Blueberry Bushes Galore!

I found these beautiful chairs and table in my new/old garage. Goodness knows how long they'd been there, but I am so happy they were! I've set them up halfway into my driveway, so as to make my tiny yard a smidgeon larger.

Today's story starts inside my house, where I had just completed a first draft of a return I have to do every single year that makes me half insane every single year. On top of some problems I'm having with a bank, tax season, and my new puppy, filing this return sent me over the edge a tiny bit. I'm human! Here is what my kitchen looked like when the story I am about to tell had not yet even begun - it was a mess!

So I'm just about to have a cup of tea and a pecan sandy to calm myself down, when the doorbell rings. A box on my porch. Hm. I don't remember ordering anything...

The blueberry shrubs I'd ordered a month earlier, and wasn't expecting for another ten or more days, had arrived!

"OK" I'm thinking "I have a couple days to get these in the ground."

I take a look at the instructions. On the first page I read "Plant Immediately!"

"What if I can't do it immediately?" I ask myself. "They mean within a couple of days, right?"

Here's an excerpt from page two of the instructions, that answered my question without doubt.

I decided to postpone my cup of tea and cookie, and get cracking on getting six blueberry bushes into the ground, asap.

Thankfully, and with the help of a friend, I had just the day before finished preparing the sites for these bushes (he did the work!), thinking I would let the soil and amendments marry for a week, then test the mix for pH and adjust as necessary, long before the plants arrived.

_{The site previously prepared for four of the bushes. Half peat, half soil, and a tiny bit of nutrients}

While the bare root and fully dormant shrubs' roots were soaking in pails of water (as per the instructions - one hour only! Plant immediately after that one hour!), I tested the site for pH, which is supposed to be, ideally, 4.8.

Pretty darn close!!!

I'll have to get some slow release Sulphur or something to get the pH a tiny bit more acidic, but for today, it's perfect.

Now for the fun part - into the ground! This shot is of the final growing place for four of the bushes. Two more are planted on the west side of the house. Sorry there are no shots of those two. By the time those were in, I'd had quite enough.