Blueberry bushes are attractive shrubs with abundant pink-tinged white blooms in spring, shiny foliage and stunning fall color.

If you have a well-drained full-sun location for foundation shrubs or privacy hedge, consider using blueberry plants. They come in a variety of shapes and sizes. There are even blueberries ideal for planting in containers! As an added bonus, you can enjoy loads of luscious fruit.

Like any orchard plant, blueberry bushes have challenges, particularly keeping wild creatures from getting all that juicy fruit before you do.

The most important step is well-drained soil, best accomplished in raised beds. The reward is an attractive landscape plant that also provides a plentiful food supply.

Here’s a radical approach to successfully growing blueberries and strawberries in your yard: Rather than digging holes and planting them, set the plants on top of the ground and build a raised bed around them. Then fill the bed completely with Pine Magic mulch and keep the mulch moist until the root systems grow out into the mulch. This won’t take long, and you’ll have a bumper crop of blueberries!

This technique is easy to do and it works for two reasons. The first is that blueberries love well-drained acid soil, and the second is that blueberries just hate hard, gooey clay soil. We come from southern New Jersey where there is a huge blueberry industry. South Jersey has well-drained, sandy acid soil. You can pour a bucket of water on the soil in a Jersey blueberry field and it will immediately soak in and disappear. If your soil doesn’t drain this well, blueberries will sit and sulk.

Raised beds allow excess water to simply drain off by gravity rather than being trapped in a hole around plant roots. Pine Magic is very similar to the potting soil that nurseries use for growing blueberries in containers. It holds just the right moisture and the rest just drains away, allowing roots to breathe. The fluffy texture of the mulch encourages new feeder roots to quickly grow, and the acidity is perfect for blueberries. Adding a few inches of pine mulch every spring prevents weeds, making your bed maintenance free.

We recommend Espoma “Holly Tone” fertilizer for blueberries. “Holly Tone” is the perfect blueberry food, providing additional acid and trace minerals vital to healthy blossoms and fruit.

There are hundreds of blueberry varieties available. Here are our favorites:

Fruit is very large, firm and has small, dry recessed scars. The berry is formed on tight clusters and it tends to be flatter than the other cultivars. Ripens early. Excellent flavor. Bush is upright, open and vigorous. Excellent landscape variety with showy white blooms in the spring, dark green foliage in the summer, and fiery orange fall colors. Height 4-6’. Full sun. Fruit is very large, firm and has small, dry recessed scars. The berry is formed on tight clusters and it tends to be flatter than the other cultivars. Ripens early. Excellent flavor. Bush is upright, open and vigorous. Excellent landscape variety with showy white blooms in the spring, dark green foliage in the summer, and fiery orange fall colors. Height 4-6’. Full sun.Blue Crop: Hardier and more drought resistant than most blueberries. Dense upright bush 6 feet tall x 4 feet wide. Self-pollinating. Medium to large, light-blue fruit that’s firm, resistant to cracking and has a good flavor. Red fall foliage & stems.

Blue Ray: Vigorous 5 foot tall and wide bush bears tight clusters of large, firm blue fruit early to mid-season. Very showy burgundy fall foliage, deep red stems in winter.

Chandler: Vigorous, upright, high bush blueberry 6 feet tall and 5 feet wide. Bears the largest fruits of any blueberry, fruits heavily for up to six weeks.

Chippewa: An upright high bush blueberry with large, light colored sweet berries. Mid-season fruiting. Bright red fall foliage, red stems in winter. 4 feet tall x 3 feet wide.

Jersey: A favorite of home gardeners wanting an easy to grow, heavy producing blueberry. Reliably produces medium sized, very sweet fruit. Good pollenator for other blueberries.

Northblue: Compact size makes this blueberry an excellent landscape shrub. Very productive. Moderate grower 3 feet tall and wide.

Patriot: Sweet berries cover this early producer. Distinctive upright habit and colorful fall foliage make this a superior blueberry for landscape use.

St. Cloud: Upright growing blueberry with firm, medium-sized fruit. Grows 4’ tall 3’ wide. Good producer.

Sunshine Blue: Compact semi-dwarf shrub good for large tubs. Semi-evergreen. Hot pink flowers abundant large tangy fruit.

Steve Boehme is the owner of GoodSeed Farm Nursery & Landscape, located on Old State Route 32 three miles west of Peebles. More information is available online at www.goodseedfarm.com or call (937) 587-7021.