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Garden journal entry |
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where once there was lawn... |
June 30, 2015. One thing everybody in our family can agree on: blueberries are good, and growing our own would be great! Unfortunately, we have a rather poor track record in the growing department: years ago, I bought a couple of mail order blueberries, and planted them in a purpose-built full-sun blueberry patch near our vegetable garden. And the plants sat and sulked. I fed them with fertilizer for acid-loving plants. They sulked some more. I treated them to benign neglect. One died. In a hopeful mood, I purchased a new one – from a nursery this time, already larger. It sulked anemically. Several years pass. In all that time: not one blueberry. This spring, only one scrappy plant returned, showing no sign of doing any better. So what did I do? Ever the optimist, I bought a small new plant in a Walmart sad-pak, and stuck it in there, dosing it with Hollytone. Meanwhile, our grocery chain decided to carry blueberry plants. Not little ones – no, these were full of plump berries. So Amy bought one, which I stuck in between the two ones already there. A little tight, but that's all there was room for in that blueberry plot. Two more weeks pass. The blueberries on the new Patriot ripened, making tasty gardening snacks. And yesterday, when I returned from work, what did I find? Two more blueberry plants! They were now half off, and therefore too good of a deal to pass up. Won't you plant them, darling? Well, there definitely wasn't enough room left in that little patch to plant two more, so this evening's project was boosting the blueberry patch. Digging up our native clay, generously amending it with the last remnants of my compost stash, tossing in a good number of cupfuls of Hollytone, and in go the new Patriot and Blue Jay plants. I sure hope they do more than sulk... |
Last modified:
September 09, 2009
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