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Off Season Gardening

By Phran Novelli

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) - I planted blueberries. Last week. Does this sound like a good idea? Would I recommend planting lots of shrubs in January? No, but it had been mild for awhile, the ground was diggable, and the plants had been sitting around in their pots since last summer and kept blowing over.

I'd put off planting because I wanted to work a lot of peat moss into the soil - so, we put plenty of peat in the planting holes and spread the rest around the bed, and we'll work it in over the coming months. We got the plants in the ground before a couple of days of rain to water them in so we didn't even have to turn on the hose.

Was it a perfect way to plant them? No, but the blueberries are dormant, and I think they're better off planted than sitting rootbound in little plastic pots until spring.

This morning, there was snow on the blueberry patch. When they wake up in spring and find themselves in the ground, will they make lots of leaves and loads of flowers to become blueberries for pancakes and pies? Stay tuned, and we'll see.

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