It doesn’t matter how green the thumb is, as long as it has a green hue, right?

These blueberry bushes were purchased last spring and didn’t do very much over the summer. After wondering if they would survive the cold winter in zone 3b, I was thrilled to see that they’ve really taken off this year. There are two bushes in a large square planter and they wintered outside against the house. This spring they came back even fuller than last year, with lots of new shoots and tons of flowers. Never having grown blueberries before, the only thing I knew was that the plants need acidic soil in order to produce the berries (or so I’ve read). I think I mixed some peat moss into the soil at one point last year but a few weeks ago I decided to up the chances of the soil being (or becoming) more acidic so I watered it with a mixture of water and vinegar. I don’t know if the vinegar helped or if the soil was good on its own but this morning my mom told me there were berries on my bush. And indeed there are.

I can almost taste the ripe berries.

I’m fascinated by my blueberry bushes. (Can they be called "bushes" yet if they’re still smll plants?) I saw all the flowers and then saw them drop over the weeks and couldn’t figure out where the berries were supposed to develop. The pink-tinged part of the berry at the end is what held the flower; the berry develops above or behind where the flower did (as shown in this picture). In the next couple of weeks, I’ll have to cover the bushes with some sort of sheer fabric or netting. I’m not wanting to lose my small harvest to birds or chipmunks!

A certain wee boy is pretty excited about the berries too.