Month: March 2021

Here it is Sunday again, and I sit in front of the computer listening to the rain fall, oh such a well needed rain. I haven’t looked at the rain gauge yet but I am hoping for at least 1 inch, 1 1/2 inches would be sweet though. That would certainly fill the rain tanks that we have set up, take away some of the mud and give the plants in the garden a good boost to grow. Okay, as of 5:45 we are at .65 inches, not nearly what I wanted. Between my every few hour garden tour circuits I can almost watch spring happen.

So. You are asking what is happening in the gardens at Lottarock. Plenty, believe me. The daffodils are emerging from their winter hibernation, the tulips, OMG they are popping up like crazy. This is last year’s photo and I would say they are further along than the photo, and maybe we are a week later.

In the perennial beds the asters are looking good, as are the chrysanthemums, sedum, kniphofia, and today I saw little itty bitty bits of the delphinium emerging, along with the alliums. Oh yes. Things are getting exciting.

In the annual department my trial bed of cool annuals are actually growing! The bells of Ireland, stock and bachelor buttons that the resident mice didn’t basal prune are looking good. Anemones and ranunculas are putting on growth as well now. I am spraying all seedlings in the little greenhouse and high tunnel with a solution of castor oil, dish soap and water. If it works to keep the rodents away from the bulbs when they are planted why not mice nibbling on the foliage? Knock on wood. It seems to be working. Must be applied after each watering though which is a bummer, but what the heck.

Sweet peas are germinating and should be in the ground the first week of April, or maybe the second week since the first week is this week. Where does the time go?

Now is the time that we are opening up Lottarock flower memberships. Yay! We are still doing it the old fashioned way. Cash or check made out to Flowers at Lottarock. Price is still $100. It still works like a gift card so your “purchase” is deducted from your balance. As soon as flowers start, the newsletters will begin keeping you informed of what is being harvested for each open hours. The hours have changed slightly this year. Now it will be Tuesdays from 3-6 and Fridays 9-12. Hopefully these times will be good for everyone. I need to limit the time open because I have to lock up the dogs during the open hours so they don’t greet everyone. What have I missed? There will be plenty of flowers so bring a flower loving friend along and get them hooked on our beautiful, responsibly grown, farm fresh local flowers.

I leave you till next week with this photo of last year. Allie

It has been quite a week here at the flower farm. Spring rocked in and I am sooo happy about that. I know, it is still March, and we still have to go through April, but things are a happen’en in the garden and I am loving it.

I am now on a weekly seeding schedule, which means that every Monday is seeding day. We started out slowly with the cool flowers but now we are ramping it up a bit and we are starting to rock and roll. Am I ready? As ready as I will be I reckon. I have seeds, compost, Pro-mix, heat mats, grow lights all lined up so I have been practicing with my soil block making so here we go.

I had moved out all the trial cool seedlings into the little greenhouse to cool off. The are keeping the ranunculas and the anemones company, but yesterday I got them into the actual garden beds. All of the Icelandic poppies are in the high tunnel, the stock, snaps, flax and bachelor buttons have been planted into the bed. I had to. I have what I think is a mouse feasting on all the greens. I have lost half the stock, the bachelor buttons have been well pinched so they should have excellent branching thank you. We have tried trapping, but it is wily so tonight we will try spinach and sprouts as bait. The creature seems to be craving greens so we will go that route and see what happens. Argh! I couldn’t figure out why I wasn’t counting as many ranunculas as I had been. They are still there cause I checked, but the critter has eaten all the tops. Sooo frustrating let me tell you.

While I was out in the garden checking on things as I do at least 12 times a day, because you never know, something might emerge from the earth this hour, I heard a buzzing, and if this works, I have a video of the witch hazel in full bloom absolutely covered with happy honey bees. This will be my first uploaded video so we will see how this goes. Didn’t work. I will try to post it to Instagram tonight. Try. The operative word. Instagram acct is Flowers at Lottarock.

In two weeks membership to Lottarock Flowers will be opening for the season. Many of you have a balance left, many of you don’t. If you have any questions email me at flowersatlottarock@gmail.com and I will fill you in. The membership is $100, and is good for two years. It works like a gift card, so when you come to get your flowers, that total is deducted from your balance. This is so exciting, and I look forward to seeing you when the flowers start, stay tuned.

Until next time. Allie

It has been a whirlwind week here at Lottarock. Emphasis on wind. It has been crazy windy this week, gust up to 45 mph, blowing over trees, blowing around anything that isn’t fastened down. And with today’s wind it is ushering in low temperatures of 12 degrees, and that isn’t including the windchill factor. So here is a quick look at my beautiful witch hazel that is in full bloom and looking just oh so nice, because tomorrow morning my guess is that it will be pretty toasted. Those lovely flowers do withstand the cold, just not 12 degree cold.

Between gale force winds, we have had some amazingly warm days that have melted lots of snow. The flower beds are still covered in snow, but the edges of the garden areas, where the daffodils and tulips have been planted are all open, and if you look closely, you will see green daffodil shoots poking through the mulch. No action on the tulip beds, but I have only just taken off the Christmas wreaths that I had put on when we had that warm spell back in January.

In the little greenhouse in cool seedlings are hardening off, (I need to cover them tonight), and the anemones and ranunculas are all hanging in. If you look closely, you will see the little ranuncs poking through. I have counted about 25 at the moment, not bad I reckon. I was thinking that they were going to be a total bust. At least I have growth so far. But as usual, time will tell. It is very exciting to see all this growth happening though.

This week will be spent getting ready for the first big seed push that happens in two weeks, but I need to sit down with the plot plan and figure amounts and where they are going. No, I haven’t done that yet. Hopefully those seedlings will be getting in the ground, and we will measure up for deer fencing because during the winter they nibbled off the flower buds of the lilacs. I certainly don’t need they noshing on my beautiful flowers when they start to come into production. You would think that I wouldn’t have deer with two dogs, and maybe they wee just doing walk through grazing but better be prepared.

I leave you with what is to come. Tulips from last May. Until next week. Allie

Like the swallows of Capistrano coming back in spring, the rocks at Lottarock are also coming back. Finally the rocks are reemerging from underneath all the snow. Having the rocks reemerge and mud. I can’t think of a better thing, outside of the color green and flowers of course.

I only have a few more weeks of slow time before things really start to rock and roll here at the farm. I made a map of the actual annual flower space and have figured out that I have 1700 square feet of growing space just for the annuals. That is not including all the spring bulbs and the perennials that have been planted so fingers crossed, I should have plenty of flowers this spring. I always say fingers crossed because when one deals with Mother Nature one just never knows.

I have bumped up the experimental cool crop seeds that I planted at the beginning of February and man dear they are looking good. Once I got them transplanted it was like they have grown overnight. I am still learning about soil blocks, but they are certainly easier to transplant into cell pacs and into larger soil blocks than any other method that I have used before. I am hoping to get them planted into the high tunnel by the end of this week. That is the plan anyway. I still have to get irrigation out there to get the beds watered before planting. The water line to the barn is still frozen, so I will have to run a hose out of the dirty room, through the garden to the high tunnel to get the beds and later seedlings watered, then at the end of watering, drain all the hoses and take them inside so they don’t freeze so I can use them again. A good way to get my steps in. At the moment, the seedlings on deck to be planted are snapdragons, stock, bachelor buttons, Icelandic poppies and some dianthus. Not large numbers of anything, just wanting to see how this goes. I am certainly looking forward to this though.

The next batch of cold tolerant crops gets seeded tomorrow, then around the 20th of March the big seeding starts to commence. That is when things start to get really exciting.

I still am not sure about how the anemones and ranunculas are doing in the little greenhouse. I am seeing growth, and this is where patience is vital. Tomorrow because it will be above freezing all day, fingers crossed I will drag out the hose and water the beds. Only time will tell, and believe you me, you guys will be the first to know if I see good things happening. This is what I am waiting for so impatiently.

Until next week, I leave you a lonely flower bud. Allie