Welcome Fall!

It is hard to believe that fall has arrived today. The end of the season is within sight. For us at Lottarock it will be a little earlier than the normal time this year, The flower shed closes on Oct 4 so get your beautiful fresh flowers while you can. Only four more open shed days remaining.

Just because the flower shed will be closing doesn’t mean that the farming is ending. After Steve and I take a well needed vacation, the panic will be on to get everything done before winter sets in. My mind is already racing with what will have to get accomplished as soon as we arrive home.

My first big action is tulips. I have already washed fifty two crates that the tulips will be forced in. I did that on our last sunny and warm day last week. I figured if I had to play in water might as well do when the weather is beautiful.

The tulips are to arrive, I hope, the week after we return, which will give me a bit of breathing room to get all of the dahlias dug, cured and stored in the cooler before the tulips go in. After that, tulips are planted in the crates, along with the narcissus and hyacinths. After that, the remaining tulips go into the ground and the time and temperature sensitive jobs are done. Then clean up of the garden can happen. Netting taken off and stored, plants mowed to the ground, weed mat taken up and labeled. Irrigation taken up and labeled. Phew. My goal is to get it all done before Thanksgiving. I am hoping for good weather. If the weather cooperates, then I will get the beds mulched and prepped for the early spring crops.

I had another wagon load of flowers go out on Thursday for a wedding on Friday. It was Hancock centric, the bride grew up in Hancock, the floral creator grew up in Hancock, and the flowers were grown in Hancock. I think that is really cool.

Molly’s wedding flowers

The flowers are still going gang busters and the colors are just getting better. Below is last week’s creation I did for my #windowframethursday. I had plenty of flowers to play with so play I did. I used chicken wire in the vessel to hold the flowers in place.

Sedum, dahlias, zinnias, amaranth, cosmos, dusty miller and salvia.

Remember, only two more weeks of open flower shed. Last one will be Oct 4. After that, no more flowers until mid February if all goes according to plan. And you know how those best laid plans workout sometimes.

Until next week. Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?