This week in the garden post is all about the fruit that we’re growing in our suburban backyard.
First I want to show you what we did to protect our blueberry bushes from the birds. In the past we’ve just used pvc pipes to make a frame and draped netting over that. But now our bushes are just too big for that. Plus it wasn’t easy for us to pick the berries!
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So we built “The Blueberry Hut”. We used wood that we had lying around and found a screen door that we got at a really good price because it has a rip in the upper portion. It’s going to be so easy to step into this little house to pick the berries!
The fabulous handle is one of many iron pieces I bought a few years ago at Hobby Lobby at their end of summer clearance. It was only 90 cents! I didn’t know what I would do with any of the things I got but I’ve held onto them and finally had the opportunity to use one.
Next to The Blueberry Hut is my raspberry bed. Unfortunately two of my raspberries didn’t make it through the winter.
So I only have one left but at least some ground cherries seeded themselves and are popping up.
Then there’s the four/five in one tree (can’t remember which it is). But it’s all stone fruit. It looks like the plums are what’s ripening now.
I’m going to have to think of some way to protect the fruit on this tree. The birds are already pecking at the ones that have just started to ripen! Any suggestions?
We have apple trees.
Blackberries – although a lot of these have jumped to the other side of our privacy fence. We have a strawberry bed which I’ve already shown here.
Also two Nanking Cherries (bush cherries).
Hopefully we’ll see some grapes from this vine this year. My other older vine looks like it died.
I think that’s all. I have plans to add some pie cherries, maybe a fig and some more raspberries and maybe some other fruiting bushes this fall. I also just received some elderberry bushes that I have figure out where to plant! I have no idea where to put them. I’m wondering if they’d be o.k. if I planted them in pots until fall when I’ll have a better idea of a permanent location?
Do you have fruits growing in your yard or do you plan on adding any?
Your Blueberry Hut is a great idea to keep the hungry birds away! And the door handle is fabulous. The only fruit we grow is strawberries in strawberry pots… and the neighborhood children climbed the fence and ate all the ripe ones! Maybe I need a strawberry hut…. hhmmmmmm….
Well that wasn’t nice! You shouldn’t need to protect your food from people, birds yes. People no
LOVE your blueberry hut, a great idea and fun:@)
Great fruit!
Your blueberry hut is wonderful! I love growing fruits and veggies!
Your garden is lovely! The blueberry hut is ‘fantabulous’ … thanks for sharing!
Just one little blueberry bush that’ll be easy to cover this year. I’m not going to allow any bird to have my five or six blueberries! Your blue door is fabulous. I always love a bit of practical whimsy in a garden.
Love your blueberry hut! What a great idea. I’m trying to grow more fruit in the garden. I would think your elderberry bushes would do fine in pots until fall.
The hut is a good idea. Do the birds not bother the raspberries and blackberries? Don’t know what to tell you about the plums. I had a plum tree years ago, and the birds would peck the fruit as soon as it started to ripen.
Hope you enjoyed your weekend.
No, strangely enough the birds don’t bother the rasperries or the blackberries (at least they haven’t in the past). Maybe because those bushes have thorns? I planted thornless blackberries with ones that have thorns. Maybe I just have blueberry lovin birds LOL!
What a charming idea. I need to this with the whole garden to keep the deer out. We just have tons of blackberries trying to take over out yard 😉 xoxox Clarice
Love your blueberry house — what a great idea. I just picked my first blueberries of the season this morning. I have a peach tree that had probably a hundred peaches on it — but all gone to the squirrels and birds. I have never got a ripe peach off of it yet. I have raspberries and blackberries that do well (looks like they will come in after the blueberries this year, usually they are first), and a fig tree that gives me more figs than I know what to do with. I have two stands of elderberry (you know the fairy queen and her entourage always stop to rest under an elderberry bower on Midsummer’s Eve, right? When my girls were little they would always find tokens left by them on Midsummer Day — sparkle fairy bubbles, little things for the fairy garden, etc.). They are pretty tough. I think they would live fine in a pot until you get to them.
I love your blueberry hut! What a perfect solution. We just planted 3 berry bushes and put an old dog kennel around them for now. Since there’s no fruit, we don’t need a top on it this year. Our problem tho, are squirrels and rabbits who will eat the leaves off, so this seems to keep them out. Next year, we’ll have to build a hut like yours!
What a lovely assortment of goodies! You DO have a little farm, ma’am! LOL
To move the vines, pull out your Farmer’s Alamanac and follow their advice. I have never lost anything if I followed them EXACTLY! I think a summer in the pot would be okay, but I’d transplant in September at the latest!
Don’t you love being able to eat fruit fresh from your own yard? I really like the way you constructed your blueberry hut. Being able to enter through a door is a big plus!
I loe the blueberry house! What a great idea. We tried growing blueberries and they did so poorly we yanked them up after a mere 5 years of NOTHING growing on them. Please don’t tell me they take 6 years to produce fruit. You have such a fantastic garden!
There are certain ones that don’t do well in the South at all. We grow rabbiteye which is heat and drought tolerant. Maybe you just need to find the variety that works for you. I was at Home Depot this evening and they sell blueberry bushes that are about 4 feet tall with berries already on them!
We have quite a few different types of fruit on out little farm. We are on vacation now and I’m starting to miss my garden! We told our kids to pick the strawberries and I’m sure they are eating all of them! Hopefully we will have a few for jam when we get home.
Wow Manuela! Once again you’ve inspired me to become more self sufficient. Right now I have strawberries blooming and peaches. I put in a blueberry bush a couple of months ago, it looks healthy but we arent’ going to get fruit from it this year. It seems the same will be true of our new plum tree. Our orange tree really needs some consistent sunshine and so far the weather in SoCal just isn’t cooperating. The tomatos and peppers look good but we lost the first cucumber vines to snails so I’ve started some more in three different locations. Once again, we need some sun. I went to the library looking for quarter acre farm and came home with Mini Faming self-sufficiency on 1/4 acre. Not the same book but hopefully just as informative. It feels good to be into my two year plan toward a more self sufficient life. Next up is a composting bin and conversion of our never used sunroom into a greenhouse. Thanks for keeping me motivated. Thankfully my hubby seems to be all for the changes. Patty
I have two pear trees. Looks like you got a fantastic deal on that handle! Never know when we’ll be able to use something we find at such a good price.
Brenda
To protect the fruit, some folks cover choice fruit with old pantyhose used as “socks” (Google for a visual aid). Also protects from insects this way. You can find commercial-sized netting if you Google it to protect trees. Smaller bushes and gardens can be protected by fake owls or rubber snakes put in plain sight. You have to move around the fake animals from time to time to trick the birds who manage to catch on after a while, though. Hanging CDs or other metallic items to reflect the light only works for certain species. I find the regular birds just ignore them. We’ve had good success with the automated hawk calls at my job to keep out nesting birds, but be sure and don’t scare your neighbors!
Thanks for the tips! I had thought about pantyhose. Of course since I don’t wear pantyhose I’ll have to go out and buy a cheap pair!
Your berries look lovely, as well as your apples! I am so jealous, our apple tree is still flowering! I do have rhubarb, though! And I love that.
Hugs, Cindy
I’m the jealous one! I LOVE rhubarb and find it very difficult to grow in this hot climate.
Manuela
I love that hut. What a great idea!
Before we moved into our current house, we had planted several different berries at the old one. I’ve always missed them,, but this place is such a piney forest that we can’t grow a lot.
What a great idea! I love your Blueberry Hut. Maybe you should build a Fruit Tree Mansion to protect your fruit trees! I love the old door and the handle on your hut. Your garden looks so nice.
I didn’t get all of my garden planted before my shoulder surgery so my sweetheart finished it for me. I enjoy checking it to see what’s coming up and how our raspberries are doing. It won’t be long and we’ll be enjoying the ‘fruit’ of our labor! Our season is quite a bit late this year because we had such late, unseasonably cold weather but I have hopes it will last longer in the fall.
~Adrienne~
Love the blueberry hut!!!!
Love love love this! It’s all in the details, isn’t it? I will be keeping this in mind.
Wonderful Blueberry house! That door and handle make it so charming! Thanks for sharing a lovely idea for making something that could have been not so pretty, really fun.
I adore the blueberry hut. Great idea! I’d love to have a blueberry bush!
This is such are wonderful place! I love all these fresh fruits you have! I have an old chicken yard that is still closed it, I could do something like that in this VERY fertile ground! Thanks for the ideas!
I sooo needed to come across your blog today! The birds have been eating my berries and I have been trying to think of some sort of idea to keep them away. Your’s is great and I will be making me a hut in the near future 🙂 Thank you so much for sharing this great idea of yours. Love it 🙂
Many Blessings,
Cary Ann
Hello, I’m here visiting from the Barn Hop. About your trees the birds are bothering — blogging friend of mine had just done a post this week about some tree nets that she uses. She also had a link for the company that makes them. You can read about them here: http://mountaingardengleanings.blogspot.com/2011/06/bagging-cherry-trees.html Hope that helps!
I love the blu screen door it adds to the the yard makes it interesting.
I am so jealous. Everything looks great! 🙂 Looking forward to followingyour blog.