Blueberries Are a Go

In my previous blueberries article, you saw the prep work it took to create a space for the blueberry bushes we were receiving.  And they have been received (patriot, blueray, and jersey varieties), or rather, picked up.

After the space was cleared of the bounteous bushes, the soil had to be prepared.  I dug holes and a trench and filled them with stinky, fresh compost, burying that with dirt, and finishing the fill with more mature, bagged compost from the garden center and more dirt.  I planted four blueberry bushes where the land had been cleared (the patriot and blueray), and tucked them into their new beds with bark mulch.  The other two (jersey) I planted in the back of the yard, along with a miniature blueberry that had be floundering by itself in the front yard.







One week later, they are all leafing out, apparantly enjoying their new homes.  The two (three) in the back of the yard may not receive enough sun, but they should carry on perfectly well until I find a better place to put them (if a better place is indeed needed) -- I just had to get them in the ground somewhere, since there wasn't room in where the others were.



Now that the blueberries are in, I have been spending my time chopping up the branches of the bushes I removed; no small feat, that!  Amazingly, a bush that was 5 feet tall and 4 feet wide chops into a single wheelbarrowful of short twigs.  Cutting up the branches makes it easier to dispose of them in our heap of debris or in the composters.  (Unfortunately, at this time we don't have a chipper....)

Strawberries are coming along, as are the elderberries.  More on those later.