We don’t grow blueberries in our yard. I’ve always been told that Southwest Florida isn’t a good place to even try. It looks like that might be changing though. We visited a local blueberry u-pick farm this week that had us singing and dancing with buckets of dee-licous blueberries. Yay… we don’t have to go to Georgia to have fresh blueberries!
We never knew picking blueberries was so much fun! My kids love to pick stuff off plants.
My 5-year-old took this photo. I asked them to hold the camera for one minute…
Blueberries are perfect for little hands to pick!
I have a local friend that grows her blueberries in containers so she can control the ph. She uses a 50/50 mixture of peat and perlite in her containers. Her backyard plants give her family lots of berries every year. Ideally, blueberry bushes like acidic soil with a ph of around 5 and most of our soil has a ph of 8-9. However, the hundreds of blueberry bushes we saw at our local u-pick were planted in the ground and loaded with berries. I’m not sure what varieties they’re growing, but we love the flavor. Click here for a list of blueberry varieties suggested for Florida by the University of Florida. Click here for an excellent slide show by UF on growing blueberries in South Florida.
Our local blueberries are only around for a short time in April and May. Check out Patty’s Patch if you’re in Southwest Florida and want to pick some fresh, local blueberries.
Patty’s Patch Blueberry Farm (U-Pick) in Southwest Florida.
This was just the beginning. We filled two buckets. I have big plans for our blueberries.
Heavenly Florida blueberries in our bucket.
Come grow with us!
Pick Me Yard 