Red, white and black currant

After my blueberry post I’ve decided to write about another homegrown berry species. Today I’ll be writing about red, white and black currant. One of the most widespread but at the same time often overlooked species of berries in the home garden. Currant plants can be found in many Slovenian gardens. It seems that many people don’t know how to use the currant berries, because of their tart taste. Currant is therefore less popular than its other distant relatives from the berry family. I also quietly blame the modern media for the unpopularity of currants – we are constantly told how healthy the berries are for us, but most commonly mentioned are strawberries and raspberries, despite the fact that the currant is in fact a real bomb of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants. In addition it’s also ridiculously easy to grow and care for.Continue Reading

Blueberry

Blueberry – my first plant of the week. If things go according to plan, I’ll be researching and introducing one plant a week that I’ll (how surprisingly) call Plant of the week. This will either be a vegetable, fruit, herb or even decorative or wild-grown plant.

blueberry shrub harvest grow blueberries in gaden
Midseason blueberry harvest – one shrub / one bowl. 🙂

WILD BLUEBERRY’S FAT COUSIN

Today, in sync with the season i’m starting the Plant of the week series with the plant that I wasn’t too fond of until recently. This is cultivated (highbush) blueberry – the “fat cousin” of wild (lowbush) blueberry, which we also call the forest blueberry because (not like the cultivated variety) they can be found in the forests all accross Slovenia. Cultivated bluberries are also called American blueberries around here. Maybe it’s due to their name or foreign ancestors but I found cultivated blueberries strange and uninteresting for a long time. Maybe it was due to their way of planting or the need of acidic soil and therefore require a special place in the garden or even it’s own container. Although I’m a big fan of wild (forest) blueberries and I pick and eat them constantly when they’re in season, i hardly ever ate cultivated blueberries. We hada sall blueberry bush at my parents’ house but it never beared fruits or maybe we were always too late to protect it from greedy birds who ate all the berries before we even noticed them?

how to gros plant blueberries blueberry in garden
Ripening fruits on the shrub. I pick the berries as soon as they’re ripe to make sure wasps or birds don’t get to them first. 🙂

HOW TO GROW BLUEBERRIES?

Anyway, as I was saying, blueberries weren’t on my radar until last year when I planted two plants in pots and placed them at the edge of my garden. The pots are made from old wine barrels that we salvaged from the house where Aljaz’s grandmother was born. We sawed the barrel in half, added new layer of stain to both halves and padded them with pond foil and drilled holes at the bottom.

When the pots were done, i filled them with peat and acidic soil and planted the two blueberry plants. While you can get peat in almost every garden center, you can collect acidic soil for free from the forest! Some say that the best acidic soil can be found under pine trees, other that the best in the one from under an oak tree. I mixed both types and so far, my blueberries are not complaining. During dry and hot summer I water the blueberries once a week and I rely on my instinct for watering during the rest of the year. Cultivated blueberries are cold hardy in zone 7 where my garden is located, so I don’t transfer them inside during the winter or move the pots at all.

Both of my blueberries are the early bearing variety. Although you don’t need more than one variety in the garden for successful pollination (they don’t share the pollination problem with Kamchatka honeysuckle cousins) we can prolong the harvesting season by planting varieties that bear fruits at different parts of the season (early-, middle-, late-season ripening).

blueberry in pot grown how to grow plant
My blueberry shrub grown in a pot and accompanied by European cranberry plant which also requires acidic soil.

Use and storage of blueberries

We eat most of homegrown blueberries fresh either in the morning, mixed in Greek yoghurt or in the evening as a snack during a new Game of Thrones episode so there isn’t much left for storage. Blueberries can be stored the same as all the berries: cooked in jams, dries or frozen and later used in smoothies, pies or other delicious dishes.

Short blueberry ID:
Special growing needs: require acidic soil
Adult plant height: up to 2m (usually more around 1.5m)
Storing the blueberries: freezing, drying, jams
Why would you want to consume blueberries? Despite the fact that a lot of people still prefer wild, forest blueberries over their cultivated cousins, are homegrown blueberries a great source of antioxidants and numerous vitamins and minerals. They have low caloric value and they help regulating blood sugar and have positive impact on our brain and heart functions.
Not to mention how nice looking are the blueberry shrubs in the garden when they are filled with delicious blue berries!
Conclusion: Very worth of growing (and eating)!

blueberry blueberries garden grow plant pot
Protection from uninvited guests. Better safe than sorry. Blueberries are adored by wasps and birds.