By Carolyn Villa-Scott

Grow good health, grow your own Blueberries!

Healthful, sweet and tasty blueberries can be grown in almost any garden as they do equally well in the ground or in containers and will tolerate areas of full sun to areas with light shade. Choose from heat tolerant Southern Highbush varieties or the Northern Highbush for cooler areas with some light shade. They bear best when more than one cultivar is planted for cross-pollination.  (The Northern and the Southern varieties will cross-pollinate.) Choose cultivars that ripen at different times for a longer harvest season. We recommend planting two plants per family member to satisfy all.

A good combination of Southern Highbush cultivars would include Misty, a very early, large and tasty berry which rated highly at the Master Gardener’s taste test. Sharp Blue, which ripens later than Misty, an early variety of exceptional flavor. It was my favorite one at the Master Gardener’s taste test! Darrow is a late variety with huge fruit of robust flavor. These three would make an excellent beginning of a high heat tolerant collection.

A good combination of Northern Highbush cultivars could include Earliblue, a very early cultivar with large, sweet berries. Berkeley ripens mid-season with large, firm flavorful berries. Bluecrop, another mid –season choice, is considered to be the best yielding cultivar with large delicious fruit. These three would be great together where there is less than full sun. Don’t be shy though, about mixing varieties in one planting.  

These are just a few of the many cultivars we offer. We have dwarf varieties and even an evergreen cultivar, Sunshine Blue, which features hot pink blossoms and makes an attractive border or hedge. We offer a FREE ‘Starting right with Blueberries’ planting guide because blueberries have specific requirements to thrive. Be sure to pick one up when buying your good health Blueberries. We have the plants, the products and the support for when you want to succeed…the first time.

Here’s a fun and productive summer project for the whole family, a green bean teepee!

• Choose a spot 6 feet square in full sun.
• Dig up and loosen the soil to the depth of 1 foot, and mix in 1 bag of Harvest Supreme.
• Sprinkle the ground with 5 cups Dr. Earth Tomato, Vegetable and Herb Fertilizer and mix in to a depth of at least 6 inches.
• Tie together at one end four 8-foot-long bamboo poles or green plastic-covered garden stakes. Set up your teepee with the legs spread about 4 feet apart and the ends shoved 3 to 4 inches into the ground.
• Plant 5 or 6 pole bean seeds 3 inches apart, with the scar side down, around each pole. Plant 1 inch deep. Pat it down gently.
• Water deeply after planting. Don't water again until the beans come up unless the soil begins to dry out. (Sometimes beans rot instead of coming up.
• Once the seedlings have emerged keep them well watered and protect them from birds and snails.
• When the seedlings are 3 or 4 inches tall thin to the best three on each pole. (Snip the others off with scissors.)

You can also get a headstart by starting with seedling plants rather than by seed. Give the young plants a helping hand to start them winding around the poles. Once started, they'll keep going with no further help from you. Water deeply through the summer approximately once every 5 to 7 days.

Happy Harvests!

Hi, everyone! I’m Tammy MacKenzie, Cashier and Buyer for the Garden Room. I’ve been with Yamagami’s since June of ’93 and this is probably the most enjoyable job I’ve ever had. How can you not have fun with all these flowers about? In my personal life, I have a wonderful husband of 9 years and a beautiful son, Jack, who’s 3. We also have a baby due in July. The doctors say it’s a girl. Hopefully, they’re right, since everything is turning pink in our house. In my spare time, I love to scrapbook and rubber stamp my own cards. In my college years, I loved to do anything artsy from ceramics to glass blowing, but with my full schedule, I barely have time to make cards, collage a few purses, gift boxes and bookends and work on scrapbook. I also LOVE to garden, especially with roses.

I took over merchandising Yamagami’s Garden Room last November, and started buying for it in February. It has been so much fun finding new and exciting things to spruce up your garden, or to bring the outside in. It also fits right in with my current nesting instinct! Come on by and visit our Garden Room where you’ll find a lot of new warm season items from decorative garden hose hangers, beautiful hand-blown glass hummingbird feeders, fun citronella candles, picnic accessories and outdoor thermometers. For those with a good sense of humor, wash the garden grime off with “Scrub Your Butt” fun soaps and body washes. We are also bringing in armfuls of artificial cut flowers for lasting color, to make your home bright and cheerful.

She began the tradition of wearing red poppies on Memorial day in honor of those who died serving the nation, also selling poppies and giving the money to a charity benefiting servicemen in need. The tradition of wearing poppies spread and is now practiced in many countries on their own days of remembrance.

Not only did Ms. Michael start the tradition of wearing poppies, she also seems to be responsible for the tradition of selling them to benefit servicemen in need. Many veterans’ organizations will be selling them or other flowers this Memorial Day. They aren't expensive but they are very valuable. Buy one, wear it at the barbecue or party, and remember what our freedom costs.