On a whim the other day I stopped at a local garden center on the way to the farm. They have their usual end of year clearance. I could have gone crazy on flowering plants but we need to watch what we spend and we don't really have a place for them right now anyway. I went looking for blueberries and a deal.
I was not disappointed.
Snagged these two blueberry bushes for $5 each. Normally $16. That's a deal.
We recently posted about the six raised bed rings. We already had rabbiteye blueberry bushes that do well in our area. We decided to take some of your suggestions and we'll do four blueberries and two strawberries. We figure we'd do the two we currently have and then add these two new varieties.
These are also rabbiteye varieties, this one being a more recent one adapted for our area with its humidity and heat called the "Austin blueberry". Having two and two of different types will allow for some cross pollination that, while not required for these specific varieties, will at least allow for better and more consistent and productive harvest.
We're thinking that since there will be three new raised bed rings on each side of the fruit area we will do blueberry, strawberry and new blueberry variety on each side. I just read an article that said Fall is a good time to plant blueberries here. I need to check that out in more detail because I might need a Fall project.
As for the strawberries we'll worry about how to handle those next Spring (i.e. what varieties do best here).
You made some great buys! You are going to have lots of delicious blueberries in the future.
ReplyDeleteStrawberries and blueberries are big crops in the spring here in Florida. There are a number of u-pick fields for both. The strawberries are planted every Oct. and start coming ripe around Christmas, we have a strawberry festival in March and soon after the fields are plowed under to make room for another crop, usually tomatoes. Than in late fall new strawberry plants are planted and it starts all over. The berries get down to about 5 quarts for a dollar by the time they are ready to plow the u-pick fields under.
ReplyDeleteGreat deal! Don’t forget, if you guys are asparagus fans - tho not sure if it grows well there - up north here it grows well as a companion to strawberries and is a super simple plant to grow. A perennial which sends up more every time you harvest any, the season can last a long time. I also love that because once you’ve stopped picking for the season you let it grow into it’s pretty ferns and go to seed to make the next season healthy, you usually get a bunch of Volunteer plants along fence lines from the birds pooping out the seeds while sitting on the fence. It does take 23 years to establish after planting the crowns, but once that’s done it’s a really low maintenance productive plant.
ReplyDeleteYou got a good buy on them blueberries.
ReplyDeleteFall usually is a good time to plant almost anything. It gives plants a chance for the roots to get established before Spring and when the Summer heat sets in.