Instead of working today I played!

[thistlebloom]

So there I was this morning, an impressive list of Urgent & Very Important jobs to do. Walked outside, surveyed all the areas that I needed to work in and tossed the list over my shoulder (figuratively).

Because right there in front of me was a project I had been cogitating on for a week or two. Fun!

The patio was feeling a bit cramped, so I decided to move the barrels off, and make a strip for them to live on.

Step one.

I used my half moon edger to mark out the turf and square it up to remove.

Step two, removing the sod. I had a couple of stones I salvaged that I'm using for steps until I get the project finished.

Step three, moving the barrels over. I finished setting them just as the clouds opened up.

I still need to put something on the soil, I'm thinking
river stones or bark or...? And I'll be planting the 3 empty barrels with the dwarf blueberries I picked up at the nursery last week when I was there for deer repellent. What can I say? They were irresistibly cute and obviously wanted to go home with me!
I got Jelly Bean, Peach Sorbet, and Pink Lemonade.

Oh, the best part was that this took me less than an hour from start to finish. Not too bad for an impulsive move, right?

I'm thinking of continuing the bed around to the left behind the patio sink, and then along the front left to meet my bed along the house.... but first I should do a few of those urgent tasks.

 

[NwMtGardener]

Nice!! Now these dwarf blueberries...are the berries different colors?? Never heard of such a thing!

 

[digitS']

Very expeditious, uh, activity!

Isn't it nice when you can think of a project as fun? No matter the obvious work involved, you just described it as breezing right thru in high spirits, Thistle'!

Good for you! It is likely to bring continuing pleasure.

I will also say that this was a good day to stay close to the backdoor .

Steve

 

[thistlebloom]

Nice!! Now these dwarf blueberries...are the berries different colors?? Never heard of such a thing!

They're so darn cute! The Pink Lemonade isn't a dwarf, and it has pink berries. The other two have regular blue berries.

 

[journey11]

Uh, Thistle...that still looks like work to me! LOL

I bet you feel better now that that's done. Some days there are so many fires to put out, but just doing one.little.thing that has been driving me crazy gives me the most satisfaction.

Now, I actually did go play today, despite all the yard work that I should have been doing. I did have to hurry to transplant some wild strawberries I found out in the woods into my flowerbed though, so maybe not all play. I could tell DH was more bothered by it than me though. He always seems to end up with a little regret after skipping out to have fun.
NOT ME!!

Enjoy your blueberries! I hear they do really well in barrels like that.

 

[Collector]

Bet your patio looks twice as big now, great project. adds space to your patio plus less grass to mow, I call it a win win!

 

[Carol Dee]

Not working? ... that was WORK. It looks great. I am going to watch to see how well the blueberries do in the barrel. (Love the sink, too!)

 

[Wishin']

You will have to update us on the pink lemonade blueberries, I am planning on doing them next year. I love the barrels.

 

[thistlebloom]

I'm really determined to make these succeed. I had a dozen in the ground that did well at first and then slowly started to fail over the course of about 3 years. I finally put them out of their misery as I was developing a real guilt complex about them.

The barrels should make it much easier to control the soils pH.

Yeah, @Wishin', I'm especially keeping my fingers crossed about those Pink Lemonade!

 

[Smart Red]

Thistlebloom, my blueberries are over 15 years old and doing just fine. We really dug out and amended their soil. I've read that acid loving plants make the soil around them more acidic as the years pass -- and the alkaline soils do the same in acidic ground. Seems to work, as I've added less acid fertilizers to the area they're planted in than I did those first 5-6 years.

Still, I like your barrels and just might use them to plant more berries outside of the turn-around. Berries and azaleas would look beautiful edging the woods out back, wouldn't they?

I'm still waiting for my first taste of pink lemonade. I planted that shrub the year before THE GREAT DROUGHT of 2012. They did well the first year, then none of the plants produced fruit in 2012 and they were still suffering when they failed to set buds later that year to flower in 2013.

This should be a good year in the blueberry patch!