Do I Have Flowers!
They say that a good flower farmer should never have flowers in their fields. They should all be sold and the fields should just be green with buds. As you can see, I slightly disagree. Yes, I do keep the annuals cut so most of the time there is nothing to see, but the perennials I sell by the order and I leave the rest for the pollinators, and boy is the garden full of pollinators and birds. All good in my book, and hopefully yours.
I think I had mentioned that one of my projects was to broadfork the aisles between the peonies because the drainage was poor. What a project this has become. I started on Friday, and in four hours all I got done was one aisle and it just about killed me. And the broadfork.
Each try was at least 4 stabs, more like 6-8 stabs into the earth, rocking the fork back and forth to loosen up the soil. Then I had rocks that had to be dug out. Hard to believe I know. Beside the broadfork, I was also using a shovel and a spud bar to try to get the rocks out and out of the way. Some I will have to roll under the fence so I can pick them up with the tractor because I know better than to try to lift them.
I will say that I am very proud of this accomplishment. I am not looking forward to the next row, but that is for this week. Then I will sow a cover crop of tillage radish and hopefully it will get a toehold this time and will be able to open up more spaces. Only time will tell.
I think the compaction is from when Garth ran his digger back and forth for a week de-rocking and smoothing it out so I could make a garden. No heavy machinery has been on the garden since and I only broadfork now in the raised beds I should be good once I finish.
I have been so busy this week I haven’t even had time to do any flower arrangements for my #windowsillthursdays or my #intentionaltuesdays. A sad state of affairs in my flower arranging world but being busy with flower sales is good.
I have almost finished emptying out the tunnel of the ranunculus and anemone, almost, then I have to replace the irrigation in the tunnel then I will put the chrysanthemums that are growing in crates in the tunnel. I am giving myself a deadline of July 31 to get that all done. Meanwhile, I have a bunch of perennials that need to be cut down before they take over and hopefully get a second flush of blooms.
The gardens are looking beautiful right now so please swing by and see them. I know I certainly enjoy the break to stand up, take a break and talk flowers.
So, until next week, Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?