Welcome Spring
i say welcome spring but honestly today feels like ole man winter has returned and rumor has it we are to get snow tonight. Welcome spring. I just keep reminding myself that it is still March, and New Hampshire to boot.
I has been a VERY busy week here on the farm. Steve and I have finished dismantling the donkey shed and the tidy up involved so we are ready for the next phase of Flowers at Lottarock. The donkey pasture is becoming the woody garden. The first box of liners arrived on Saturday and the fun began. Originally I thought I would get a little tractor in to create the rows for the plant material. Then I thought we have a BCS heavy duty tiller why not till the rows, less impact on the soil, or what ever it is I grow on. Well you know how this is going to go…The tiller wouldn’t start, it had flat tires…so Steve dug in to hopefully get it going, and I dug holes. I mean, how hard could it be? Actually it wasn’t that bad. I got the rows all marked out, and by the time my body crashed I had planted the first twenty shrub liners.
By mid afternoon the tiller was running! To be honest by that time we had both run out of steam, so hopefully Tuesday morning it will have dried out enough to till the rows to get the next twenty planted, because tomorrow another twenty two are due to arrive. Lucky for me they can live in the cooler until we can get them in the ground. That cooler was worth every penny I invested in it.
Speaking of cooler, tomorrow is the day that the last four crates will be leaving the cooler. I can honestly say “Yay.” These last four weeks are some really interesting tulips. Not ones that I ordered I am sure, but subs…some I might try to order for next year. And no, I haven’t even looked at the order form yet for 2026.
Tomorrow another round of seeding happens and the last batch of ranunculus will get soaked. The seedlings that have been planted in the tunnel are looking good, which is good. My numbers seem to be lower this year than in the past…I am going to blame it on the weather…having a real winter has thrown off my schedule, least my mind says so… the schedule hasn’t changed any.
This is the photo I took to show what had been harvested for flower shed Friday. I try to offer up interesting mixed bunches, we also had hyacinths, the last of the pink pussy willows for 2025 and some tiny, very tiny mixed tete e tete narcissus with grape hyacinths.
So I will leave you now with last week’s #windowframethursday. The striped tulip on the left is Purple Passion, I think…
Until next week and all its excitement, Allie. I dream of flowers, do you?