In order to prepare for our blueberry bushes when they arrive, I started to get the soil prepared yesterday.  That meant moving one of the lasagna beds that we recently built along our fence and adding all of it to the other two beds.  So I’ll have two beds that are significantly wider and longer, instead of the three I was originally planning.  And then I can plant the blueberry bushes along the fence.

It was a surprise to discover that right under the dirt layer along the fence, there were huge chunks of flagstone.  I can’t figure out why anyone would have put it there. The kids moved all the pieces to create a path between the two lasagna beds, and hopefully it will make it clear what area is meant to be walked on and what isn’t!

Along this fence we also have a huge amount of weeds (mostly morning glory – it’s beyond me why people actually plant it on purpose) that grow every year and cover the fence.  Trying to keep the weeds down is pretty much futile because the roots are still there and on the neighbor’s side of the fence.  I kind of like the look of the fence covered with greenery, but I’d like to be able to use the area for planting and the weeds will keep anything I plant from thriving.  So the next part is digging up all the roots – we got a good amount done yesterday, but there’s still plenty more.  I’m tackling this by digging from my neighbor’s side as well as ours – it’s more work in the short term, but she’s not able to do it, and I don’t enjoy weeding every day and still seeing that it’s overgrown.  In the long run I think getting it all out will be the easiest thing. 

Then I need to amend the soil so it will be acidic enough for the blueberries, but I’m not worrying about getting that done right away.  If the area is cleared, the roots are gone, and the soil is loosened, then a big part of the preparation has been done, and it won’t be overly much to add the soil amendments at the same time that we plant the bushes.  I read somewhere that you can do that. 

The yard doesn’t look especially neat right now, because of the digging in progress, but it’s good to know that we’re moving forward.  I was planning today to go get a lot more of the composted manure (from the person I went to a few weeks ago) to start lasagna beds in my side yard, and dig up more of the roots.  But I woke up to find that my dh left to work and my keys are in his pocket.  Then H-shem obliged me with a heavy rain, which meant that I couldn’t have gone anyway and I didn’t feel like I missed my opportunity.  I think it will have to wait until after Pesach at this point, since the weather forecast for the next two days is for rain. 

It was nice to be able to do all of this even though my oldest two kids were out for 6.5 hours – ds15 had his first Little League practice (he got his paperwork in just in time) and came home very happy.  It didn’t hurt that he hit a home run his first time at bat (he had been worried that because this was a higher level league, that he would be one of the weaker players).  He told me he thought he liked basketball as much as baseball, but when he played baseball yesterday, he realized it was different for him – “It’s like baseball is part of me”.  He’s a very good player and has played every year since he was 8 or so in the spring leagues, except for last year.  At that point, he was too old for the local league so he coached ds’s team.  This year he’s joining a different league, and is now the top age limit for that; I’m glad he’ll have one more season to play.  Dd14 spent those hours helping my mother in law get a big jump on her Pesach cooking.  She convinced her grandmother to allow her to make more complicated dishes than they usually have, and I think their guests will be very happy with the results. 🙂

My kids commented that it seems kind of funny to be so relaxed and doing all of this in the days before Pesach when everywhere I go, people are talking about what part of their kitchens they’re working on.  🙂  But as I said to my kids, everyone gets things done on the schedule that works for them, and there’s no one way that’s inherently better than another.

Avivah

Have any of you wondered what I do with all of my spare time? :)))  I don’t seem to have a problem staying busy with something – I don’t relate to being moms who say they’re bored staying at home with their kids.  When I tell my husband, “I have an idea!”, he usually looks shocked and jokingly says, “No!  YOU have an idea?”  Because I always seem to have new things that I’m learning about and being busy with. 

One of them is what to do about my fence situation.  I really want to fence in my yard fully, but it’s so expensive.  I’ve been looking online for used fencing, but even when I have seen something that would work for us, it sells so fast that I haven’t yet been able to buy any (after looking for a year).  We’ve looked at the least expensive new options, which would be chain link fencing, and though I don’t love how it looks, it does have its strengths.  One big plus is that it would be strong enough to use as a trellis for training garden plants to grow up, something I very much want to try this year, since it would maximize the amount of plants I could grow in the limited area I have.  But even a chain link fence will come out to at least $800, and probably closer to $1000 once the cost of all the extra supplies are included.  That’s a lot of money, and I could buy a lot of vegetables at the store for that!   So I can’t really justify it as a way to save on trellising costs. 

Several months ago, I read about blueberry plants being attractive landscaping bushes, and good for creating hedges between properties.  I’ve gone back and forth on this idea for months – I like the idea of having a plant that looks good and provides something edible, but I don’t like the idea of my neighbors on the other side eating my berries without permission!  Call me stingy, but if I’m paying the money for the bushes and doing the work, I want to be able to enjoy the rewards of my efforts. 

But after finally getting the final costs for a new chain link fence (that we would install ourselves, eliminating the labor expenses), my mind keeps thinking about possible alternatives, and going back to the idea of using bushes as a fence.  I considered that even if my neighbors did take my berries from their side, I would still have the privacy of a hedge, and the berries from my side of the bushes.  And a fence would only provide privacy, so even with a smaller amount of berries I might be better off with bushes. 

So on Friday (yes, Friday, what else would I be doing then? :)) I spent several hours researching berry bushes (service berry, ligon berry, huckleberry, and cranberry), before moving on to blueberries.  You wouldn’t think there’s that much to learn, but there are several categories of blueberries – lowbush, highbush, and rabbiteye.  And in each of those categories is a seemingly endless variety of blueberries, with every having it’s own climate needs, height, berry flavor/size – it was almost dizzying.  I researched which were most attractive, which were most productive, which kind produced fruits at which part of the seasons, which had the best flavor (and there were so many opinions on this – ones that some claimed were the best, others in the same gardening zone said didn’t grow well for them).  Which could be grown successfully in my area.  What I’d have to do to prepare the soil for the bushes to be planted.  I looked at nurseries across the countries, searched for reviews on the various nurseries, checked their pricing….and was feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.  It really was a lot of information.  And I don’t especially enjoy cramming so much into my puny little brain at one time.   

I noticed that one nursery not only seemed to have very good prices, but had a note on their order form that they offered an option to choose bushes that would work best for your area.  So that’s finally what I decided to do.   After deciding on this, my biggest concern was that if I ordered on Friday, that the bushes would come on Pesach.  I didn’t mind if they came a day before, because I’d (in theory, anyhow!) manage to get them put in somehow.  But since they need to be planted as soon as possible, I didn’t want to have them sitting around for a week.  I asked about the delivery schedule (on the website it said that April 15 was the end of the shipping period for blueberries for the year), and was told it would take a couple of weeks to process my order, since there were over 200 orders to fill before mine.  So that was a relief!  (And hopefully they won’t surprise me by being overly efficient and send them early, which is what happened with the strawberries and blackberries.)

Then I asked her some questions about the categories of bushes.  I told her my basic needs, and then told her I’d like a selection of 30 bushes.  (I hope that’s the right amount for my needs – I decided on this spontaneously as I was talking to the representative.)  She said they’d give me 5 bushes of six different kinds, all of which are suitable for my climate, and would choose them so the harvesting season would be continuous (ie some would be early bearers, some mid season, some late leason).  She said if I want thick hedges, I can plant them three feet apart and they’ll grow together, but the fruit production will be much less because the sun can’t reach all parts of the plants.  If I want higher berry production, they suggest planting them 5 or 6 feet apart.  So I think that on one side of my yard, I’ll plant them closer (where the privacy is more important to me) and on the other side I’ll stagger them further apart. 

By the way, these come as bare roots, which means they look like sticks.  It will be a while until they grow into hedges, and I won’t get any fruit from these until next summer, but I’m happy with the fencing solution dh and I came to.  He’ll fence in the back of our yard fully with chain link (and use the slats that close the spaces up), and I’ll plant the bushes along the side yards between my neighbors on each side.  My hope is this will look more attractive and friendly than fencing, but will provide us with the visual screen that I want to have.  And of course, the berries will be a nice bonus.  🙂

Avivah