divaqs's Blog

Evergreen Blueberry Hedge
Apr 14, 2007 | 10:32 PM PST
Tags: blueberries , hedge , blueberry , evergreen , landscaping

It always surprises me when people assume edibles can't be attractively organized.

Oftentimes making edibles attractive is simply a matter of using the same principles in design with them as is done with ornamentals. An example of this are my evergreen blueberry hedges that line my drive way.

One of my very first projects after moving into my house a little more then three years ago was to rip out the horribly overgrown Junipers and replace them with about 20 evergreen blueberry bushes.

Here is a picture of the "ornamental" juniper bushes that used to line my driveway three years ago.

Personally, I thought they were anything but ornamental.

Today I took a photo of one of the hedge rows that now line my driveway.

The blueberry bushes haven't reached full size yet, but are getting close to forming a hedge. The trick to getting them to form a hedge is planting them a little closer together then is recommended. The recommendations are based on optimizing space for maximum berry production, but my experience has been that even with them spaced closer together I get way more blueberries than my family can keep up with.

This time of year the blueberry bushes have a nice splash of extra color while covered with a large amount of pinkish ribbed bell shaped flowers.

The variety of blueberries I planted for hedges were the Evergreen Sunshine Blueberries, described by my favorite nursery, Raintree Nursery, as:
"A unique evergreen selection with attractive year round foliage and hot pink spring flowers. The bush grows 3-4 feet tall and wide, and produces up to ten pounds of delicious, light blue, medium sized berries. They ripen over a very long season, from early August through early September. Hardiness to 0 degrees F, a very low chilling requirement of only 150 chilling hours and a tolerance for higher pH soils makes this a perfect choice for gardeners in the Pacific Northwest, the South or in California."

I like having a good selection of evergreen plants in the front yard, for year round affect. My blueberry hedges are a big part of that. In the fall there is a time that they shed a lot of their leaves, which shocked me the first time I saw it, since I thought they might have a disease, but after two years of observing this, have come to accept it as normal. Even when shedding leaves in the fall they have new leaves growing, so they are never completely bare.