Two months ago, I had a vision. I was in my front yard doing the 50 yard stare at the last remaining scraggly patch of grass. Suddenly, I saw blueberries. Lots of them. Behind me , lush groupings of perrenials swayed and flourished in the full glory of the south -facing slope.
I had caught the urban farmer bug, and the only cure was to dig . Sod be gone!
Before Blueberries
Mentally rolling up my sleeves, I was ready to transform this sorry piece of water-sucking grass into a never-ending blueberry patch.
In Nova Scotia, I had spent way too many hours in the boggy field behind our house cramming fat, wild blueberries into my 4L ice-cream pail ( we used to eat that much ice-cream? that explains a lot) I would thrash my way back to the house, scratched and victorious with my pail at it’s tipping point, plunking it on the counter.
My mom, our resident clean freak ,looked on with cautious praise no doubt seeing it as a bucket of bugs with a few blueberries on top. Myself, I saw quite the opposite. This also explains a lot.
Project blueberry began on a rainy day in May, with our trusty “Stan the Van” pulled curbside, and carefully lined with an old blue tarp. Shovels in hand, and properly fueled on double americanos, my hubby and I sawed through the thick grass roots, dividing the lawn into chunky squares.
Removing these squares required a technique not unlike two WWF wrestlers , sweaty and entangled -pushing themselves beyond their blind-rage limits, and shouting obscenities at each other (sod smackdown!). We got it done somehow, exchanging the sod for two yards of steaming dirt, which filled in the muddy plot quite nicely.
The next step now was to locate decently priced blueberry bushes. Local nurseries were pushing their little black tubs of blueberry plants for $12-$14 each. According to my calculations, I determined that I could bring 16 plants to their full potential comfortably . I was not prepared to(pitch) fork over the cash at that inflated price.
After a bit of sleuthing, I came across a nursery spanning many acres in Abbotsford that humbly offered up their blueberry bushes for the ridiculous price of $3 each. We quickly filled up Stan with our required 2 varities before Mr. Blueberry man had a change of heart.
Blueberries love a slightly sandy, acidic soil. Check. South -facing, if possible. Check. Spaced 18 inches apart, properly mulched and watered every other day, these babies were gauranteed to provide us with an avalanche of berries come harvest time.
I have my 4l pail ready and waiting.
