Blueberries in the Landscaping
Posted by: TammyI’m a big advocate of edible landscaping. It’s not that I don’t enjoy flowers and non-edible additions to my yard, but if I have a choice of spending our hard-earned money on non-edibles or edibles, I’ll go with the edibles. In addition, if I’m going to put my time and effort into cultivating something, I’d rather be able to eat it in the end rather than just watch it succumb to the winter snows.
Each year I’ve endeavored to add to my garden and our landscaping and generally I aim at doing it as frugally as possible. I’ve used my seemingly endless supply of rocks to create all of my raised beds and retaining walls and we recycled our old sliding glass door to make my cold frame (cold frame construction). Well, this year was no different. I’ve written about how I keep a homesteading journal and I had goals for our property. One of those goals was to increase our fruit production, to which I planted the raspberries and was very pleased. Well, the opportunity presented itself to landscape a dismal space at the top of our driveway and I decided that I would plant low-bush blueberries to expand our fruit production.
This was the space prior to my efforts:
The only thing growing besides weeds was the creeping phlox (see the purple flowers).
I had received a small gift of cash in the spring and decided to put it to good use purchasing those three low-bush blueberry plants you see in the left picture. My goal after that was to create three stone ‘wells’ in which to plant my bushes. I continued to use my available stone but in the end, I had to actually go out and find more stone. We have friends who own property on a river and long ago, they cleared a little beach area and offered up the plethora of stone for my project. The only cost was the gas and muscle.
With shovel, stone, elbow grease and a vision, I began to dig into the slope and then build the wells. Here is the first one. Note the prominent stone on the left. It was quite large and as I rolled it out of the well, it came to rest perfectly enough that I decided I would built around it rather than pulling a muscle trying to wrestle it to a different place.
It took a bit longer but soon the second well was complete. You can see how the river rock builds differently than the rocks I have around my yard. They tend to be more flat and easier to lay.
By day’s end, I had my third and final well built and it’s blueberry plant nestled in.
With the three wells completed and the blueberry bushes in, I set about filling in the space between the wells. It was time to divide the creeping phlox as they tend to get root bound and stop spreading. This was also a less expensive option than purchasing new containers of phlox.
Sticking with my desire for edible landscaping, I went to my local greenhouse and the options. We settled on a type of spreading thyme (NOT creeping thyme, which isn’t edible). The thyme with spread each season and although it doesn’t dry well, it’s very good if used fresh. Then, my one concession to non-edibles were the small creeping ivy I planted above each well. This ivy produces a small flower at the same time the blueberries will be budding out, so the ivy will attract pollinators for the berry plants. In this picture you can see the three ivy plants above the wells and the thyme to the right.
Blueberries love an acidic environment. Around each bush, I laid in a soil and leaf mulch mixture. I pulled my leaf mulch out of a large pile we regularly rake and blow leaves into on the back of the yard. It’s beginning to rot and the oak leaves add a nice acidity to the soil. I then mulched the wells from a pile of wood chips we have from regular clean up jobs around here. The wood chips will add to the acidity of the soil.
My final desire was to cover the raw, exposed soil to keep down weeds and prevent erosion. I invested in six bags of mulch that were on sale that week. The black mulch set off the white of the stone wells and the bright green plantings.
My final planting was grass along the front of the wells. The boys had long ago created a small bike jump there and it became a muddy mess with every rain and held the water instead of allowing it to drain down the driveway.
My final cost for the entire project (gas, mulch, and additional plantings) was about $110. All but about $10 of the blueberry bush expense was covered by my monetary gift I received. The project took me a weekend to complete and all of the plantings are perennials so I won’t have the expense of new plantings every year (or the effort).
I have to admit, this was one of those projects I had wanted to complete for years. I had a vision not exactly shared by my husband. 
In the end, he was equally pleased by the outcome and despite his doubts, I still shared the first sweet berries I harvested. Why do fruits and vegetables harvested on your own land and tended by your own hand taste sweeter and better than anything you can find in a store?