Fruit | Amy Quinn

Sorry about the absence, I fell over the edge of the universe, I have now bounced back, with blueberries!

I love my blueberries and they are easily grown by everyone. It’s not as simple in the beginning as raspberries, but the reward is that plumper, juicy sweet tart flavour that enhances everything from your morning yoghurt to salads and deserts. BTW I don’t give recipes, as really I am not a cook!

Blueberries love an acid moist soil, their roots run shallow and this is all in our favour. Why? You are going to grow your blueberries in a raised bed, shallow roots means lower raised bed. If you have an area with acid soil that is moist, lucky you! I, however live in a sweet spot! My soil is a limestone base and this as I found out, only diminishes the bush. The first year in the ground my bushes actually got smaller. The next year I built raised beds filled with pine mulch & low ph soil, then topped it with more pine mulch and I am ‘singing the praises’ of my blueberries. 😉

My beds are only two boards high and do not require that you become a master carpenter. To create the 3’x6′ frame I used 4 corner posts and nailed my boards to these and put 2 extra posts in the 6′ center. The photo below is from last spring, it shows 3 blueberry bushes and one Saskatoon berry bush which was just put in, it’s just to the right of the center post. Believe it or not I added another blueberry bush last fall, it was on sale and I could not say no!

Here you can see I have added a bamboo frame so I can net my blueberries, I don’t do this until the berries start forming. Last year, the Cat Bird was very clever and would sit on a post in my garden about 10′ away from the Saskatoon Berry bush. He then would fly full speed at the netting while flapping his wings and get his beak in there! He actually ate all of my Saskatoon berries. That was fine, it was it’s first year, that is not going to happen this year and yes, the Cat Bird is back nesting in the same Mock Orange as last year. No one could get my blueberries or Saskatoon berries this year except me.

So after the netting it’s just a matter of waiting for the berries to ripen, then it’s blueberry time! Last summer was the second year the berries were in raised beds, I got 2 cups every morning for over 2 weeks. This year I know I have doubled the yield.

To prepare the site, I weed whacked the grass down to soil level where the bed was going to be built. To build your frame, start by laying your bottom boards on the ground, in a rectangle, so you know where to pound your posts into the ground. I had 3′ posts and pounded a foot into the soil, then I nailed my boards on the outside of the posts. That was easy. Then I lined my bed with a heavy landscape fabric, this is to keep weeds out and hold your soil in. I lined the bottom and sides and held it in place with my staple gun. Now you can mix your soil. Get the wheel barrow out, I placed 2 bags of low ph soil (neutral or acid) in the wheel barrow and started adding pine mulch. Pine mulch will help raise the acid level of the soil, hold moisture and create an organic substance to the soil. Cedar mulch is not acidic, in fact it will have no benefit at all to your project, use pine mulch. I think I ended using 10 bags of low ph soil and 3 bags of pine mulch mixed in it. Now you are ready to plant. Once your plants are in mulch the whole top of soil with one or two bags of pine mulch and then water your plants! You are done. Make sure your bushes get enough moisture as blueberries love moisture. I have found with my raised bed even in the drought I had to water them only a few times, it’s important to mix pine mulch in your soil to hold water.

The first year I planted 3 blueberry bushes and I got berries, I let the birds eat them. At the end of that season I added a Saskatoon berry bush, then last year at the end of the season I added another blueberry bush. So I now have 4 blueberries and one Saskatoon berry bush in there. They are all much larger this year and yikes do I have berries, I ate a Saskatoon berry tonight and it was almost ripe, tasty!

Here is a photo taken tonight when I got home from work.

Materials

6 – 8″ x 6′ cedar planks – 2 of which you will cut down to 3′ lengths for the ends.

6 – 2″ x 2″ square posts about 4′ long – one at each corner of bed and 2 placed in the center of the 6′ length sides

Landscape fabric to line base and sides of bed

10 bags low ph soil

5 bags of pine mulch – 3 to mix in the soil and 2 to top mulch the planted bed.

Bamboo poles for framing your bed & netting to cover your raised bed.

: Everything about the bush is blue, pink and red. In the fall the foliage turns a brilliant red

: The flower in order to be pollinated requires a ‘buzz pollinator’ in other words the bee to buzz his wings and body while in the flower to shake that pollen around.