Homegrown Organic Blueberries
The blueberries have arrived! Once again, I have shown that it is possible to raise blueberries in Houston, and if I can do it anyone can. Boy #1 was sick this weekend (now I've got it), so he wasn't quite as thrilled about them as he was last year. We still had a fun time berry picking, and it was really funny listening to him count his berries as he put them in his little tub. They are delicious.
I grow several kinds of rabbiteye blueberries, but all the tags have either been lost, or buried under several inches of mulch, so I couldn't tell you which was which. I grow Tiftblue, Woodard, Brightwell, Climax, and Premier, all of which are readily available from area nurseries.
In a previous post, I described how I had hung the foil wrappers of granola bars in the blueberry bushes to scare away birds. That may have deterred some birds, but not the cardinals or the mocking birds. For extra insurance I went to Plants for All Seasons and picked up a fake owl with a rotating bobble-head. I thought for sure that would do the trick. Wrong. Less than 24 hours later I saw a cardinal and a mockingbird stealing blueberries.
Either the birds are just too smart to be fooled by an owl decoy, or the blueberries are so good it's worth risking an owl attack to get one. I'm beginning to think that the only sure way to keep birds away is to use netting, which I'm not crazy about.
I grow several kinds of rabbiteye blueberries, but all the tags have either been lost, or buried under several inches of mulch, so I couldn't tell you which was which. I grow Tiftblue, Woodard, Brightwell, Climax, and Premier, all of which are readily available from area nurseries.
In a previous post, I described how I had hung the foil wrappers of granola bars in the blueberry bushes to scare away birds. That may have deterred some birds, but not the cardinals or the mocking birds. For extra insurance I went to Plants for All Seasons and picked up a fake owl with a rotating bobble-head. I thought for sure that would do the trick. Wrong. Less than 24 hours later I saw a cardinal and a mockingbird stealing blueberries.
Either the birds are just too smart to be fooled by an owl decoy, or the blueberries are so good it's worth risking an owl attack to get one. I'm beginning to think that the only sure way to keep birds away is to use netting, which I'm not crazy about.
Big berry.
Cluster of blueberries.
So good right off the bush.
Got to get them before the birds do.
Snack Time!
Worthless bobble-head owl.
