Blueberry Pie?

Well... I don't know if we'll have enough blueberries this year to do much with them, but they are doing well so far. We were told from the nursery that we purchased them from that within 2-3 years we should be able to pick about 5-7 pounds per bush. We have eight so if we do the math on the low end we should end up with 40 pounds of berries. They also said this year we should get close to two pounds per bush. These are North Blue variety developed by the University of Minnesota about ten years ago. They specifically were developed for colder climates with the idea of a larger berry in mind. When we planted them we had to amend the soil in order to get the PH proper. I purchased an organic blueberry additive to make the soil more acidic. Blueberries as we've read are not easy to grow so we hope all goes well. So far lots of new branch and leaf growth and plenty of healthy looking blueberries. If you click on the photos you'll get a better up close look. Good Day!

Green Beans - Seed to plant in 7 days

These beans were planted one week ago today. On the left is an Italian green bean and on the right are bush variety green beans. The grid you see in the photo is the square foot method I mentioned in previous posts. It has been determined that in one square foot four bean plants can grow properly. I planted two seeds per spot or eight seeds total and then reduced them to four plants per square foot. I probably could have just planted four seeds per square, but opted to be safe.

Beans are one of the easiest garden vegetables to grow. They are hardy and incredibly hard to foul up. They also offer a huge yield. I stagger my bean plantings by about two weeks apart so that we have a constant supply for about a month and some to freeze too. Currently we have eight squares of beans totaling 32 plants and will finish with 16 square or 64 plants.

Earthbound Farms Organic Shopping Bag

I mentioned the other day about Earthbound Farm and what great services they provide and their marketing is excellent. We've received tons of coupons for their products as well as free heirloom lettuce seeds this spring. They are celebrating 25 years. And look what showed up in the mail yesterday. A free reusable recycled shopping bag. If you can't read the print on the bag from the photo here it is: "We estimate that if everyone in the US used one reusable bag instead of a plastic or paper shopping bag just once a week for a year, we would keep more than 16 billion disposable bags out of our landfills." It also states that the bag is made from four 20oz recycled plastic bottles. Go here to sign up for the Earthbound Farm newsletter.

Great Deal on Organic Agave!

Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave is on a great sale at Amazon.com. 44-oz. 2-Pack for $12 + free shipping. The Wholesome Sweeteners Organic Blue Agave 44-oz. 2-Pack for $16.89. Add it to your cart via "Subscribe & Save" and apply coupon code "AGAVE333" to cut it to $11.83 along with free shipping. (Of note, cancel "Subscribe & Save" at any time or you'll be billed for subsequent shipments. You can always subscribe for once every six months if you don't go through much.)

Organic Yogi Tea

Once in a while we'll offer something of interest that isn't necessarily garden related. If you click through on the Yogi Tea and fill in your address they'll send you several of their teas for free. We've tried them and really enjoyed the Egyptian Licorice. Most of the ingredients are organic. I think you'll find them to be 80-100% organic. Enjoy!

This past weekend, Memorial Day weekend, we wrapped up about 97% of our planting in the garden. Here is a basic estimation of what we planted this year. The photo shows an aerial view of our garden. You'll see that we've run out of space again and have used twelve containers to supplement our existing raised beds.

1. 24 Tomato plants- early girl, grape, roma, cherry, sweet
   
2. 20 Various pepper plants - green bell, jalapeno, sweet red, mixed variety, orange, etc.
   
3. 4 plants of zucchini
   
4. 4 plants yellow summer squash
5. 1 plant amber cup winter squash
6. 2 plants sweet potato squash
7. 30 red skin potato plants
8. 6 blue potato plants
9. 14 cilantro
10. 16 oregano
    
11. 24 sweet basil
12. 16 broccoli
13. 16 bush green beans (16 more to plant in 2 weeks)
    
14. 16 Italian green beans (16 more to plant in 2 weeks)
15. 24 red beets
16. 40 spinach plants
17. 60-80 radish
18. 3' x 15' - ever bearing strawberry plants
19. raspberries - currently resides in about a 3' x 6' section
20. 8 blueberry bushes
21. wide assortment of lettuce greens
22. 60-80 carrots
23. 40 early sweet corn