Waiting to See Soil Again

With three feet of snow still on the ground and more falling each day, it is hard to believe that spring is just around the corner.  I doubt, however, that I will be able to put anything into the ground until late April.  That's okay though.  It gives me lots of time to prepare for those crazy days of bed prep and planting.

I have been on a plant buying bender this spring.  I'm really beefing up our offerings this year and investing in shrubs and trees that will produce in a few years.  I'm taking the 'buy it all now' approach.  The more I invest now the sooner I will get to harvest from these long lived treasures.

Some woody things we are adding are David Austin roses (lots of them), ninebark, crab apples, flowering quince, flowering almond, redbud, ilex, lilac, hydrangea, viburnum, pussy willow, curly willow, dogwood, American bittersweet, honey suckle vine, calycanthus, kolkwitzia, witch hazel, spirea, forsythia, fringe tree, aronia, chokecherry, hazelnut, mock orange, osage orange and on and on.  Most of this stuff wont really produce for 2 to 4 years but it is well worth the wait.

Some perennials that we are putting in this year include delphinium, foxglove, eryngium, rudbeckia triloba, echinacea, eryngium, allium, lilies, bearded iris (400 varieties from my life long collection/obsession), peonies, yarrow, agastache, helenium, hellebore, hosta, astilbe, golden rod, armeria, clematis, columbine, grasses, campanula, salvia, dahlias, dianthus, guillardia, gaura, gypsophilia, geum, heliopsis, heuchera, kniphofia, lavender, monarda, blue poppy, oriental poppy, liatris, mints, hyssop, penstoemon, shasta daisy, lupin, lysimachia,  and much more!

For annuals we will have snapdragons, amaranth, ammi, aster, sunflowers, zinnia, basil, ornamental peppers, celosia, strawflower, atriplex, godetia, grasses, calendula, bachelor buttons, scabiosa, cerinthe, bupleurum, cosmos, cardoon, golden drumstick, larkspur, dusty miller, flowering cabbage, sweet peas, stock, iceland poppies, lisianthus, marigold, hyacinth bean, love in a puff vine, gomphocarpus, bells of ireland, nigella, orlaya, salvia, green ball dianthus, and another dozen or so goodies.

For vegetables, just work your way from A to Z.  We got em!  I have tamed my wild vegetable buying ways, however.  I realized that I don't need to 10 types of beans or summer squash.  That doesn't apply to pumpkins, tomatoes or peppers though.  I still love to buy and try them all.

It is going to be a crazy year around here but at least we wont be planning a wedding this time.  I'm scaling up flower production by nearly double this year.  Vegetable production isn't shrinking, it is just getting more streamlined since my primary goal is just to feed ourselves and our 10 member CSA.

Early seed sowing has commenced.  I started artichoke, iceland poppies and some chantilly snapdragons.  Once the perennials seeds arrive I will get them started as well.

I have a light stand in the basement, wrapped in plastic.  I ordered a little fan on Amazon today to help keep air moving in there.  I also bought a couple of those metallic emergency blankets to wrap around the frame which will help reflect light back onto the seedlings.

We still have to finish the greenhouse but it has been so cold and windy lately, in the negatives and single digits.  Ugh!  I'm hoping to get some work done this weekend and next.  It is almost time to kick that thing onm though, with cold temps like these, I will wait as long as possible before using that propane.

Stay warm friends!

Michelle

What We Are Sowing

Time to start the Artichokes and perennials this weekend.  The beginning of March, I will start some snapdragons and a few other goodies.

I'll be back with photos of our sowing room in the basement.

Think Spring!!!

Wedding Flowers

Though I am still new to floral design, I had many women inquiring about wedding flowers based off of my market flower designs.  As my skills grow I'd like to do more wedding work.  This year I am hoping to do a few small ceremonies.  I'm working with brides that would like a less formal look at this point.

Hopefully I can squeeze some learning opportunities into my schedule this year.

I'm expanding my offerings this year and will be making a big investment into shrubs, bulbs and peonies this spring.  It is hard to control myself when those colorful catalogs start showing up in the mail.  I'm most excited about growing ranunculus and sweet peas, eeek!

Happy New Year!

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.