[Tammy]

It was such a warm sunny day and where my garden is situated, it's even warmer, so enjoyed a very warm afternoon in the garden - expanded the size of my strawberry bed, weeded it, loosened up soil, fertilized the plants, bought some more strawbery plants and planted those also. Also went scrounging in the forest for downed logs that were straight and built a frame around the s-berry plants.
also picked up some garlic starts today and put those in the ground. I've never planted garlic before and I think that is usually a fall thing to plant, but wanted to get some in the ground anyways.

My two blueberry bushes that I transplanted to the garden about a month ago are both looking good out there too. Starting to see some buds emerge. I think they like their new home in garden soil instead of a pot.

also have lots of iris bulbs coming up. it should be a colorful garden this year.

And I planted some neon purple pansies in a couple planters around the house for some spring color.

 

[Errol]

Tammy sounds like you had a great day in your garden! I need some advise on blueberries since you already have some. I have not ever had blueberries bushes but I do have blackberry bushes but I hear they are quiet different in how they are grown. Would I need two different types to have blueberries? and I assumed they like acid soil? thanks
toiling in soil brings us closer to nature"
Errol

 

[stephanie]

blue berries need acid soils and to get the best yield you need three varieties. but 2 will work as they do need to cross pollinate. they also like to be close to fir or pine trees and can handle shade/part sun very well. they also like deep mulch of grass or pin needles around their base. your biggest issue will be birds not much else goes for them they are fairly bug free and disease resistant cold hardy to well into the 20's and teen's. but once they set green fruit you will have to net them with bird netting or whole flocks will swarm the bush and devour every single berry.

 

[Tammy]

yep - Steph covered it.

I'm not exactly sure if my soil PH level is acidic enough where i planted them, but just on the outside of my fenced in garden area, I have some tall pines that drop a lot of needles, so when I transplanted them, I added some pine needles. I also had a bunch of wood shavings from my trees we cut down with a chainsaw, so lots of that fine shavings and I mulched around the bushes with the shavings. I don't remember what each variety is called, but I know when I bought them about 3 yrs ago I did get two different varieties.

 

[stephanie]

comes from living in the PNW where they grow wild in amongst the fir trees. the commercial ones go nuts here and will get up to 6-8 feet tall depending on variety. they are great either wild or domestic, full of lots of anti oxidants and they can be dried,frozen, cooked made in to pretty much any thing from pie to pancakes to jelly, dried and covered in chocolate is my fav next to fresh as a snack. the wild ones stay pretty small and you have to have a ton of patients to pick them, they are small but very tasty.

 

[TennesseeChicken]

I got to play in the garden today!! I transplanted some savoy cabbage, spinach and red kale in one of my raised beds. Saw lots of worms! Yay! Our weather forecast shows no freezing weather for the next ten days, so I'm hoping they will take off! According to my biodynamic calendar, tomorrow is a 'fruit' day, so I will start some hot peppers and tomatoes (which I probably should have already done!) and maybe a few other 'fruits'. I should probably fertilize my blueberry bushes as well. They look pretty sick right now.

 

[Tammy]

we've been having such great weather here this week. nights are still in the low 30's, but my lettuce doesn't seem bothered by it. Our days have been getting up to 70 and I know it feels at least 5-8 degrees in the garden during the warm part of the day. More lettuce and radishes have germinated, the raspberries are starting to show new shoots and my blueberry bushes are getting buds on them. had to even water tonight!

 

[stephanie]

nice, things are not quite to that point in the pnw we are able to plant now but not much is up yet. it is only getting into the 40's- 50's during the day and high 30's at night. things like corn will not be planted till next month.