ATLANTA -
Pike Nurseries assistant manager, Melodie McDanal, stopped by Good Day Atlanta to talk about blueberries and how you can incorporate them into their landscape!
Link: http://www.pikenursery.com/
Blueberries
1. Blueberries are a superfruit that are high in antioxidants
2. Enhance memory
3. Anti-aging
4. Improve vision
5. Growing your own blueberries will save you money at the grocery store
Blueberries provide year-round color in the garden and are a great shrub for any sunny area.
Spring: Bell-shaped flowers
Summer: Antioxidant rich berries
Fall: Foliage turns yellow to orange
Winter: Twiggs are reddish brown
Planting Blueberries
1. Blueberries love acidic soil
2. Plant in a sunny area, typical of edibles
3. Dig a hole that is at least twice the width of the root ball
4. Using an acid soil mixture - EB Stone Azalea, Camellia and Gardenia Planting Mix - mix one part native soil with one part of the EB Stone Azalea, Camellia and Gardenia Planting Mix
5. Place a handful of EB Stone Sure Start in the hole. It prevents transplant shock and gives the plant nutrients to grow a healthy root system
6. Fill the hole in with the remaining soil mixture
7. Add a 2 inch layer of mulch around the blueberry plant. This will help with water retention and reduce weeds
8. Water thoroughly
9. If you live in an apartment or condo, blueberries can also be planted in large pots
Care
1. The birds love blueberries just as much as we do
2. Place bird netting over your blueberry bush
3. Fertilizer with an acid fertilizer like EB Stone Azalea, Camellia and Gardenia Food
4. Maintain a regular watering schedule so soil is slightly moist to the touch
Blueberry Recipes!
Fresh Blueberry Coffee Cake
Cake ingredients:
2 cups flour
4 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ cups butter
¾ cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 egg
1 tsp. vanilla
2 cups blueberries
Topping ingredients:
½ cup sugar
⅓ cup flour
1 tsp. cinnamon
¼ cup cold butter
Cream butter and sugar in a bowl of stand mixer. When light and fluffy, add egg and mix thoroughly. Sift dry ingredients and add alternately with milk. Stir in vanilla and blueberries. Pour into greased and floured 9X9 baking dish. For topping, cut butter into dry ingredients with pastry blender or pulse in food processor until small crumbs form. Sprinkle over top of batter and bake at 350 degrees for 25-35 minutes, until toothpick comes out clean.
Buttermilk Panna Cotta with Blueberry-Lemon Compote
Custard ingredients:
1 ½ tsp. unflavored gelatin
1 ¼ cups heavy cream
7 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ¾ cups buttermilk
Compote ingredients:
1 pint fresh blueberries
¼ cup sugar
1 tbsp. fresh lemon juice
⅛ tsp. salt
1 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. water
Instructions:
Compote:
Combine first four ingredients in saucepan and heat to just simmering. Cook until berries turn deep purple. Stir together cornstarch and water in a separate bowl to make a slurry. While berries are simmering, slowly add cornstarch mixture while stirring until desired consistency is reached (you may not use all of it). Compote should be like melted jam. Cool completely and chill.
Custard:
Soften gelatin in 1 tbsp. cold water in a medium bowl for about five minutes. Warm cream and sugar over medium heat, stirring until sugar dissolves, 3-5 minutes, then stir into bowl with gelatin. Stir in buttermilk, then strain into another bowl. Pour custard among six 8 oz. ramekins and refrigerate until set, at least three hours. Serve in ramekins or, to unmold, dip ramekins into a dish of hot water, then flip over onto chilled plate. Garnish with fresh blueberries and lemon zest. Serve with your favorite shortbread cookies!
Gardening Questions Answered
Question 1:
My wife and I planted a small garden consisting of tomatoes, bell peppers, straight and crook neck squash, etc. Everything has done well except for the squash. The squash plants grew, became full and green. They never bloomed and just dried up, turned brown and died like pouring salt on a slug.
Answer 1:
It is difficult to say for sure but here are a few possibilities.
Cutworms are plentiful at this time of year and feed on stems of crops in May and June. Cutworms feed at night. Plants are often cut off completely at or just below the soil's surface. Look for one to two inch caterpillars that have gray to brown bodies with white stripes down each side. When detected early, there are several things you can do to help control the cutworms:
(1) Hand pick them off your plants and surrounding areas. Look around your plants at nightfall. You may see the cutworms making their way toward your plants. You can simply "squash" them or put them in a container of soapy water where they will drown.
(1) Pour a sticky substance such as molasses around the base of each plant. When the cutworms come out to feed, they will come in contact with the molasses, get stuck, harden and die. Watering and rainfall will wash away the molasses, so re-treat as often as necessary.
(2) Sprinkle cornmeal or crushed egg shells around the base of the plant. Crawling over these substances will cause the cutworm to dehydrate and die.
(3) Apply diatomaceous earth around the base of the plants. This product is naturally occurring rock that is processed into a powder form. Like the egg shells and cornmeal, when it is sprinkled around the base of the plants, the abrasive texture causes the caterpillars to dehydrate and die.
(4) Another possibility is that your plants may have been infected with a viral or bacterial disease. These diseases are often transmitted to the plants through the bites of insects such as Aphids or Cucumber Beetles. Once they feed on a plant, even for a short period of time, the plant can become infected with a virus or bacterium.
Cucumber beetles can transmit bacterial wilt. Bacterial wilt can infect the plants at any growth stage. The tissue of the plant clogs with bacteria, the plant wilts, withers, and dies.
There is not much you can do to save this year's squash crop. Next year, keep a sharp eye out for insect invaders and treat the plants with an appropriate remedy. If you choose to use an insecticide, be sure that it will not kill insect pollinators and can be safely used on edible crops.
Question 2:
How can I prevent Bermuda grass from my lawn from invading my garden? The only products I find are for weeds, but not grass.
Answer 2:
Your best bet is to install some kind of barrier or edging around your garden.
Bermuda is one of the most durable and popular turfgrasses in Georgia. However, it grows very aggressively from stolons (stems above the ground) and rhizomes (stems below the ground) and can quickly invade all types of planting beds.
When installing the edging, you need to dig down six to eight inches around the perimeter of your garden. As a general rule, the Bermuda rhizomes will not penetrate to this depth. Clear the trench of all grass roots and other debris before installing the edging.
You can also use a non-selective herbicide containing glyphosate (like Roundup or Kleenup) to kill the grass in your planting beds. Spray the product according to package directions directly on the grass you want to eradicate. Use caution. Herbicides such as Roundup will kill or damage any green plant that they come in contact with so be sure to spray only the invading grass. You may also want to use a herbicide around the outside of your edging. A one to two inch border should be sufficient.
