Month: July 2020

Here it is the end of July nearly and I have flowers by the bucketloads. The zinnias are pots of bright colors, the amaranth looks like Jack could climb them, the snaps are snappy, the bachelor buttons are cheerful and on and on. The asters and the dahlias are also stating to come into their own, slowly though so don’t expect big buckets of them yet.

We have had extraordinary hot weather, and some wicked storms come through but the flowers all seem to be holding up. In fact, they seem to be doing better than the gardener some days and certainly better than our internet.

I actually don’t know if our internet is up and running yet. Consolidated Communications wasn’t able to give a time last Thursday when the region’s internet would be back up and running, so, if you don’t get any newsletters this week regarding flowers, don’t worry, just come on over during our open hours. Remember, Tuesdays from 4-6 and Fridays form 9-11. I do so look forward to seeing you and catching up.

Alyson from Nye Hill Farm did have delicious green beans and yummy blueberries last Friday so I am hoping she will be bringing a small selection of farm fresh produce again on a regular basis. Hint, hint Alyson.

‘Til next time. Allie

What a scorcher in the last few days! Who wold have thought that Friday morning it was really chilly, and I was downright cold, and now the temperatures are in the 90”s. It is hard to keep up.

I have escaped to the lake in New London to avoid the heat. The gardens? Well, when I get home in a couple of hours I will see how they have fared. Hopefully well. Everything had a deep soak before we left and everything is also well mulched. I guess you will have to wait until tomorrow’s newsletter to see what is happening, or happened.

The flowers are starting to come in strong, lots of bouquets being made. This is last Friday’s garden haul. Beautiful isn’t it.

So, until next week. stay cool and hydrate. Allie

It may seem strange, starting up a cut flower farming business in one’s 60’s but here I am. The growing of flowers I am finding, more or less, the easy part. It is all the other important stuff one has to do to get the business name out there to generate flower lover followers. That is a mouthful isn’t it. The blog is chugging along and Mary is helping me with the website design because I am clueless. I don’t even know what half the terminology means. Then Instagram, whoa, that is way over my head, but I am learning. Baby steps. Hopefully I will have it all figured out by next year’s growing season. It is all such challenge because I would much rather be outside growing and playing with flowers than doing the computer stuff. Can you hear me sigh deeply?

With the rain we have been getting lately I have eased up on watering the beds every night, and instead sowed a bunch of buckwheat where I had spread the mown purple clover from the orchard. I can’t tell if the clover has germinated, but the buckwheat certainly has, and that is good because the recent rains have been pelting down. The white clover that I had spread on the roadway and paths all floated down the hill and was stopped by the wood chip that we had spread earlier in the season. At least the wood chip prevented everything from washing away and ending up in the woods. On the good side, the rain tanks are back to overflowing again, and bucket watering is taking a break for a few weeks. It is amazing how much time is opened up when one isn’t watering constantly.

The flowers are starting to really come on now. The sweet peas are still putting out flowers of 200 plus stems every few days. The snapdragons are flowering like crazy, the zinnias are starting up and there are a few flower buds on the dahlias that are showing color. Trying to get photos of the flowers in the garden is difficult because most of the flowers are cut before they are wide open so most of what you see is green. But I know that the flowers are there.

The flower shed is filling up very nicely on Tuesday and Fridays during the open hours. Soon I will have to put a board over the donkeys hay bin so I have more space to display the flowers and bouquets.

I look forward to seeing you soon at the open flower gate. Allie

Do you ever wake up in the middle of the night wondering if the retirement you have chosen might just be a bit overboard. So last night that is just what happened. I woke up, thinking 750 tulips! What on earth am I thinking! It is bad enough that I have just ordered 21 peonies, that will have to be planted this autumn, but really, do I need to plant 750 tulips? Will I be able to market 750 tulips? Who can say not to tulips. They are one of the most exquisite flowers, no, regal flowers out there I think. Next to peonies and roses and sweet peas….and all the other flowers when they bloom. I mean, look at this springs partial haul. Can one have too many tulips?

To err on the wise side, I am holding off on the tulip order for a week or two. I still have time and hopefully some of the best will still be available when common sense reigns.

It looks as though I have never picked a sweet pea here at the farm. They are flowering like crazy. Last week I picked about 250 for Tuesday, Friday I had picked another 400. I know because I bundle them in units of 25 and go from there. I try to harvest every morning before the sun hits the flowers, put them in fresh water and into the fridge to hold them for you. For all of this, they don’t have a long vase life. I wish I could make it better, but seeing how fast and furious they are coming in maybe that is a good thing? What doesn’t go on Tuesday or Fridays gets composted just because they just don’t have the shelf life. But just look at them!

So you might be asking what is coming on at the farm. Well…Snapdragons for sure, bachelor buttons, eucalyptus in small amounts and the zinnias are starting to show bud as well as some of the dahlias. I think it will be a few weeks yet before I am picking the dahlias fully. Patience. It is a virtue. I am told.

I will leave you with last Friday’s door arrangement which is now gracing my screen porch. Stay safe, and look forward to seeing you all soon at the open garden gate.

PS, we have changed the blog so when you go to the menu and hit subscribers portfolio, you will see some of the photos that you have been sending me of your flower arrangements. Cool heh.