Patiently waiting...

Sunshine blueberries in front are developing, while future blueberries further back on the branch are still blossoms

You may remember photos earlier this year in my previous posts about the Sunshine blueberry plant in our backyard. Now the petals are slowly falling off to reveal the developing berries. Because of the lack of rainfall, and our limited watering, the plant doesn't have as many leaves on it as it usually would at this time of year. I was very worried about it because I was afraid that it was drying up.

But I added more organic potting soil to the container where the bush is growing and covered the soil with small pieces I cut from the fibrous part of a palm frond. (Our neighbours next door have a very tall palm tree from which huge palm fronds are blown off into our driveway when it is very windy. The base of the fronds are very fibrous and provide great wood-chip material when they are cut up.)The palm frond "wood chips" help keep in the soil any moisture from fog, morning dew, very occasional rainfall, and our limited watering.

To my surprise, the blueberry bush is now sprouting healthy new branches and leaves! I hope all the blueberries develop into full size for us to eat. Soon I'll need to put netting on the plant so that the towhees, who love the berries, won't devour all of them. But yes, we'll share some of the berries with the towhees.

We do have to prioritize which plants will be watered more. And those will be the plants that provide us and our native wildlife with food: the berries, herbs, salvia, lavender, and some others.