Soil pH and Our Blueberries

It's hard to tell in the above photo, but we have blueberry bushes in front of the house. Dan transplanted them there several years ago, after he finished our first keyhole garden. It looks pretty when the butterfly weeds and 4 o'clocks are blooming. It looks messy when they aren't. 

July being blueberry month for us, we've been keeping an eye on those blueberry bushes. But we've been disappointed that the berries are small and hard. That something was wrong, was evident by the leaves.

But what? I got out my copy of The Organic Gardener's Handbook of Natural Insect and Disease Control (an excellent resource and highly recommended), and quickly discovered the cause.

The link will take you to its page on Amazon, where only
used copies are now available. It would be a shame if this is
out of print. It's an excellent book for identifying problems.

In the section of leaf symptoms for diseases, I found a picture and description that matched, with a diagnosis of iron deficiency or overly high pH. From page 377 . . .

Plants affected: acid loving plants including blueberries . . .

Prevention and Control: Symptoms of iron deficiency appear when the soil is not sufficiently acidic. Symptoms commonly occur on susceptible plants growing near buildings because lime that leaches out of the concrete foundations raises soil pH. In most cases, iron is present in the soil in adequate amounts, but plant roots cannot absorb it if the pH is not in the appropriate range for that plant. 

I wouldn't have thought of this because we have fairly acidic soil here. But these bushes are indeed fairly close to the foundation of the house, so it all fits. The quick fix is to spray the leaves with a chelated iron solution, which I don't have.  But I could water with with diluted whey, which I do have.  The long term solution is to increase acidity in the soil by adding peat moss or sulfur. Or mulching with evergreen needles, which we have handily. 

So, I couldn't save the fig trees, but hopefully, we'll see the blueberries recovery and have a better blueberry harvest next year. Hopefully, everything will be better next year!

Soil pH and Our Blueberries © July 2024

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Alas, Our Fig Trees

My first blog post about our fig trees is dated June 18, 2009 (Uncovered). We didn't know we had them until we started cleaning up the place. The house was empty for several years before we bought it, so there was a lot of cleaning up to do. That's when I discovered several fig trees hidden in the brush. 

Over the years, I've canned, dehydrated, and given away lots of figs. I've baked with them and we've eaten lots fresh. Then a couple years ago, one of them died. The next year another died. And the next year another. Now, our last remaining original fig tree is going the same way.

The leaves curl, yellow, and drop. 

I've done some research into this and it could be any number of things: nutrient deficiencies, disease, pests. Could be too little rain or could be too much. 

Nothing I've done has helped, so I'm doubtful the few figs the tree did produce will ripen. That will mean no fig harvest this year; a sad loss, for sure. 

Happily, we have a new generation of saplings, growing on their own and looking healthy.

It will be years before they produce much, but at least they're there. Hopefully, they won't succumb to whatever got the others. 

Alas, Our Fig Trees © July 2024

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com

Slow Progress on the Front Bedroom

The last time I talked about this room was in April, when I got my floor loom set up in it. Even though the interior still needs to be finished, that won't happen until our priority projects are finished. In the meantime, I'm working to make it more comfortable and homey. One of the things I did, was to hang two old printed quilt pattern bedspreads as window draperies.

Front window before

Front window with full size bedspread.

Side windows with thermal curtains.

Queen size bedspread for the side windows.

Even though the walls and window trims still need to be finished, the bedspreads help cover up the mess! 

The front window is shaded by the front porch, but the side windows in the photo above get the full brutal force of our afternoon southern sun. That means the room heats up, even with energy star windows. So in addition to the bedspread, I also used the four thermal curtains; one pair on tension rods in the window framing, and the other two hung on the inner rod of the double drapery rod. That gives me a double layer of thermal curtains plus the quilt. That seems to be helping quite a bit.

What's on the loom? It's a throw rug for the entryway of this room.

I chose the yarns to compliment the bedspreads. You can see those photos here. It's finished now, and below you see it here it is in its new home . . . 

Technical details for the rug are at my fiber blog.

The book shelf cubes are new too, and create a nice visual partition. My large desk is behind them, so they help hide the clutter!

I've also been able clear this wall in preparation for future work.

The brick wall you see is the back of our woodstove alcove. Originally, this bedroom and the living room had back to back fireplaces, both of which have been torn down. Dan is still planning on having a masonry stove built, and this brick wall will be incorporated into the thermal mass. After that, we can finish the wall and do something about the closet. 

Old photo from when we first bought the house.

The closet is 6-feet wide and 17.5 inches deep. The door is only 72-inches tall. That gives the shelf above the closet rod a 7-inch opening for storing items on the shelf.

With our 9-foot ceilings, there's almost 32 cubic feet of storage space above the shelf, but that narrow opening means it's near impossible to utilize! This currently unusable space could easily accommodate the few boxes I have left after my sort and purge. Obviously, the entire closet needs re-vamping, which we'll work on once the stove project is done.

So progress has been made, even though it will be awhile before we get the room finished. But it looks and feels nicer, and that makes me happy. 

Slow Progress on the Front Bedroom © July 2024

by Leigh at http://www.5acresandadream.com