Hi! If we haven’t met before, let me introduce myself.
My name is Nicole and I am a novice gardener and homesteader located in the beautiful West Hants, Nova Scotia. I make as much as I can from scratch- I love making something out of nothing!
I’ve recently taken a career break to better take care of my gardens and reap as much as I can out of my summer vegetable harvest.
Right now it’s a lot of heavy lifting- I’m digging deep into what each of my plants needs are to ensure they’re given the best chance which means a lot of compost flipping and soil rejuvenation.
Some of the plants I’m excited to give more attention to are my blueberry and elderberry plants.
Both produce berries have wonderful health benefits and are also delicious.
I added two new blueberry bushes to my raised blueberry bed and have been working hard to get the pH level to their satisfaction using conventional fertilizers along with pine needles. I now have 6 plants in total- the 4 I already had have never done very well- I’ve gotten single digit blooms and never successfully harvested a single berry so I am hopeful that working in the soil, and adding two new varieties to the mix will help boost them up.
Optimal environment for Blueberry Plants:
Moisture loving, don’t let them dry out!
Fertilize at the beginning of the season, then mid season using fertilizer for acid loving plants or pine needles.
Protect with a netting if you have critters.
Prune in the winter- remove the older growth (the stuff that looks rougher). Late February/ early March.
Plant in Full Sun
pH of 4.8 - 5.2
My four older plants are all high bush varieties and the new plants are a low bush and an “Elliot” high bush. The low bush is the one I’m most excited about- she’s a very healthy plant to start off and she’s a self pollinator so while it may still take some time to make my older plants happy enough to start blooming I suspect I’ll get to reap the benefits of the low bush plant this season.
I’ve had some issues with a neighboring lilac bush- they realized the soil is lush and fertile just a couple of feet away so the roots have traveled under the grass and have attempted to take over the garden bed. I spent an entire day ripping up roots from the beds and I’m hopeful between physically removing those roots and increasing the acidity of their soil the lilacs will be less inclined to take over the space again.
I don’t do a lot of recipes using blueberries aside from the classics like pies or muffins because honestly.. They’re perfect exactly the way they are! I love fresh fruit with breakfast- it’s a great way to start the day and either frozen or fresh blueberries are delicious.
Looking forward to the warmer weather and seeing how these guys make out. Stay tuned for updates!
