Gardening magazines and centres tend to tell you that blueberries are easy to grow in containers, if you don't have the necessary acidic soil to grow them in the ground.

I haven't found this to be true. Of my original two plants, one died at the end of the first year. The other is hanging in there, but it doesn't look good. I have 3 new ones, and 3 cranberries, and they're looking OK but today I have been taking special care of all of them.

As recommended, my plants are growing in ericaceous compost. I only water them with rainwater, and they need copious amounts of water (not a problem this summer!). I fed them with organic ericaceous feed tablets in the spring. Today I have applied sulphur chips to keep the pH of the compost down, and fed them again - they should be enjoying a second flush of growth about now.

In my experience, blueberries aren't the sort of plants that will tell you they're in trouble. They will simply go to sleep over the winter, and not wake up. Or you'll be left with a couple of twigs and leaves and a plant clinging to life.

I'm not trying to put you off, simply to be realistic - if you're into low maintenance gardening then don't try growing blueberries in containers!