I went with friends up to pick blueberries one morning last week, got up early to drive up near Callaway Gardens, to the 'U-pick' patch and beat the heat. It was a remarkably cool morning, but had rained overnight, so we were thoroughly soaked from wet grass, and dripping limbs by the time we got done. I did not actually want any berries, but went to enjoy their company, and had a good time visiting as we plucked. I passed my fruit along to one of the friends, who had plans to turn her two gallons into jelly/jam.
Reminding me of going with one of my girls when she was very small on a mother-daughter excursion to Harris County for a berry-picking adventure. That was my second trip, and her first time to see blueberries 'in the wild' on the bush. We were instructed to wear belts, and given a plastic gallon jug, with a large hole cut into the side: to thread your belt through the handle on the jug and free up both hands for picking. So that is what I 'wore' when I went last week. I got some funny glances, but got lots of berries!
There are a couple of berry bushes growing in the 'no man's land' between two fences (which have a reputation for 'making good neighbors') that I have picked enough off already for adding to my yogurt, cold cereal, making a batch of muffins to share, and put a few in the freezer. (Which is why I was not interested in stockpiling berries from the U-pick farm, though those bushes were the thickest, most laden with berries I have ever witnessed! They could not hold their limbs up there were so many fat, ripe berries on each one. I picked almost exculsively on one bush and did not even begin to get all the ones that were ripe.)
Oddly: one of the two bushes in my side yard has been historically 'lazy', only marginally productive, but the other is so generous and a producer of such big fat juicy sweet berries, I continually forgive the parsimonious one, year after year. The 'experts' in the world of blueberries instruct to plant more than one variety, to have a crop over an extended period of weeks, (I have no idea what type/variety the ones here are), I wonder if it also has something to do with pollenization? S.i.L. says I should separate the young sprouts coming up from the 'muscle-bound' bush to create more of the one that loves to get all the attention when it is so productive by Independence Day. So maybe in the fall, when it is time to do transplants, I will be motivated to dig and re-plant to increase the crop for the future.
I've also been busily planting a variety of mystery perrenials. F. bought a 'mystery box' that was an end-of-the season bargain from an on-line nursery and gave me things I have never heard of before, and won't be able to i.d. when/if they grow. But they are all in the ground (except for strawberry plants I haven't figured out where to put), and some are looking pretty healthy. I'm determined to plant nothing but perrenials, and have tried to focus on things that the deer find unappealing - though I have discovered what the deer find distasteful, the big black nasty grasshoppers think delectable. So I water, spray, water, spray, stomp, stomp, water, spray, etc...
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