Berry Good

The process of planting bare root blueberries is pretty straight forward. You dig a hole, you add some soil acidifier to the soil, pour a bunch of water into the hole to make a muddy mess (good mess), then you plunk the roots into the hole so the crown is level with the final grading - and then you gently fill in with soil and water.
The challenge to this endeavor was more of a where... and it's not like this is a patch of annuals that can move from year to year - this is the anchor for the berry patch. The place where blueberries, raspberries, blackberries and strawberries will make a permanent home. And there will be lots of them! So - positioning them appropriately this time is crucial to the future of the patch. (And then there was the pesky gooseberry bush I planted last year - where I don't want it this year).
We decided the key to a good berry patch - was proximity to the pickers. So, the edge of the yard heading out into the field was chosen. This years initial plants will primarily be in the yard (less to mow and easy to reclaim for foodstuffs). We are planning on knocking down a big swatch of field and keeping it down, including a spring tillage this year, along the yard periphery. The thinking is our gardens and pick-ables will go there in future years (this years garden area that was prepped last fall may or may not stay garden over the longer term).

Comments

[Jeph]

Congrats on the ground breaking and berry planting!

[Andy & Kelli]

Thank you!

[Chicken Life – Day 5 | C]

[...] the non-living portion of the farm… something was eating off the leaves on my new blueberry plants. The stems were fine – just leaves kept disappearing… I had tried a hot pepper spray [...]