Swapping Huckleberries
Himalayan Honeysuckle ( Vaccinium glauco album) Himalayan Honeysuckle ( Vaccinium glauco album) has been an attractive feature along our north-facing foundation since I planted it in 2016. You will have to take my word for it since I cannot locate a photo although I know one exists somewhere in the realm of the Internet or floating on a cloud somewhere. I did locate a photo of how it looked when it was first planted - It took a few years to fill out but it did so nicely to an attractive mound about 2 feet high by 3 feet wide. Last year, it started to look bad. I cut it back but it had not improved and this is how it looked a few weeks ago - I decided to rip it out and plant another huckleberry - this time Vaccinium ovatum , more commonly known as the "Evergreen Huckleberry". This is a plant that I've wanted for ages and kept putting off getting one because I could not find a good place for it. By most accounts, this is an amazing plant, a native one and excellent for
Sounds interesting. I have sandy and clay soils in our garden. It all depends upon where the fill dirt was shoved around when they built the house.
ReplyDeleteIt will be fun watching your pasture evolve into a garden. I hope you never tire of blogging so we can watch the progress.
Phillip, Thank you for recommending this.I must try it. I garden under mature trees that suck everything out of the soil so I am constantly shoveling compost & manure and frankly its getting old!
ReplyDeleteGood luck with the retirement property. Planning and planting the bones now is an excellent idea. Watching the progress
That will be a whole new blog!
ReplyDeleteI added their fertilizer to my garden last fall and have seen a big improvement. I really love the liquid Penetrate. I added it last fall to my driest, most heinous clay and it really transformed it. I even bought more and applied it to my lawn. I'm definitely buying it again. It's awesome stuff!!
ReplyDeletePhillip, my 3.5 acres of our former dairy farm was like that, nothing but red clay from years of pasture and part of an old plantation. I've been on my utility company wood chip list for over 10 years and compost it and whatever stable sawdust I can get. I've slowly gone from red to dark & loose soil over the years.
ReplyDeleteYou are so brave to plant in the middle of a pasture with little supervision! It will be fun to create a new garden but will you be able to pull yourself away from your paradise you currently call home? Yikes, that is a scary thought. But exciting to think of the new paradise on the horizon....
ReplyDeleteSo it's eight years later and I'm wondering whether the magic persists. I've got to say that I'm a skeptic, but I'd be thrilled if it would help my clay soil... please give an honest update! Thanks!
ReplyDeleteHi Jess, actually plans changed and I didn't end up moving to the property. In fact, I'm on the other side of the country! The plants that were there were moved. I can tell you that mulching, especially with wood chips from arborists, does a great job at breaking the soil down. That, along with compost and any type of organic matter (rotted leaves are also good) mulched on top of the ground and allowed to decompose will eventually give you good soil. You just have to keep applying it. I hope this helps and sorry I don't have any further information about that product.
DeleteWow, thanks for the quick response! Not holding my breath on this one. Nice blog, thanks!
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