NEW BLUEBERRY BUSH REPLACEMENT

 You may remember that one of our blueberry bushes died last Summer.

Here it was last September.  It was one of the two Tiff Blue varieties we have.We had hoped it would come back after Fall/Winter dormancy but, alas, it did not.  We're not sure why it died, but after it had gotten nibbled down to the ground by the great goat invasion, LOL, it always seemed to struggle when it came back.

Recently I went to the garden center to look for a replacement.  We have two "Austin" bushes and of course the two, now one, "Tiff" bushes.  We were thinking of getting another Tiff but figured we could try something else, there is not rule that says we have to only have two varieties.  The store had Tiff and Austin and some others.  I did a quick Google search for good varieties for our area and in addition to Tiff and Austin, they mentioned "Brightwell".  I looked around and they had that variety that I was just reading about!

I bought some of the raised bed soil we use but also some soil acidifier to amend it and some pine bark mulch to top it off.  Using the truck once again, nice to keep the mess out of my Jeep, ha.

 

So, here is the newest addition to the orchard area, the "Brightwell blueberry".  According the the description, it is very heat tolerant and drought tolerant.  That will work for our crazy climate!

We left it on the porch for a couple weeks until we were ready to plant it and it's COVERED in blooms.  We're sure we will lose some after it's planted but hey, it will obviously be good for next season.

I loaded it all up into the new (old) wheelbarrow and hauled it to the raised bed.  Removed the old one and dug out the soil a bit.  Added the raised bed soil and soil acidifier to it, put it in the ground and then surrounded it with the pine bark mulch...

...and here it is (the wind was blowing so it was hard to get a picture, ha), it looks great and hopefully is happy and off to a great start this season.