It’s Time to Plant Blueberries, Again!
With winter here, it’s time to plant more community blueberry patches in Forest Heights. We also need to maintain the 15 patches (and 103 plants) we’ve planted over the last two years. We still have some host-sites volunteered from past years, but we’ve used up a lot of the best sites that were initially offered.
So, if you have a sunny spot along the street, and you’re willing to host a patch of five or six bushes for the community, please sign up here before February 1. In particular, we hope to put in another patch along the sidewalk at the front of the neighborhood, close to the field. Other streets that lack bushes include: Stoneland Drive, Wood Valley, Woodcrest Drive, Landor, and stretches of Rivermont.
We will purchase all of the bushes and the materials needed for planting and maintaining the bushes with funds raised during last year’s Forest Heights Blueberry Festival. Clyde Yates of Hungry Gnome Gardenscapes will assist us again this year with planting, but we need LOTS of volunteers, because there is a lot to be done in a single day.
We aim to do all of the planting and maintenance on Saturday, February 11, 2023, beginning at 8:30 a.m. We’ll take a break around noon for lunch, and then get back to it at 1 p.m. If you can help in the morning and/or afternoon, please add your name to the spreadsheet here.
Kids are welcome and encouraged, but young kids will need to be supervised by an adult. Tasks includ spreading dirt and mulch, weeding, and putting new plants into holes. (Clyde has a machine that does most of the digging!)
Two More Things!
Kerem Kilic of Treeunion, who hosted an open yard event during the Blueberry Festival at his suburban farm on Forest Heights Drive, has grown chestnut tree seedlings that he is offering to the community:
‘Grade A’ Bareroot Chestnut Seedlings (12” and taller): $12/seedling. [Stock: 20]
‘Grade B’ Bareroot Chestnut Seedlings (5”-10”): $35 for/ 5 seedlings. This is a great opportunity to get many trees at great price! These seedlings are very healthy and will produce lovely and fast growing productive trees with a just a little extra TLC. [Stock: 40+]
To learn about the amazing bounty provided by these perennial nut trees, read the short article he wrote here. Let’s get some of these in the hood!
Lastly, we’re beginning to organize the 2023 Forest Heights Blueberry Festival for Saturday, June 3 . If you’re interested in getting involved this year as an organizer, volunteer, vendor or performer, please contact me at Bart.King@4newgrowth.com, or Philip Bishop at pwalkerbishop@gmail.com, or Danielle Gilmer at daniellesgn@gmail.com.
