Summers Peak

Market Day 7/27

 We had another great day at market.  It was overcast with a strong chance for rain but it held off. Sales were a bit slow at first but things picked up late in the morning and we sold all of our flowers, hooray!  I made 28 bouquets the night before and then made about 8 more at market.  I love coming home without flowers.  I received great feedback about my flowers too.  They last very well.  One repeat customer came to me and said that her flowers from two weeks ago are still looking good.  Success!

Next week I am shooting for 40 bouquets.  The garden is becoming more and more productive but I'm worried about my sunflower production.  I have a bit of a gap between the plantings so I wont have any blooming for a while after about a week or two.

I'm going to do some sowing today for the hoop house this fall.  I need to finish up the weeding and get the fall brassicas in the ground.  They are ready!

My hours at work are starting lesson which gives me much more time in the garden.  I could use it.  Our wedding is less than four weeks away now so there is much to do here to get the property looking nice.  After the wedding it will be nice to finally put in all the perennial beds.  I will really be able to do what I want with the property.  We will have a half acre of flowers and veggies next year, woo hoo!

 

 

 

Harvest and Market

I have attended two market days now and have sold out each time!  Well nearly sold out.  One bouquet left last Saturday.  I'm having lots of fun but it is clear that I will need a van soon.  30 bouquets is all I can carry in my little chevy colbalt.

We are now harvesting potatoes, green beans, cucumbers and some greens.  Summer squash is coming on too.  I have a bit of weeding to do this week but luckily the weeds pop out easily due to the nice raised beds we built this spring. 

I have learned how crucially important irrigation is to getting things to size up in a timely matter.  Lesson learned. 

The deer fence we put up a month ago is working like a charm.  Thank goodness!  One less thing to stress about.

Enjoy our photos from last Friday and Saturdays market prep.

Crazy Days

Never buy a house, start a farm and get married all in the same year.  It makes for a bit more stress than necessary.  Considering all of the planning, it hasn't been too bad.  Only recently have I started to become a bit frazzled with an occasional mood shift from frustrated, sad, angry and then happy again.  Mostly, my stress manifests in bad dreams which are a bit unsettling at times.

With that said, things are actually moving on quite nicely here.  We are a bit behind schedule on the farm but not too bad.  I'm already really excited for the fall garden and a strong flower crop for Mothers Day next year.  I really wanted to knock it out of the park my first year but that is nearly impossible.

We are finally getting a few blooms.  A snapdragon here.  Some bachelors buttons there.  One sunflower popped open today.  I think that we will be rockin by mid July and there is no doubt that the show will be amazing in August.  I'm planting as much as I can so that I have too much instead of not enough but I still feel like I don't have enough!

The vegetable plants are looking really nice.  We have peas!  The potatoes are starting to bloom.  Beans are leafed out, the brassicas are growing fast!  The beets, onions, lettuce, corn, mustards, Asian greens, turnips, and radish all look great.  We haven't had rain in over two weeks and there isn't much in the forecast either.  Not good!  Our lawn is parched.  I'm moving a sprinkler around the garden constantly.  I'm hoping to have irrigation soon but it's all about the $$$.

This weekend we should have some crops for our csa members!  Finally. 

Planting

Dianthus, calendula, bells of Ireland, centaurea, nigella, snapdragons and dahlias are all in.  There is so much more to go now that we are past the frost date.  Zinnias, celosia, sunflower, aster, cerinthe, basil, grasses, ornamental peppers, agrostemma, hyacinth bean, tithonia, gomphrena, salpiglossis...Holy moly.

The corn and peas have sprouted now and all the other veggie transplants are really filling out and looking nice.  In about a week I will be setting out the peppers, tomatoes, eggplant, summer squash, cucumber, winter squash, basil and pumpkin plants.  That should keep us busy.

We have also purchased a roll of biodegradable plastic weed barrier.  It is 4' by 5000' long so it should last us few seasons.  This stuff will save us many hours of weeding and is well worth the investment.

This week is looking pretty rainy, further delaying planting and field work.  At least it forces me to do the inside work that I tend to put off.

$99 Flower Share

We are offering a smaller share option for the peak months of summer.  For the months of July and August you will receive 8 weekly bouquets.  These will be big, bountiful and colorful!  Sunflowers, zinnias, celosia, basil, mint, pincushion flower, bachelors buttons, snapdragons, dahlias and more.  All these pretties for $99. 

Call or email for more info or to join us!

231-714-7327
perbellusfarm@yahoo.com

Planting Time

It's planting day!  Due to the late snow cover and cold temps we really delayed putting things in the ground.  Plus we had a killer freeze a few nights ago.  I was really bumming about not having stuff in the ground but after that freeze we are so glad we didn't.

We have tons of stuff to get in today.  Corn, peas, turnips, lettuce, beets, spinach, arugala, potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, Asian greens, mustard greens and of course flowers too.  Scabiosa, centaurea, gomphrena, calendula, grasses, snapdragons, bells of Ireland, cerinthe, sweet peas, nigella, bupleurum, larkspur and more.

Pictures to come!

Progress on the Farm

We finally started putting up the greenhouse yesterday.  The hoops and side rails are all up.  Today we will finish the end walls, install the fans and heater and put the plastic up.  I may not even need the heater at all the rest of this spring so that will be nice. 

 Andrew and his brother Adam finishing up before dark.  They kicked some serious butt to get all this up.

 Lots of flower and vegetable babies.

 I spent a few hours hand lifting the dead sod out front.  I'm going to rent a sod cutter since there is no way in hell that I can do all of that field by hand.  It will measure about 65' by 145'.

 New seedlings.  Ornamental grasses, amaranth, dianthus, ageratum, and celosia.

This is the northwest field.  It measures 126' by 113'.  We need a tiller to run over it two more times though to help break up all the grass chunks.  This is going to be a year of battling grass for sure!

 

I also tilled a field in the backyard that measures 50' by 50' ish.  We have about 25,710 sq feet of planting space now.  That should do it, I hope!