Berry Season!

So as strawberry season starts to wind down (you can still get fresh farm-picked strawberries or pick them yourselves for about 2-3 more weeks), it means the beginning of blackberry & blueberry seasons! Blackberry picking season opens today at one my favorite picking venues The Happy Berry Farm in Six Mile, SC. And even better than blackberries are blueberries, whose season is predicted to open in two weeks on June 18th!!

Now, you can grow your own blueberries, but it will take a few years till your plants get big enough to have enough for two people, let alone a family. We have 9blueberry plants in our yard, which are growing but we will still visit Happy Berry this summer for more blueberries. We have 4 different cultivars of blueberries including Sunshine Blue, Tif Blue, and Tophat (can't remember off the top of my head the 4th). Blueberries are relatively easy to grow in full sun in zones 3/4-7/8, depending on the variety. There are some dwarf/semi-dwarf varieties (eg Sunshine Blue and Dwarf Northland) that only grow to be 3-4ft and can be container plants as well as full size ones. Full size blueberry plants grow to be 6-8ft tall at maturity.

A great summertime treat is fresh blueberries sitting on the front porch in the summer time with some sweet tea or lemonade is a great evening treat! Also, a great summer date is going out to a local berry farm with your significant other and picking berries together ... its a fun, cheap date that's not dinner & a movie. Can't wait to get picking! :)