Strawberries, Blueberries and a Complete Early Spring Garden
I’m not sure if I have shared our strawberry/blueberry status here or not… If I did feel free to skip to the next paragraph! Needless to say, I initially purchased my strawberry plants at a box store last year. When those died, I bought two more strawberry plants from my local nursery. I was worried that the new plants wouldn’t have time to establish themselves prior to winter, but they did and they were the only strawberries that came back this spring. I have my strawberries planted in the same bed as my asparagus as I read they really like to grow together. The asparagus hasn’t come up yet, but I think it will since I’ve known people who have successful asparagus patches much further north than where I am. Not much to report on last year’s blueberries other than the fact that they were planted in a terrible spot and eventually were overtaken by the farm.
This year, I decided two things. The first was to order more strawberry plants to fill in next to the two survivors from last year. The second was to use some of the precious real estate in my raised beds to grow 2 blueberry bushes. Strawberries and blueberries are my favorite and I really feel like they are essential to my garden and harvest.
Along this journey, I learned some new things. Our county extension center website has some very useful information. I was able to find out exactly which types of berry plants grow most successfully in my area as well as how to plant, harvest, fertilize organically, prepare for winter, etc. I saved the articles for ongoing reference. Another discovery was that online plants can be hard to find when it’s near time to plant. You can order ahead of time and companies will wait to ship until they know it’s time to plant in your area. This became pretty important because most of the sites I looked at had already sold out. I was able to find what I needed on Burpee’s site. Admittedly, the blueberries weren’t the species on the top of my extension center’s list of recommended plants, but they were about to third and fourth place. The strawberries were nowhere to be found, so I ended up ordering something that grows really well in harsher climates than where I live, has some of the characteristics of the recommended species and this variety purports continuous fruit throughout the season rather than just in the cooler spring and/or fall months. Fingers crossed that I made good decisions!
With those last additions, I can officially say that my early spring garden is complete. It includes lettuce, onions, cabbage, radishes, beets, carrots, and potatoes. Here’s to hoping my little rabbit leaves the spring garden alone. Next to plant are some perennial flower seeds and then come May, it will be time for tomatoes, squash, herbs and peppers.
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