Blueberry Blues

It only took an extra day, but the blueberries have been planted. I ordered two Climax and two Premium, for cross-pollination and for different ripening times. Rather than four plants, I had seven. Thank you TyTy Nursery! This all sounds very good, doesn't it, so why have I titled this post "Blueberry blues" you might ask. Well, that is because somehow Anthony lost my camera after taking a picture of me setting the blocks for the blueberry bed. I am not a happy camper, and that is not the photo I would have taken for the blog--it is a stock photo. Our bushes look like sticks right now; a few twigs have buds on them. If you live in Alabama, you can find information on planting blueberry bushes (anything for that matter) on the Alabama Cooperative Extension System's website.

The blueberry bushes are planted in the front row and should give us some beautiful fall color and some privacy screening once they are established. Something to look forward to.

We also planted four raspberry bushes in the backyard. If we can fight the birds and get them first, we should have blueberries, raspberries, and figs harvested from our yard next summer. If we get any berries this year, they might be only enough for one or two yogurt breakfasts.

I still haven't planted those tomato seeds; maybe tonight.

Planting!

You see behind Little Man tomato plants that came from Lowe's today. Confession: I had vowed to plant only heirloom tomato plants, but I've yet to plant the seeds. I'm a little nervous about the seed-planting thing. How far we humans have gotten from our food!

So, Anthony (the husband) and I went to Lowe's to get the materials we needed to place a raised bed of blueberries in the front yard. That disaster is a topic for another day--maybe tomorrow after we lay them in the bed. But, during one of our trips to Lowe's, we looked at the discount plant racks and found a beautiful Gerber daisy, some cosmos, and a container of budding, fruit-setting tomato. We were able to get three separate plants from the container. They may not be heirloom tomatoes, but they are insurance: We WILL have tomatoes (if only a few).

It was a frustrating day because we didn't get the blueberry bed set and planted before the sun came down. It was a good day because we were outside, playing in the dirt, getting our hands dirty together. I thought about how much money we're spending on this experiment, and I thought: So what! We are out in the beautiful weather, working together under blue sunny skies, and we're touching life; life that may actually feed us. But, if it doesn't feed our bodies, it has fed our souls. And don't we all need a little soul-feeding?