Garden

The Acid Test

Vaccinium spp. are shrubs. Depending on the species they can grow anywhere from 1' to 8' tall. All of them require full sun and a well-drained soil with a P.H. of 4.5 to 5.5.

Here's some good basic growing information from the Minnesota Extension Office and here's an article on how to prepare a bed and which amendments are best to get the PH to the optimum level for healthy productive plants.

Blueberries are natural in the Edible Landscape.

I found this PDF on the subject from the University of Minnesota, and this site is dedicated to the idea of the edible landscape.

By Gordana Adamovic-Mladenovic from Windsor, Canada [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

 

The O'Neal variety has a reputation for having attractive foliage and large sweet berries.

 

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This site gives a really excellent description of one person's thought process for the development of a blueberry guild.

Blueberries also grow well in pots. 

If you have only a small yard or patio, this might be the way to go. One thing I must mention- the article suggests that you bury the pot and mulch it well with straw and leaves in the fall. Please be aware that this very well may be the only invitation that a rodent needs to make a winter home and a meal out of your shrub.

via Flickr

You can get both high-bush and low-bush blueberry shrubs from Fedco Seeds.

There are very few places to obtain bilberry for the garden. I found this company, J.L. Hudson, that sells the seeds in the U.S., and this article  from the U.K. lists Poyntzfield's Nursery in Scotland. This is the first I've heard of Hudson's. The reviews are good and they are a public access seedbank – a cause that I am always happy to support. I will definitely be taking a look at them. I'd love to hear about your experience with them in the comments below.

Here's how to prune your blueberry bush for the maximum health and yield.

This video not only shows the difference between the highbush blueberry and the lowbush blueberry, it also gives identification on the huckleberry (Gaylussacia spp.), a cousin of the blueberry which is often substituted for it in the U.S.

Thanks for stopping by!

 

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