And the blueberries finally find a home.

Now in the second year of the garden, there has been a convergence of blueberry bushes amongst the land!  They came from all over and have now found a home!

When we first moved here, we planted two dwarf blueberry bushes, and another two "pink lemonade" blueberry bushes.  Two in the backyard garden, and two in the side lot, along the fence under the crabapple tree.  The city came in the first year, and since there wasn't much happening on the lot that season- they paid no mind when they came in and weed wacked both "pink lemonade" varieties down to short plants.  I looked at it as an opportunity to give them a good pruning, and give them a good boost of energy to pop up more vigorously (this was also the case for the serviceberry planted nearby).

In this second year, the black walnut tree has expanded, as we have into more of the side lot.  That being said, the black walnut now has been hanging too close to the blueberries for comfort, and since blueberries are sensitive to juglone, I knew it was time for us to expand like the black walnut canopy into the side lot.

To add to this, a friend in Food Not Lawns Cleveland, was able to bargain a great deal for blueberry bushes that were near to being trashed by Whole Foods- and so she sold them to me real cheap- so how could I resist getting four more very healthy, already fruit-bearing bushes?!  I brought them home without a place yet set for them, and they have sat for several weeks, just waiting for the convergence.

And as you may have it, cleaning up the garden- readying things for winter, the blueberry bed revealed itself.  Where I had put the Garden Soxx that had been given to us from the Buckeye CDC through the Family Garden Initiative- there was a bare patch of soil underneath.  They are also at the end of a bench, which makes a quaint place for sitting, and hopefully, in the future, a convenient place to put your basket for picking a quarts of berries!

There we had it- revealed to us.  So, with the soil being still fairly clay and rocky in the lot (still in the area where a house had stood only a few years back), I sheet-mulched several layers, including compost, cardboard, very broken down wood chips, wet paper lawn bags, leaves, wood chips, grass clippings, straw, leaves mixed with pine needles, coffee grounds, soil, compost, more leaves.  And in they went, all tucked in for winter.  It's exciting to see them there and anticipate them in the future.  They are planted nearby where I recently transplanted the rhubarb and more strawberries (making a pie section of the garden).  As for the bigger picture, they are near the center of the center lot, crossing to the center of the greenhouse, and I feel they will work as creating a living barrier for the public-private gradient of the garden.  This process will continue to evolve, in its hodge-podge fashion.

For now, the blueberries are transitioning into their new home- hopefully one that they will thrive in for a long time.