Design

I went with friends to pick blueberries this morning - a perfect Fourth of July outing. We weren't alone. A favorite u-pick berry farm in the foothills of the Blue Ridge mountains has acres of blueberries and blackberries to pick. There were families of all sorts there and the parking areas were full. It was nice to see! This was my harvest.

The rain this last week came just in time for the current crop of blueberries. The earlier berries were staying dry and sour from lack of water, then shriveling up. Blueberries (we grow rabbit-eye blueberries, Vaccinium asheii , in the Southern U.S.) are usually trouble-free, drought-tolerant, and attractive, too, in addition to producing lots of berries without any fuss. The squash 'beds' are turning the satellite garden into a squash carpet, as they sprawl down the slope, and around the garden. They require frequent monitoring for errant direction (up neighboring shrubs, the tomato cages, bean trellises, etc.). The mystery squashes definitely need eating when they're quite small (and delicious), as they're tough-skinned and seedy if left to become large. And the tromboncino squashes are starting to produce more heavily -- hmm, perhaps I should have only planted one? Since the woodchuck ate everything last summer but onions, garlic, and tomatoes (it seemed like),...

Since this is our Fourth of July holiday here in the U.S., Independence Day, I thought I'd post images of three natives of the Americas that fit the red, white, and blue theme, all from our garden. Tomato ( Lycopersicon esculentum and others., originating in Central and South America) Rattlesnake master ( Eryngium yuccifolium ), a deep-rooted prairie and grassland plant of the Eastern U.S. Rabbiteye blueberry ( Vaccinium ashei ), a native of the Southeastern U.S.