Summer

Summer has been cool.  We rarely made it into the 80's.  I wasn't complaining aside from the fact that flowers and vegetables prefer the warmth.  Plus, we didn't get rain for two months.  

This summer I realized that I don't want to grow vegetables commercially anymore.  My heart just isn't in them.  It is the flowers that captivate me!  I'm looking forward to streamlining.  Vegetables are a whole other animal and it was just too time consuming and annoying.  I'll still grow veggies for ourselves and I'll likely still grow way too many, especially, garlic, tomatoes and peppers, and I think I will actually eat more of them too.

I grew lisianthus for the first time ever and I'm smitten!  Such a dreamy, romantic flower.  I'll be putting in around 2 to 4 thousand next year.  I'm posting in a photo with an arm full below.

I am going to the ASCFG national conference this October and couldn't be more excited.  I'm also attending their Growers School.  I know I will learn so much and have a refreshed outlook on flower farming.  I need all the help I can get!  My organizational skills are lacking.  I'm a right brainer with A.D.D., go figure.

I'm giddy with excitement at all the new plants I acquired this year.  The perennial beds will be impressive next year.  I'm putting in hundreds of varieties of goodies, many of which I started from seed.  My greenhouse is stuffed with plants ready to get into the field.  Not that the veggies are gone I will have lots more space for flowers.

From here on out I plan to be more involved with this blog.  I really slacked this summer.  I worked over 40 ours a week and then with the farming I just didn't have time.  Next summer, I am only working three days a week.  I will have so much more time for weeding, and tending the flowers.  I'm really looking forward to being able to focus on the flower field and do more writing about it.

I'm on Instagram now too.  Check me out @perbellusflowerfarm.

A Quick Recap of Spring

Last spring was a late and cool one but it was one of the best for prolonging spring blooms.  The cooler weather kept flowers in the orchards for weeks and it was magic!  

The crab apple in our backyard was out of this world.  The fragrance wafted into our living room which is about 100 feet away.  The crab is now loaded with tiny red crap apples.  Our three apple trees are loaded with tasty apples too.   

We tilled up the entire front yard this spring to make room for peonies, annuals and shrubs.  I have yet to plant anything in there but I have the stuff.  I now have over 100 new peony plants, dozens of shrubs and trees, tons of bulbs and thousands of perennials.  Next year will be beatiful!