Blueberries – National Blueberry Month

Celebrate National Blueberry month this July by planting a few of these ornamental and edible plants in your landscape. 

The blueberry produces attractive flowers, tasty and nutritious fruit and colorful fall foliage.

The lowbush blueberries are native to Eastern North America and produce delicious fruit that lacks uniformity. Highbush are cultivated blueberries yielding an earlier crop of larger less perishable fruit. Halfhighs are a cross between the two.

Those gardening in warmer regions need to grow Low Chill blueberries like Southmoon or Sunshine Blue.
Though self-fertile you will have a bigger harvest if you grow two or more.  

These plants do best in moist well-drained acidic soils. Add organic matter to your soil and mulch with shredded leaves, evergreen needles or shredded bark to create better growing conditions. Or grow them in containers to create the ideal soil.  

A bit more information: Birds are the biggest pest problem. Protect your harvest by covering the plants with netting as soon as the fruit begin to develop. Or try scare tactics and repellents labeled for food crops.