Bordering our vegetable garden are different kinds of perennials--along the long western side are blueberries, rhubarb, and asparagus. Thanks to my inability to properly read instructions, I planted the asparagus crowns sideways instead of upright, so they took their sweet time sending up shoots. Over a month later a few are finally appearing, so maybe I didn't ruin everything.
Let's contrast my slapdash approach with how Mark handled the blueberries. We have 8 plants total: 6 Bluecrop and 2 Jersey, interspersed with lovely rhubarb that our parents were generous enough to donate. To get these babies in the ground, Mark dug each blueberry bush a hole 20" deep and 24" across, then filled each with a precise mixture: 3 gallons of peat, 1 gallon of forest humus dug from the woods, 1 gallon compost, 2 cups aluminum sulfate, and 1 cup bone meal. To this he added back all the dirt from the hole (minus the large, plentiful, dang-blasted rocks) and planted the twigs that will hopefully become the source of tasty pies and jams for many years to come. So far they've been quite accommodating, growing quickly and happily with only some straw mulch and the protection of a tomato cage wrapped in a row cover to keep the deer out until the fencing goes up this weekend.
This early success is some comfort, because the eggplants and peppers we've started have decided to be sickly and finicky for no apparent reason. Is it the new growing cube system we've implemented this year? Something they don't like about the new house--a hex from the previous owner, perhaps? But then again, where would we be without something to hover over obsessively?
