I knew last week that my berry plants were going to show up this week, so I prepped this bed for the blueberries. I had a cover crop growing here. Then I dumped the fall pine needles on top. Many of the plants were killed, but the ones on the edges survived. So I ripped them up. I didn't take them off, I just turned them upside down. They can be the mulch for my plants at the edges.
The two blueberries that were planted were Bluegold and Bluecrop. I also planted three currents - Pink Champagne, Jonkheer van Tets, and Rovada. I'm going to try to trail the Rovada along my white picket fence with just one main stem. It has long fruit clusters and I think it would be really pretty cascading down as it ripens. But I'm not sure it will work. But I just had to try.
My other chore for the day spreading the compost. Last fall I used all the finished compost up on most of the beds, but the other bin hadn't finished rotting down yet. It is much better this spring. It still isn't finished compost, but it is close enough.
For now I just spread it on top of the soil. I'll mix it in to the top layer of soil when I fertilize and prep the beds in May. In part of the bed that was to be covered I found some tiny lettuce seedlings. I transplanted them to the lettuce bed. I also had to spread the compost carefully around some bunching onion volunteers. I love my volunteers. Well at least until later when I'll have to weed them out.
I didn't get one bed done. It is the fava bean bed. I don't know why I didn't do it before they came up but I didn't. So I'll have to spread it careful today.
Looks as if you're so well organised and have fab compost! I turned my compost heaps last night but it's not ready yet, and I'm impatient as I have a lot of hungry veggies about to go in the soil. I added comfrey and nettles for nutrients and to activate the compost - any other tips?
ReplyDeleteI do compost slowly. I'm not a turner. I do turn it once and then just let it sit. Mostly the worms break my compost down.
DeleteYou have a nice amount boxes. I only have one and need another but don't know where! I do add comfrey to mine too but don't turn it very often. Your blueberrys should do well with those pine needles. Nancy
ReplyDeleteI presume that adding the pine-needles to the site for the blueberries was to make the soil more acid? I have loads of conifers just across the road from me, and lots of their needles blow into my garden. It is always a challenge to remove them, and they don't compost well. Talking of compost, I thought I had a big job on my hands with shifting the product of two of the plastic "Dalek bins", but seeing it in comparison with yours, it was actually a small task!
ReplyDeleteYes. Normally we have naturally acidic soil around here, but I've kept the garden closer to neutral. I'm hoping the pine needles will bring down the acidity. Also they make great mulch and I have to do something with them as they fall every year from the pine trees.
DeleteI didn't sift this compost. I did go through it roughly and I took out any large items. At the bottom there were a lot of large items as I put the corn stalks there.
Very impressive. We have very alkaline soil, so probably can't grow blueberries.
ReplyDeleteI have my blueberries in pots planted in a mix of half potting soil and half peat moss. They seem to be doing ok. I should be able to harvest a few handfuls of berries this year. I'm a slow composter too, it goes into the bin and then I sift it about a year later. The chunky stuff is used as mulch or goes into the next bin. The hard part is keeping it moist since I tend to forget to keep it watered and it doesn't rain enough here to water it for me.
ReplyDeleteWow, you have a big compost there! Mine is half yours and it turns very slowly, I wanted to add some to my garden this spring, but it's not ready! I'll have to wait.
ReplyDelete