Looking around at a local greenhouse, I ran into a bunch of really nice blueberry bushes. I've been afraid to try them but bought one, figuring these were just too nice not to get one. I brought it home, then got on the internet to see how to take care of the plant. To my surprise, the experts all said that a bigger, better crop of berries is possible if you have at least two bushes. They don't pollinate themselves so you need another one for cross-pollinating purposes. Ack! Ok, so I went back the next day and bought another variety, and net to cover them with so the birds don't chow down on the fruit.
When opening the package of plastic netting, I thought, "How hard can it be to put a bird net on a blueberry plant? It can't be that hard!" Yeah, right. I unfolded the fine netting carefully, placing it over the bushes. The net stuck to everything (every berry, leaf and branch, everything). Eventually, I untangled everything and got the net positioned, while standing in this huge black plastic wad of netting mayhem. Secured it all then noticed that berries were sticking out of the net here and there. Unrolled more net and secured it over the first net, on both bushes. Now they're protected. Meanwhile in the background, there was a male red-winged blackbird, making a lot of noise. He must've been calling dibs on those berries and was disappointed to see that his meal is now out of reach ;)
Other plants now in the ground are Tansy (herb with gorgeous yellow flowers), Evening Primrose (pink), crimson colored Coreopsis, golden Gaillardia, Serrano peppers, Thai Basil,very young Helleborus (Lenten Rose) plants, Heavenly Blue Morning Glory, white Japanese Anemone and more. My garden went from drab to fab in one afternoon's planting! Now, to keep it all happy and healthy! It will fill out more and more as time goes on, but the framework for a good garden is now done.
I wove a trellis around the less-than-attractive plain posts of the front porch (the weaving looks like fine horizontal parallel lines) for the Morning Glories to climb up. Also growing near the posts are Major Wheeler Honeysuckle, both yellow and orange Trumpet Vines and Cypress Vine (little red star-shaped flowers with feathery leaves). I'm determined to hide those posts with flowers, one way or the other!
