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Whoa! What month is this?

Sometimes I feel as though I am going in far too many directions, trying to get everything done on time to get flowers to you on time. Talk about planning. Tulips and other bulbs need to be ordered in May, to be planted in November to be in your happy hands by March. Phew. Seeds need to be ordered and some started by January so you can enjoy them this summer, then I also need to think about the autumn flowers that also need to be ordered like now, so I an have a decent selection so you have a decent selection in the fall. It is like tossing a bunch of balls in the air and keeping them all going. And yes, I do have sleepless nights trying to figure it all out. That is just scheduling, and nothing to do with the vagaries of growing, like weather, which I really have no control over.

I wish I were younger, but since that isn’t going to happen I just need to do it all now. Everything I read is just pick a few crops and do them all well, but I just want to grow everything, within reason. I love growing the odd bits because they are what makes your arrangements so special. I just love seeing what some flowers do and how to grow them. Like pumpkin on a stick. Weird to grow yes, interesting curve to figure out how to use it in an arrangement, but I just might have it figured out. Will I grow them again, yes, just because. It turns out that although they look delicate, they stand up to freezing temps so for your outdoor floral arrangements, they work. Here are two views of pumpkins on a stick.

Now the photos aren’t great but…this is the flower arrangement I did for Steve’s open studio on the Monadnock Art Tour on the left. On the right, are essentially the same flowers minus the dahlias, plus the strawflower and it has been sitting outside since Columbus day. Pretty stink’n good I reckon.

So one never knows what will just happen. One just has to try, keep an open mind, and have fun.

Now that the gardens are put to bed for the season, my mind goes like this. Tulips. First 3500 in. Tick. Bulb crates. Tick. Potting mix to plant next 2500 tulips in. Tick. Bulb room for next 2500 tulip bulbs….sorta.

Bulb room. Insulated.

Getting there. The temperature is holding at 40F, all by itself. I will paint it white in the spring, and I will more than likely have to run an extension cord this winter, but…getting there. A big Yay to Paul. Big boo to Tim the building inspector.

Flower seeds for spring…. making lists and checking them twice….finding a market for all my tulips….what was I thinking? Look at the clock by the bed, crap, only 2:00 am….what am I forgetting? But the floor of the greenhouse is done, just have to add the landscape cloth and it is done until the tulips are ready to go in and get ready for you.

Enough of me. I leave you with a little last minute table scape for Thanksgiving. Waterless so when the cats decide they need to play with it water won’t spill all over the table. You can make this as well. Fresh sage from the garden, rosehips, dried grasses and strawflowers. If you find you need some dried flowers and grasses to boost your table scape, email me and I will set some aside for you. Next year I will be more organized. (If we are lucky).

Little jars and nip bottles. Broom corn, grasses, strawflowers, rosehips, etc.

I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving. And my thanks is to all of you who keep me going with your enthusiam and love of flowers. I couldn’t do this with out you.

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What a Week This Has Been

Just because the flowers are done for the season it doesn’t mean that the garden is done for the season, or better said, the gardener isn’t done for the season. I have been very busy.

The garden is now completely put to bed. All the beds have had their leaf compost added with the old wood chips full of happy mycelia strewn on top so nothing blows away. The perennials have been cut back, two new rows are in the process of being created. First, the area has been killed with black plastic, which only takes a week or two in the summer, then it is puled back, cardboard is laid on top, then old mulch leaves for a couple of inches, the a very thin layer of the old wood chips. In the spring, the beds can be shaped, and my new project started. Yup. New growing project.

The black plastic is pulled back to reveal the dead weeds and active rodent evidence which kept Sadie very busy, then the cardboard, then the leaves and the chips. Now just waiting for spring when I will have inches of beautiful new flower growing space!

That project took about two days, then organizing the flower shed. It sadly no longer looks rustically floral, but at the moment it’s a clean storage shed. All the drip hose is put away, the netting is bagged and put away, the flower benches are stored. Tools hung, buckets washed and the flower cans as well.

I know. Beyond all recognition.

Then. Today, Steve and I drove down to a flower farm west of Scranton PA, a mere six hours away, to pick up 45 bulb crates. Was it worth all the hours on the road? Damn straight. At least I have the crates to now grow the forced tulips in when they arrive mid December. That is itself if a huge burden off my mind. Do I have enough? Well, I would never turn down the possibility of another 150, but at the moment what I have, with the input of some very gracious and generous friends, I will get the forced tulip crop going.

Could we have fit more? Possibly, but it’s like stacking hay, one has to know one’s husband’s limits.

I know, you are all busting at the seams to know what is in store for this week. Seed ordering. I wanted to start it last week on the rain day, but I took a mental health day and really did nothing that day, so this week. Seeds. What do I have, what do I need, and what do I want? It has to make some money, but I do like the unusual that really make your flower arrangements sing and lets me be arty farty.

Until next week. Allie

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First Sunday of November

It is so hard to believe that we have already had a full week of November. The temperatures have been relatively mild but boy are we waking up to some mighty white frosty gardens. Good, because I am no longer feeling bad about cutting down the flowers that were still looking decent, but OMG, so glad to see them go. Now I am racing against the weather. Will I get everything done that needs to get done before it is either too cold or to frozen?

You might ask what have I been up to in the last 6 days. Well, the tulips, all 3500 of them are planted. Three beds still have to be mulched, but I think that is pretty darn good. The dahlias have all been transferred into bulb bags are are now down in the basement, hopefully being safe. Now come the weekly checking to make sure they are all fine. I should, I really should have each variety stored in it’s own crate, but don’t have the crates yet, so I must pay particular attention to the tubers to keep them rot and disease free. No easy feat believe me.

Paul has been busy working on the bulb room. Yay! It has been wired, insulated, door and window installed….Hopefully electricity will be installed before I need it, but Paul has worked magic and I am happy. I would have taken a photo to post but I forget that we are back to winter time and it got dark to early. Will try to remember to post a photo next week. I would be happier if I had enough bulb crates for forcing the next 2500 in, but that is another story.

Post it notes are being put in the seed catalogs. Reviewing my notes and poor memory to see what I can delete, add and check the numbers so I have enough seed for each variety that I want to grow this next year. This is where the blog and the photos I post on instagram are important, they are my memory.

Steve has Frankenstiened the end of the high tunnel. It will be interesting to see how the temperatures will change this year having drafty ends. Better than no ends I reckon.

I have no photos to share with you this week, but, I am leaving you with two of last year’s photos so you can see what all the hard work will produce. Hopefully.

I reckon worth all the hard work.

Till next week. Allie