Author: Allie

What a dreary week this has been. I believe another fitting word would be drizzmal.I know I am not a big fan of winter but this weather is ridiculous. More reason to celebrate fresh local flowers when they get here.

Not much has been happening here growing wise. Spent a full day trying to get my website figured out. That took all the patience I had, a year’s worth probably, but hopefully, fingers crossed please, that we are good to go. I really don’t like technology. I just want to make gardens and grow flowers.

I am also trying to devote time each morning learning. That I enjoy. Trying to find a mentor or mentors that works for me is, well, challenging. I don’t ask for much, growing, sustainability, floristry and everything else that I can learn. When I am driving or in the gardens I am listening to podcasts and there are some really good ones out there, then there is also some really useful information on Youtube. I take everything I glean, mash it all up, and well, I make it work for me.

I have been enjoying my Thursday flower challenge that I have been posting on Instagram. I wander around the property and see what kind of bouquet I can create, then I post it on Instagram. It is a challenge, I want it all to come from the farm, but it is amazing if you look closely, and have a bit of humor, what one can do. These are last Thursday’s postings.

As you can see, I am having fun with snow covered greens and dried flowers from the garden.

Little jobs are getting done meanwhile. Benches were built for the greenhouse because in another month that will be getting filled up and I need to be ready. Steve built me a really cool watering wand for the tulip crates, and it looks as though it will also work for watering the seedlings once they have been transplanted.

Tomorrow the first four crates of tulips get pulled into the dirty room. I can not begin to tell you how excited I am, and yes, I am awake all night worrying about the tulips but here we go. The count down to flowers begins.

Until next week. Allie

Odd title I know, but growers go by the week of the year, so since I am a flower grower, this week is week two. Or, it is just a good title this week. Another note that has absolutely NOTHING to do with flowers. Tonight is one of the most clear nights we have had for ever it seems and the stars are amazing. Now onto flowers.

It has been a busy week here at the farm, hard work with some mighty procrastination going on. I should be working on my business plan, ordering seeds, working on seed scheduling, but no. I have been doing fun things outside because it was unusually warm and clear of snow. Steve and I got new beds built in the high tunnel and filled with compost. That is huge off the to-do list. So now, the beds are ready for the cool flowers and the ranunculus and anemones when it comes time to plant them.

The tulips are looking good and are in their 12th week in the flower cooler so in another two weeks the first of the crates will be pulled into the dirty room for the growing on, which will take about another 4 weeks, soooo, we should have beautiful tulip flowers by mid February when some color will do our souls good.

I am slowly gearing up, thinking and dreaming flowers. I am looking forward to some home grown flowers and color. I find it important to grow flowers that are good for for the birds and the pollinators and no chemicals are used on the property. The flowers are fed with fish emulsion and compost from the farm. Hedgerows are being planted for the wildlife and for me to be able to cut from and I don’t till the flower beds at either end of the season building up the soil health but am trying to leave the property in a good healthy way. All this takes time and work, but I strongly feel that this is the best management practice I can do at the time. So, unlike the flowers that are shipped in from overseas, these flowers you can safely handle and sniff the perfume. And you are supporting a local flower farmer.

I leave you with this quote from a fellow flower member. “Without the knowledge of the struggle….The joy of the bloom is diminished”…. Thank you Kathy Guyer. I can’t tell you how much that means to me.

Until next week. Allie

Hard to believe that it is a new year and a new start to a flower gardening season. Yes, flowers are getting started this week. Perennials need to be sown as well as the cool flowers that will be planted out in early March.

I had a lovely three week break cruising the south Atlantic, rounding Cape Horn and up the south Pacific, but now that that is done, the holidays are done it is time to buckle down and get on with flowers. I am ready, are you?

First on my, or should I say our, docket is now that the snow has melted and we can find the lumber, new beds for the high tunnel need to be built. I am reconfiguring the space so there will be more room for flowers so new beds need to be built while the weather is in our favor to move compost and get them ready for planting at the end of February.

The tulips in the crates are coming along nicely which is exciting. I am starting to lose sleep over them now so their season must be getting closer.

That is it for now, just wanted to say hi. Oh, if you have any suggestions of what you would like to see this growing season, drop me an email and I will see what I can do. I always love a good growing challenge. Until next week. Allie

it is officially the end of the season, and for that I am quite relieved. It has been a long season, starting in mid February and ending just a few weeks ago, but now alas (yippee!) the growing season of 2022 is behind me.

I must say thank you to all of you have supported my flower passion. To those of you who came and got flowers, to those that would send me encouraging emails I can not thank you enough and your support means everything to me.

We are going to take a break for a few weeks. Give you all a chance to get a break from me. We are off on a well needed rest and vacation and will return mid December. Then I will be back, full of vim and vigor, ready to leap into January seed sowing for those hardy flowers, then fingers crossed tulips mid February and so on and so forth. 2023 will be another fun, flower filled year so stayed tuned.

So, until mid December, enjoy your break from me. Until then, Allie

I think I can, I think I can. With Wednesday’s looming plowable snow forecast It will get it done, or not. I am sooo close to finishing up. The dahlias are all planted, the tulips are all planted, the cover crop has been mowed, and almost all the flowers have been cut down except for the chrysanthemums that the honey bees and pollinators are all over and I can’t bring myself to cut them down until the season is truly over.

So what am I going to do with all my “spare time”? I will be making some dried bouquets that I will have for pick up if you are interested. I have some really beautiful farm grown flowers and grasses to adorn your space many of which you have seen hanging from the ceiling of the flower shed. If you want to create you own, just let me know so I can get the assortment ready for your perusal. Just drop me an email and I will have what you want ready for you. I think it will be pretty cool to do something different with my flowers.

My other cool project is that on Instagram, @flowersatlottarock I am now challenging myself to do a windowsill arrangement every Thursday. I chose Thursday because it seems the only day that I have time to be creative and not rushing from one place or another.

I need to work on the windowsill a bit more, it still has builder’s gunk on it but these were the flowers I harvested last Tuesday. And no, they aren’t arranged, it is just how I had gathered them in the garden.

I am loving the season extension that the chrysanthemums are giving me. I have been getting flowers almost a month after the flower shed closed for the season. Not enough to convince me to extend the shed any longer in the season, but will still be willing to do special flowers until there is no more. But then, I will have dried flowers on call, and holiday bouquets…next year.

Until next week. Allie

Here we are. November, and this weekend has felt like mid August, with the warm temperatures and the high humidity. Not that I am complaining because it has been a pleasure to be able to work in the gardens without 16oo layers on to stay warm. The plants might be confused, but hopefully they will adjust.

It has been a busy week here at the farm. My friend Gary has been helping me on my mailing system. Hopefully I have transcribed all of you addresses correctly and you will be getting these emails…no more google, hopefully but a proper mail server, or whatever they are called.

That was painful office work, and for fun I finished planting the last of the in-ground tulips. All 3000 of them are hopefully tucked in and they won’t be bothered by the rodents. They were my hair pulling last spring. That the the temperatures in the 70’s and 80’s early May. That was NOT fun. Soon it will be a new year and new flower growing experiences.

My other great hurrah is all the dahlias have been gotten ready for storage. I don’t divide the tubers now, I leave that lovely chore for spring. But each variety is labeled and put in it’s own tulip bag, (which I have an abundance of), then into plastic storage boxes and this year they are being stored in the cooler with the tulips. They both need to be about at the same temperatures so this saves me from having to haul the heavy crates down into the basement.

Now with those two huge projects behind me I can now focus on getting the rest of the flower beds put away, the peonies planted, the leaves mulched, last year’s leaves on the garden beds, THEN, I can start cleaning up the house gardens. I do feel as though I have made great headway.

Until next week. Allie

I don’t know which is more stressful, getting everything into the garden in the spring, or getting everything out of the garden in the fall? Tuesday is Nov 1st, and I have until Nov 23rd to get everything wrapped up for the season. Can I do it? The challenge is on for sure.

This week was a busy one. We have had two good freezes, so the gardens, except for the mums and the still going strong cup and saucer vine, are done for the year. Now the disassembly begins. Plants cut back, Hortnova removed, folded,(kinda) put in its own bag and labeled. Learning curve. Weed mat taken up, neatly folded and labeled what side it fits on and the spacing of the holes. Drip irrigation rolled up, and now that I have this wicked cool wire spinner it is much easier. They are also labeled and stowed away until spring. I still have many beds yet to go because in the meantime….

I have been making bouquets. Very exciting.

All off to a special dinner party!

When I haven’t been making bouquets, the dahlia tubers have been lifted making sure all the correct labels are with them, letting them sit in the sun for the day, then putting them in bulb crates and into the back of the flower space under the garage protected from the cold (I hope) until I can get them ready for storage for the winter. For some silly reason, that act of putting the tubers in the crates makes me feel like a real flower farmer. Crazy I know.

Then on Friday six more bouquets, the last of the season. Bittersweet. Happy, yet sad.

Dahlia tubers can wait, flower bouquets are done, now on to TULIPS! Steve has been making me, fingers crossed rodent proof tulip boxes.

The dogs and I have been filling them for spring delights. You can only imagine how that is going.

What a busy flower farmer week it has been. 1750 tulips in, about the same yet to go. Then back to dahlia winter storage, then back to putting the rest of the garden away. Can I do it? Can I get it all done by Nov. 23rd? Only time will tell. Then. I get a two month rest. I think. I hope.

Until next week. Allie

What a funny title you might ask. Well, it’s true, it is the end of the summer growing season, but so far I am still able to create a few bouquets each Friday. So even though the flower shed is officially closed, because now it is the garden shed, I will have some lovely autumn bouquets available.

Slowly the flower beds are being taken down. Almost all of the beds have been cut down now with the horrible Hortnova netting folded up, labeled and put away. Next, the weed mat and the irrigation. After that….the list keeps going.

Yes, it is sad to see it all go, but I am also ready to ease up on the work. Not that it is easing up at the moment. I still have to lift the dahlias, and get them labeled and into winter storage, I still have to plant another 3000+ tulips, but today I prepped a bed with early cool crop seedlings and got them planted and watered in. They say rain tonight. Hmmmm. That would be nice but not counted on.

It looks as though the weather this week is going to be mild so I will have flower bouquets available. If you don’t want to drive all the way over to find they are gone, email to reserve or come anyway and keep me company in the garden. No work involved. Just conversation.

So I leave you with a just for fun image of the last of the dahlias. Just cause.

Until next week, Allie

PS. My editor is home from his travels. Yay!!!

So I thought the season would be over by now, almost praying that the season would be over by now, but as of today, I still have dahlias, zinnias, (who would have thought), as well as chrysanthemums, perennial asters, grasses and amaranth to round out some mighty beautiful bouquets. At least in my opinion. So stay tuned to the newsletter for special items like dried flowers, holiday decorations and more. As you can tell by my run on sentences and worse, my trusty editor is away again.

Most of the garden has been cut back at this point. The entire right side has ben cut and added to the compost pile. I just can’t do that to the left side that holds the dahlias and the zinnias. I know this is bad because as a true flower farmer I need to just let it go. There is no money in it so I just need to flip the beds and get on with the next season, but I just can’t. I will next week, but I just love having flowers in case you didn’t know.

Stink’n rodents. I nearly fell into a hole in the cutting garden the other day. Said HMMM, looked down and saw some piles of dirt, so I called over my trusty garden dog Jager and need I say more. I now have two feet of freshly tilled garden.

Besides the hard freeze that I am waiting for I am also waiting for my trusty editor to return so he can build the boxes with hardware cloth on the bottom to keep said pesky rodents out. Then I can plant the last of the 3000 tulips that will come into flower after the forced tulips will. More in their natural blooming time, but they will still be stunning flowers to be had for sure. Never a dull moment here at Lottarock.

Stay tuned to any newsletter about special things like dried flowers, wreaths and other creative endeavors.

Again, I cannot thank you all enough for supporting my flower dream. You flower people are the best.

Until next week. Allie

I woke up this morning to finding frost on the shed roofs, cars and on the winter pasture, I thought to my self while groaning, seasons over, but by the time I had gotten back from taking the dogs for their morning walk, the flowers didn’t look too bad. Yes, some of the dahlia foliage got burned, but no black mess. Yet. That will come.

But!

Bed clean up has begun. Stalks are getting cut down to the ground. Hortnova netting is getting wrapped up and put in zip lock bags. I just hate putting this stuff on and taking it of is even worse but I really does help in corralling the flower stems and keeping things in some sort of control. I hate that it is plastic, so I do my best to reuse it for as long as I can, but it is such a pain to work with. I used jute twine on some of the beds but ya know, it just doesn’t work as well. So until I find a better, cost effective solution, I will fight with the Hortnova netting.

I harvested these last night thinking that we were going to have a freeze and that this was going to be the end of the season, but we escaped with minor damage. That doesn’t mean the flower shed will be open. It does mean though that I will make bouquets for you on demand until everything is done. How long will this be for? I have no idea, but at the moment there is no foreseeable freeze in the forecast so drop me a text or an email and I will see what I can create for you. This will be kinda fun for me. I think. I also am hoping to offer some things with the dried flowers, so. Stay tuned.

I know that it is sad to see the end of the flower season here at Lottarock, but if this helps, 2250 tulips have been planted this week in crates and they are in the bulb room going through their winter so to speak. If I have done my calculations correctly, I will have tulips for you by mid to late February. which is only 18 weeks away!

Meanwhile, I still have some beautiful chrysanthemums, dahlias, foliage and pumpkins on a stick to make a bouquet for you on order. Lucky us I reckon.

Before I send off, I just want to thank all of you, my local flower people and my faraway flower people for all of you support. When I thought I just couldn’t do it with the drought, you were there supporting me. You folks are allowing me to fulfill my dream, and I will continue on until I can no longer physically do it. Don’t panic. I see this going on for at least another 6? years. Longer if possible but don’t tell Steve that. I promised him I would stop at 70. Since he ins’t here to proofread me, (as I am sure you can tell) he won’t know will he. The enthusiasm of you, my flower people make this adventure so amazing and wonderful so THANK YOU to all of you.