Planting Berries

Since our berry beds were going to be permanent, we made a permanent bed section in the back of the garden. We made these beds a bit bigger (about 4 ft) with a "double-shovel-width" path between them... the larger path is a bit easier to walk in for the purpose of berry-pickin'. So, we got grapes, raspberries, blueberries and strawberries to put into the garden. The strawberries were mostly leftovers from the previous owners garden... I transplanted over 70 of them into pots before tilling the garden. Just to break up the pattern a bit, we dug the berry beds perpendicular to the vegetable beds.

The holes for the raspberries were about 1' across 1' deep. After the holes were dug, we mixed all the dug-up dirt with compost. For blueberries, the holes were more like 2' across and 1' deep. For these we mixed up compost, peat, and a handful of ammonium sulfate (per hole) with the dug up dirt. The peat improves drainage and lowers the pH of the soil (blueberries like well drained soil and a pH of about 5.5) and the ammonium sulfate further reduces the acidity. I am writing this several days after the fact and, after a few good rains, I am noticing that the soil is fairly mucky when saturated and the blueberries look a little droopy (I don't know whether this is a fault of insufficient drainage, incorrect pH level or just transplant shock). Since blueberries require sufficiently drained soil, I am considering digging the plants up and mixing some sand into the holes. I'll update y'all if I try anything...

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If plants like it, why shouldn't I?
The grapes I didn't plant in rows. I planted them in small mounds on the edge of the garden where the future fence will go. I plan to put a long trellis up when they get bigger. The strawberries were planted in much the same way as the raspberries: a bit of compost and then pop 'em in their holes. All the berries got some bone meal spread around them to get them started. I also (a couple days later) added some "Lily Miller" Vitamin B Plant Starter. This helps reduce plant shock. We'll see if this helps with the blueberries or if more major surgery is required.

After planting berries, we started our tomatoes and melons inside. Our laundry room has a counter facing a window and it gets a good amount of sun throughout the day, so this is a perfect place to get them started. To start the seeds we got these awesome little pots by "Jiffy". They are compressed disks maybe 2" across and 1/2" high. They come in a pack of 25 for like $1.98 at Home Depot (I hear Walmart also sells them... might be cheaper there).

Anyway, you soak them in warm water for a minute or so and they puff out to about 1-1.5" tall. They are filled with what looks like a peat based soil and the "bags" around the soil are a nice thin material kind of like a tea bag; I imagine they would be a bit easier for the roots to break through than the more popular peat pots. Our tomato selection consists of "Romas" for sauces, "Jellybeans" for salads, and "Early Girls" and "Better Boys" just for fun... I don't know what mom plans on doing with those. We are planning on canning a bunch of tomato sauce, so we started over 75 seeds. We'll probably plant 50 of them in our garden. Can't wait for the fresh spaghetti sauce!!!