Blueberries
Fresh from your garden!
Growing blueberries is a fairly easy garden chore. The bushes are attractive and an asset to the home landscape. You can use them in groupings with other small shrubs. Overall, these shrubs are pest free and need little more than sunlight and regular water to produce a good crop. That is, if they’re planted in the right kind of soil.
Blueberries need acidic soil to bear abundant fruit, (pH 4.5 - 5.5). If you’re thinking of adding a few bushes to your landscape, start off with a soil test and get the soil right before you plant. Learn more about the proper soil for growing this delicious fruit here.
Loaded with healthful antioxidants, blueberries are a great means of eating healthy. Fresh or frozen, the berries are a source of anthocyanidins that protect certain cells within the body. Articles in Natural News gives a more in-depth explanation of anti-toxin extracts as well as healthful benefits of freezing blueberries. Find NaturalNews purity-tested products here.
Choosing Healthy Bushes
When choosing blueberry bushes for later winter or early spring planting, try to buy them locally at a nursery or garden center with knowledgeable employees. Your choices may include southern highbush, lowbush, and rabbiteye varieties. Hybrids are available for warmer areas above Zone 7.
For a better and extended harvest, plant more than one variety. Also, hard as it may be to do, remove all buds the first year. This helps resolve the issue of yielding small berries. Plan for a limited harvest the second year, and when the bushes are matured you’ll begin getting a good amount of large berries.
Depending on the age of bushes when they’re planted, a full yield comes in the fifth or sixth year. Patience is the key.
When you’re designating an area for the bushes, include fruit trees of your choosing, if you have the space. You can have a beautiful landscape that saves money and feeds your family.
Editor's note to the cook:
Store blueberries in the freezer, and when baking with them, add frozen to the batter, at the last minute before baking. To prevent a purple explosion that may look black when baked, swirl slightly to mix (as shown below).
Also see:
Growing Fruit Trees
About Becca
Becca Badgett is an enthusiastic gardener who enjoys sharing information with others. She is certified as a gardening expert and plant technician while writing how-to and garden articles for several sites online, such as Gardening Know How, Examiner, and Huffington Post. She is co-author of the book “How to Grow an EMERGENCY Garden”.
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Her writing experience includes stints in newspaper and magazine writing. She has worked as Editor on several in-house newsletters, written press releases, and worked as Director of Communications for a non-profit planetarium and nature center.
Find her on Twitter @Becca062 and visit her Facebook page Becca's Blooms for current information and to view her latest gardening articles.
