Welcome all. Well it has been another crazy week here at the farm. But really, what would you expect at this point right? Friday was a bittersweet day for me here. It was the last day of the tulips. I had been growing them since September, offering to you my amazing flower people and many more since Mid February and Friday it was their last day. They were an amazing crop, each week providing spectacular flowers and yes, I will miss them, but there is so much more beauty coming on that to be honest, I need the room and their time has come to move on. Thank you all for enjoying them as you did.
I don’t know what is worse in the gardens. The mole/vole tunneling and destruction, the chipmunk nibbling of the branches or the deer that are grazing through the garden on weekends when the dogs are away. I stomp on the tunnels, I don’t think it works, but i do get a bit of pleasure out of it, and we have fenced off the roses to keep the deer away from them and we have hung bars of Irish Spring soap on the branches of the shrubs they seem to be enjoying the most of. I would put Jager in the garden to do his job, but I think at this point he would be more destructive, but if the action picks up, I just might let him at it.
So now that the tulips are gone, there is room for the next batch of flowers which is, drumroll….Peonies. Yes, the peonies will be coming in strong with this week’s heat in the forecast. (So they say). Steve will be on flower harvest duty Monday and Wednesdays which he is not looking forward to but he will do fine. Some varieties there will be only three stems available, looking at you Coral Charm, but other varieties will have many many stems, like the stunning Red Charm. I figure harvest will last about two weeks, but I will have peonies to offer until July. Fingers crossed.
The ranunculus and anemone in the tunnel are still going strong, despite a little creature that is also harvesting stems but this one is just letting them fall. Argh. Also the cool flowers, which are the ones that got planted in the high tunnel back in early March, are just now starting to come into flower so by the end of the week there will be bunches of Icelandic poppies, stock, clarkia, bachelor buttons, and orlaya available. AND… another drumroll, the first sweet peas are showing color! That first harvest might just be mine though. You can say that we are now going to be a flower farm instead of a tulip farm. Variety reigns.
The chrysanthemums have been planted, and the first of the cuttings will be taken this week. The pumpkins have been sown, as well as the next batch of sunflowers that I wasn’t going to grow. The first crop of ranunculus will start to be dried off to be stored for next year, and the cycle continues.
So I leave you with flower photos, and words of wisdom. “Flowers create happiness for the receiver as will as the giver”. So make some flower bouquets and make the world, or your space a happier place.
Honestly, how can this not make you smile. It certainly makes me smile for the joy it brings.
Thank you for bringing joy. Allie
Hey Al,
Beautiful Pictures! Lovely Flowers!
I had a deer problem a few years ago and found putting a radio out and playing NHPR or any talk radio to be a deterrent. Also, I used tall stakes and stapled a small rag on each at each tree (they were nibbling in the orchard) and sprayed the rags with any old perfume or cologne you might still have hanging around from the 1990’s! I don’t know which effort worked; but the deer stopped coming!
Every spring we catch racoons in the catshed. This year I put the radio in there and have left it on (NHPR). No racoons!
Now I see bunnies…. I’ve been putting the pet poop out where I see them coming in the yard. I don’t think it’s working… Now I’m walking the dogs around that area and throwing the ball which makes Russell bark his frigging head off. Fingers Crossed!
Thank you Ellie Dear.