by Stella Otto.
I should have read the chapter on blueberries more carefully before I went ahead and bought my first batch of blueberries but as my daughter pointed out to me in a gentle way, I learn best by experience.
I purchased Rabbiteye blueberries that should grow very well and are very disease resistant but they are more suited for warmer climates and tend to be a little more seedy (or so the book says).
So you should get a highbush variety, a lowbush or a half-high.
I'm getting more highbush varieties in April from
watersblueberryfarm.com
and from the comments on the website it sounds like those varieties could grow well in lots of zones.
I'll likely experiment with a few more high and half-high varieties.