Yesterday, my daughter and I went to Laura’s Gardening Service, and I purchased two elderberry bushes and seven goldenrod plants, and while we have both on our property, they are back in the woods. I wanted more varieties, and also I wanted them planted closer to the house.
Because of the rain, I decided to hold off planting them yesterday; however, I did place all the plants in the general area where they would be planted, and today, I transplanted all of them. It took about two hours to get the area prepped and all the plants in the ground. I added pine bark mulch to the site and stopped because I ran out. I ordered more from my local Home Depot and was able to complete this task early this evening.
From my research, elderberry bushes are self-fruitful; however, you will have a larger crop if you have another elderberry species. While we do have elderberry on the property since they are in the woods, I decided it might be wise to purchase other elderberry bushes to ensure that pollination is occurring between the different elderberry species. I ordered three other bushes and will plant them in the same area once they arrive.
Goldenrod and elderberry are lovely choices for pollinators, and they both are native to my state. In addition, they are both edible. I look forward to watching the plants grow and eventually doing some responsible harvesting to make tinctures, teas, jellies, etc.; I’ll be freeze-drying the herbs with my Harvest Right-Medium Freeze dryer.
My lovely daughter took a short video of the mulching.