Monday, May 7, 2018

Starting over

One of the very few things I knew I would miss from our West Philly house was the blueberry bushes in the back yard.  We'd purchased them about 7 years ago as 3 year old plants, and they had fruited year after year, last year giving us more than we could manage to eat.  (Don't worry, I froze the excess).

But when I tried to dig them up, I realized just how deeply embedded they were.  Some of the roots I uncovered were the thickness of my fingers, and I knew that if I managed to excavate them, there was a very good chance they wouldn't make it.

I reached out to the woman who bought my house, through her realtor, and asked if she liked blueberries.  She did, and her kids even more so. 

So that was okay, at least they would be appreciated and I wouldn't walk past the house and see them sitting at the curb on trash day.  If she'd said no, I'd have risked taking them out.

On Sunday, we combined a visit to Mario's family with a visit to a related blueberry farm in Hammonton, NJ, where we used our combined birthday money to buy three fully-mature bushes.  These will bear heavily this year, but since they were grown for transplanting, they didn't have the ginormous root issues of our old bushes.


I had removed a nice stretch of grass from the back yard along the fence with our neighbor, and they went in there, flanked on either end by Chinese ceramic statues that my mom painted before I was born.  I've had them for years, and I'm somewhat attached to them, but not enough to have them indoors.  As garden guardians, they work just fine.

On the other side of the garden, along our garage, I peeled off another strip of sod and put in four tomato plants and two peppers, and a row of string bean seeds that can climb up the garage trellis.


I still want to rip up some more grass and put in my cold frame to late-plant some more peppers.  I have a pack of Padron pepper seeds that need to get in the ground - they were my favorite tapas when we went to Barcelona a few years ago and I try to plant some every year.

BONUS PIC: my new tchotchke garden, so-christened by my neighbor Grace.  I pulled out a bit of the ivy that had been there, discovered a buried outdoor faucet, and then just kept pulling.  The large space by the pole is intended for a Gertrude Jekyll rose, whenever David Austin gets it together to deliver it, and though they are barely visible in the photo, there are 4 lavender plants, a rosemary, and the dried-out tulips and hyacinths transplanted from the back yard.

The tchotchke portion: a large pale blue Chinese fish (sitting on the stump of a long-gone azalea), 2 ceramic cats and a silver metal horse, all flea market finds that didn't make the cut to get in the house.  It'll look better once the plants fill out.

4 comments:

AuntieAllyn said...

Hmm . . . I have a chain-link fence along one side of my back yard (actually, it's my neighbors fence). Wonder if I should try some blueberry bushes there?

Anonymous said...

Wow, you got your beans in early - I've been thinking the soil down here south of you would be too cold. Maybe time to reconsider!

ceci

Karen said...

Allyn, blueberries are really easy, and forgiving. You just need to have more than one, because they like company. I'm hoping these do well - before they really liked having the occasional dose of fresh chicken manure, but I'm pretty sure I can score some of that from a few scofflaw chicken-owning neighbors.

Ceci, the soil seems to be warm enough, and the area where I've put them gets strong morning sun, so I'm hopeful. If they take their time, I'm no worse off.

AuntieAllyn said...

Karen, I bought two (small) blueberry bushes the other day and they're in the ground now. They'll get plenty of light! Hope to have some fruit in a year or two!