North American Fruit Explorers mailing list at ibiblio

[Rick Valley <bamboogrove@cmug.com>]

Way back when I bought a house in SE Portland, there were 2 blueberry bushes
on the E side of the house, (bluecrop?) with lawn grass tangled up into them
clear to the crown.
1- I gave them a pruning
2- I cut the grass out- using a Japanese sickle- a kama- (I'd read that the
blues dislike root disturbance)
3- I mulched with pine and Cedrus deodara needles (I read they like acid)
(the old lady whose driveway I'd sweep for the Cedrus needles would give me
cake and pie)
4- I planted Houttynia cordata, Gaultheria miqueliana and G. procumbens
under the blues (you really ought to try G. miqueliana berries on a
chocolate cake!)
5- I'd pee on the planting during the winter rains (good cover from the
neighbors)

after 3 years there was not much grass and I was getting good crops of
blues; after 9 years the bushes had doubled in height to 6 feet.

the most important time to cut the grass is early in the spring, through
flowering time (for the grass)

miss that house, but my ex seems to like it OK.

-Rick