More on Gardening

Today I bought six blueberry bushes. I didn't get them planted because it started sleeting on me before I got home and it didn't let up til after dark. Tomorrow its supposed to rain early and then move out so I will get them planted tomorrow. I got three climax and three tifblue. Both are of the rabbiteye variety. The climax will fruit in the early season and the tifblue will fruit later keeping me in the berries just a little bit longer. I would say probably from May til July. I worked on a blueberry farm growing up. So I picked up a few things. I am pretty sure I will have no problem getting them to grow. I will probably try to propagate them later on, taking clippings off of them and dipping them in take root and then planting them in my little trays with a drip system of some kind and placing them in sunlight. The soil needs to have a high acid ph, so I will need to plant them in a potting mix with peat moss. For those of you who have never done it that's most of what you need to know. There is also info you can get on it. I picked up an info packet a few years ago from msu. They have a blueberry extension program near where I live. Blueberries are very good for you. They taste great too. I love making blueberry cobbler, blueberry jelly, blueberry muffins, blueberry pancakes, etc. There are so many different things you can make with blueberries. My brother even made a blueberry wine that was delicious. It wasn't too sweet and it wasn't too strong. It was literally just right. But my favorite way to eat blueberry is straight off the bush. I really think that fruit trees or bushes are the way to go when landscaping your yard. They are not only beautiful, they give back to ya every year. One thing you may have to worry about is birds. I've heard that if you put an aluminum pie plate in the berry bush its supposed to scare the birds away. I don't really know if this works, but I'm willing to find out. I just hope it doesn't look too tacky. Another great idea is pecan trees. But then you have to figure out how to outsmart the squirrels. I really wish I had a place and the know how to raise bees because they keep the fruit trees pollinated. I remember being in the blueberry field and having to run to the trucks as the bees started coming in. It was like all of a sudden this black cloud came flying in and all you hear is this big buzzing sound. As a kid I thought it was the coolest thing ever. I guess it wouldnt be if I had been allergic. The lady I worked for had something worked out with someone who had honey bees and they had a whole bunch of hives on the property near the blueberry field. I don't really have a good place to put honey bees due to the flash flooding. Everything that doesn't flood too bad is up around the house. My husband is allergic so being by the house would be a bad idea. I have no idea if my daughter is. I don't really want to chance it and find out she is. So anyway that's all for today. Well its actually already the next morning just looked at the clock and realized its 1AM so I reckon its bedtime yall. I hope yall got some good information about blueberries. Catch yall later, Country Mama