[Ski]

^ oh... I wouldn't be putting a bunch of chemical stuff on any food crops... bad idea. I've had other people tell me they've put citrus rinds under plants (particularly hydrangea) to help acidify the soil. I suppose you could chop them up so your flowerbeds don't look trashy.

[treeswarper]

According to my soil test kit, I have modified the soil successfully. I've also worked in spruce needles from the yard trees. The blueberry shrubs have come out of their shock and all but one, which was near death and down to one live branch because it got fried in a different location, are happily growing. I do think the wounded shrub will also survive. I had some shading fabric to put over them but they survived the heat wave without it. I am amazed that they survived this hot summer so well. Oh, and they are mulched with sheets of cardboard covered in wood shavings--conifer of course.

[Anne Elk]

[Sculpin]

My daughter - a budding herbalist - recently introduced me to the berries of gaultheria ovatifolia, which I had apparently been walking by for decades. This is a creeping plant closely related to salal, but instead of having meh flavor like salal, it might be the one berry that surpasses even our best blueberries. It is hard to find the right superlatives for the flavor. The best I can do is a sort of "tutti-frutti" flavor with the complexity of fine wine, and very sweet. They are even smaller than red huckleberries, much harder to find, and never abundant, but worth seeking and picking for sure. I think they are more common in the Olympics.

[Joey]

[Ski]

Blackberries (R. Laciniatus) 09/15/21

[Bowregard]

Those look like Himalaya Blackberry or possibly Evergreen Blackberry. Now that I think about it the latter is more likely because they are later and the Himalaya Blackberries are just about done. Yum. Pie time.

[Ski]

wild blackberry (r. laciniatus) jam 09/16/21

[Bowregard]

No way those berries in the bucket were dewberries - unless the bucket was mug size. It seemed like it used to take hundreds of those little berries to fill a gallon coffee can.

[Ski]

my berry can? it's a 3-pound coffee can. repurposed.

[Bowregard]

The vertical handle is clever - we always just poked holes on either side and hung a handle like a bucket but they always seemed to tip over and all fall out when you climbed over a log.

[Ski]

oh..... couple holes punched at the top just below the rim... old shoelace tied into a loop. belt goes through loop so can hangs from belt. leaves both hands free to pick.