Month: June 2020

The sweet peas have been coming on fast and furious. I feels as though I am harvesting them both day and night. I wish I could say I have armloads full, but only lots of beer cups full. The colors are beautiful, I wish I had room to grow all the varieties that are available, but alas, no. And the fragrance is sublime. It is too bad they are only at their best for about a week, give or take the ambient temperature, but what a week of pleasure they give. I have bunches scattered around the house, some even beautifully displayed in old clean dog food cans. Yes, even clean tin cans will work for flowers.

I haven’t picked yet today because I am waiting for the weather to cool down and the sun to leave the garden for the day but look at the bounty awaiting me. Oodles and oodles of beautiful sweet peas.

I am sad to say that I am done harvesting the peonies. It was a beautiful but short harvest time this year because of the extreme heat. I still have some in cold storage and will see how they look for Tuesday. If they aren’t up to snuff they will be composted. What I have done though, is order 21 peony roots for planting this fall in the new beds. That should take care of all our addictions. So next early summer I will have plenty of flowers and I won’t have to cut from the house stock so heavily. Two rows, ten plants each row, that should be enough. I hope.

I have also started to pull together my tulip order. I have earmarked about 750 tulips. Do you think that will be enough or am I going foolishly overboard? I had originally marked about 1500, but I know for sure that is overboard. Even for a flower nut like me. I haven’t hit the order button yet….and that doesn’t even count the narcissus, allium, frittilaria…

I have finally gotten the pumpkins planted and they are looking good. The second planting of the sunflowers is well, lets just say struggling. I think I will have to just direct seed the last row. The chipmunks pinched the last crop a bit close to the ground so I don’t think they are going to take. So tomorrow, a new batch of seed go in, protected with a bit of row cover to slow down the chipmunks. Argh.

Steve scythed the purple clover in the orchard for me last week and I have raked up the tops and spread them on the last bit of open garden space. I figure the stalks and seed will cover the bare earth, especially if we ever get rain, the seed will eventually germinate and the soil will be protected and sown at the same time. I also broadcast some buckwheat seed for added cover crop protection and to start building up the rocky soil. Nothing ventured nothing gained.

So I leave you with an image of last Friday’s wall pocket, or I should say, door pocket bouquet.

Until next week. Allie

I am sure you are wondering what happened to the Peony time. Well, it is still here, but just. This past weeks heat wave hasn’t done them any favors. I go out in the morning and harvest what I can, get them into water and with the heat, by evening I harvest them again. I am keeping them cool in the flower fridge, but outside, oh my they are going by fast. But in answer to your question, yes, I will still have peonies for this coming week.

But more exciting than peonies, and you might ask what is more exciting than peonies, are the sweet peas. I love sweet peas. They remind me of my grandmother. With today’s breeding and selection sweet peas have come a long way. I hope that I have chosen varieties you will like. But then, how can one go wrong with the beautiful fragrant flowers.

So this past week has been a week of watering. Deep soaking watering, and most of the plants are doing well. I can’t say I am terribly pleased with how the lisianthus are doing. They are notoriously difficult crop to grow, and this year is no exception. If I didn’t love them so much for their stunning, long lasting blooms I probably wouldn’t bother. I can’t say what the crop will be, or when, but we will struggle together. The lisisanthus and I. Could be a poem.

I think I have the new garden space mostly laid out and at least covered with bark mulch, and in my mind where things will go. I know, it is all up to change, but for the most part I think it’s good. I wish it would rain so I can get a cover crop sown, but at the moment that is going to have to wait. Can’t see feeding the birds expensive seed if I have no way of keeping it watered waiting for it to germinate. On deck to plant is the next crop of sunflowers and the pumpkins and gourds. Then I think I will be done with planting until fall. I think. I always have to leave room open for options. I am still planting perennials in the holding beds for the big fall planting but that doesn’t count.

So. Until next time. Allie

I feel as though I have been a chook running around with my head cut off this past week. Phew! I have finally gotten the last of the narcissus transplanted into their new beds. Was that a chore and a half, but it is all done. Until this fall’s shipment of bulbs arrives and I have to get them all planted, but that isn’t until October so I will be good for a few months yet. The last of the annual seedlings have been planted, another great task hurdle done, and now that the narcissus have been moved I can finally start getting the sunflower seedlings planted.

Steve has helped me get the barn poo cleaned out from the goat stalls into beds and we have covered all that with wood chip. As I was spreading more chip, and I even roped a friend into driving the tractor for me while we visited, I decided that this new area will be the perfect place to plant the pumpkins and gourds. Those seeds have been started and hopefully will be planted out by this time next week. Hopefully. That word can mean so much optimism. The netting has been put in place so the seedlings and plants will grow straight stems, but artfully curving stems are all the flower arranging rage now so hopefully that will also help.

The peonies are starting to come in fully now. Yay.

So this is a bouquet that I made out of left overs from last Friday’s open garden gate. I think it is still looking good despite a bit of trauma.

So we are nearing the end of the spring flowers. And honestly, it is very sad to see them go, but there is so much more in the upcoming weeks that will be just exciting. So I will say good bye to the spring bulbs, and hello, the beginning of summer flowers.

Check your mailbox for the newsletter for what is available on the open garden gate days.

Until next weeks blog, Allie

Here we are at June 7 and I am still planting flowers in the cutting garden. All the flowers that had fried to a crispy toast have been removed and replanted. Some replacements I had on deck, some are new ones that hadn’t been planted yet. Although I have tried to keep the beds planted in blocks to make harvesting easier, and it looks way cooler, it is now a bit haphazard. Oh well, they are all growing well now. I probably have another, let me think, four or five flats of 806’s which translates to 6×8=48×5=240 plants that yet have to go into the ground. All this week. Maybe Tuesday.

Meanwhile, bed construction still continues. I have most of the area flagged out, and we are shaping the spaces slowly. Hot work, but with Steve on the tractor and me shoveling it really does go faster than with just me. Tidier as well. Hopefully by July all the beds will be filled and if we ever get some decent rain, cover crops sown. If not, it will just be with what we have. Cardboard, wood chip and a dusting of compost. I also have the last fifty narcissus bulbs to get shifted this week because the sunflowers are beginning to go in and I need the space for them.

At the moment we seem to be going into a short lull. The ranuncs and anemones are nearing the end, sad, they were stunning, and the peonies are just hanging on to their tight buds with all their might. I have a few singles, but the bigger wow ones are taking their sweet time.

Listening to a podcast this afternoon after a short respite up at the lake cottage, a farming flower couple were excited because they were taking their first vacation together after seven years of starting their flower farm. Oh to be so young. My body wouldn’t last to those rigors anymore. Hopefully after this year the biggest push will be over, and then it will just be normal hard work.

Until next time, Allie

Wow, what a week it has been! I feel as though I have spent all my waking hours trying to keep water up to all the plants, it has been so hot. The shrubs, the perennials that are in the holding beds, and my poor little seedlings that were doing so well and that I was so happy with have been scorched to death from the intense heat and wind that we had this week. I would estimate that I lost about 40 percent of the new seedlings that I had planted just last week. The intense heat, the small root system that hadn’t had a chance to take hold, and the wind, my poor babies just roasted, I can’t even blame Sadie this time. Just Mother Nature, and oh she can be soooo cruel at times.

Enough of my whinging. Things have been going well here are Lottarock Farm. I have been slowly spreading bark mulch and compost on my new space, figuring our what is going to go where, working out the paths and trying to take my time so I get it right the first time. Getting too old to be rearranging all this every year. I think I have the space now designated for the little spring bulbs, the narcissus, the perennials and the peonies. Might as well get it all in now, because time goes way too fast.

So if you didn’t know, we are called Lottarock Farm because we have way too many rocks, not little rocks, but honking big rocks, bigger than VW beetles! While I might have a lot of rocks, I am quite shy on soil, so in order to prepare these future flower beds I am doing a few soil building experiments. Beds are being spread with bark mulch which I have from the tree clearing and topped with compost. Other beds have compost covered with bark mulch, and other beds yet with cardboard, bark mulch and compost, and last barn poo, cardboard, (to keep the dogs out of it) and bark mulch. It will be interesting to see what happens. It will all eventually become soil, but which will be the fastest. This is all part of my “No Till” experiment. With No Till, I am keeping all the nutrients in place and not damaging the soil structure so the plants have the best possible environment to establish themselves and thrive. At least that’s the idea. We’ll see how it goes. The most important thing is that I get that little bit of soil covered. I had plans of sowing everything with a cover crop but with it being so dry I just think I would be feeding the birds with the seed since every drop of water is very precious here at the farm. That is another story.

So between hauling water non-stop and building beds for next year’s flowers I have been pouring over the bulb catalogs to see what fabulous spring flowers I can tempt you with.

So you are asking what is up on deck for the future flowers here are the Rock? Well the peonies are starting in. I need some heat, but not wicked heat because we want those beautiful blooms to last and some natural rain would go a long way. For the flowers and my body. Also many of the perennials and bi-annuals are starting to happen so I guess all I can say at this point is stay tuned to the newsletter which will give you all the details. I leave you this to tempt you.

Until next time, Allie