Using blueberries for a healthy diet and enhancing landscaping

We enjoy eating blueberries so it's a bonus they're good to use for a healthy diet and we've found they can enhance landscaping.

Picking blueberries off knee-high bushes was a favorite summer event in Pennsylvania. My wife and I bought two blueberry bushes, set them in pots, and enjoyed the taste of blueberries from early May through mid-July. This time the bushes are in pots on our Southern California backyard patio.

We decided to grow the berries in pots instead of the ground since we could control the soil composition the best. We use a fair amount of peat moss and we don’t over water. Plants or berry bushes in pots are nice because they also provide more landscaping and outdoor decorating options than if they were in the ground in one location.

Two or more blueberry bushes are helpful for best results since they’re able to cross-pollinate according to the nurseries where we purchased them. Our first bush, though, was by itself until this season was already underway.

Two types of blueberries we grow in the Pasadena-Altadena area are Oneal Blueberry and Jubilee.

Oneal blueberries are for early season. They’re large and sweet, hardy and have a vigorous spreading bush that extends to 6 feet. The gray-green leaves will turn to bright orange in the fall. The Oneal blueberry is underneath our Chinese elm tree and gets primarily afternoon sun. The Jubilee blueberries are for mid-season bearing. It has light green foliage and sweet sky blue fruit. It, too, will grow up to 6 feet but more upright. This one grows well in full sun or part shade.

I feed compost to them regularly. When planting blueberry bushes directly in the soil, dig a hole 2 feet wide and 1 foot deep. Refill with ½ soil and ½ acidic matter such as peat moss.

I asked Samuel Whitworth of Whitworh Photography to take this picture of blueberries in a bowl.

Why take Viagra when blueberries are available? That was a report I saw recently on the Internet. Blueberries are full of antioxidant capabilities, according to a report from Tufts University.

On the World's Healthiest Foods web site there was this description about blueberries:

“In laboratory animal studies, researchers have found that blueberries help protect the brain from oxidative stress and may reduce the effects of age-related conditions such as Alzheimer's disease or dementia. Researchers found that diets rich in blueberries significantly improved both the learning capacity and motor skills of aging animals, making them mentally equivalent to much younger ones.”

Blueberries and American History

In the winter of 1620, the Pilgrims who survived the early settlement at Plymouth, discovered blueberries thanks to Native Americans which was an important native crop. In time, blueberries became an important food source and were preserved, and later canned. A beverage made with blueberries was an important staple for Civil War Soldiers. In the 1880s a blueberry canning industry began in the Northeast USA.