{grow} blueberry daze

I have found my new favorite nursery, Sloat. It is a short drive from the house and it has isles and isles of things I want to bring home and fill my yard with. The garden to table movement has caught my attention and I want nothing more than to hop on the bandwagon and have my own grocer in my backyard.

I caught sight of a flyer about Blueberry Daze and couldn’t help but hop in the car and run over to the nursery to grab a couple plants for my raised garden bed that has been filled with nothing but weeds.

Back in the yard I starting weeding and turning fertilizer into the ground. There are a shocking number of rocks in this little garden plot of mine and I spent of good amount of time pulling them out.

One of the things I love about Sloat Nursery is the amount I learn every time I walk through their doors. The staff is knowledgeable and I am always so grateful to them for knowing about the climate of my new home!

Lessons learned:

• It is good to plant two species of blueberries together. Although blueberries are generally self-pollinating, they produce more fruit when they are able to cross-pollinate.
• They love acidic soil. I bought camellia-azalea fertilizer, which is acidic and reportedly is a blueberry essential.
• When growing, blueberries prefer to be in damp soil. (This scared me a little bit because if there is one thing that I don’t do so consistently its water. Not a great trait for an up-and-coming gardener…)
• There is a great little cafe near Sloat Nursery with de-li-cious sandwiches and froyo. Yum. It transformed a run to the nursery into a little date for me and the mister.

So far the blueberries look very happy. I have kept them damp (thank you for the help rain) and there are a couple flowers peaking out of a couple branches. Now I am itching to fill the rest of the garden bed!

What are you growing with the Spring sun starting to emerge?