Farm Photos

I didn't get any shots last week, but we had tons of flowers at the market. It was ridiculously hot, but otherwise a great market day. I took a few shots today, before it gets late in the week and hectic.

Agrostemma in bloom.

Sunflowers for market.

Gorgeous green rose hips.

Mixed bouquet.

My new market vehicle!

Dahlias are budding up!

Zinnias in full bloom.

Lilies in crates, ready for harvest.

More calendula.

Farm Photos

The farm is in full bloom finally. It's been a trickle so far, and we sold out by 10:30 at the Farmer's Market last Saturday. Our German Goddess, Claudia - a family friend who is now helping at the market - was an amazing salesperson and flowers went fast! It was my first day of missing a market in 3 years and I missed being there, but had a blast at our first 4H Livestock Show & Sale. I miss our pigs, but am so glad the kids had such a great time showing them and that they both did well selling them. Here's what's happening...

The pigs' last meal before the show and sale.

Loaded up (after 3 hours of struggling with them) and ready to go.

They were so cute and great little rototillers!

The kids in the show ring.

Christian checking out the pigs' new quarters in the show tent.

This week's lilies...look for these salmon-colored 'Menorca' lilies at the Farmers Market this weekend.

This white asiatic lily 'Navona' will also be in bouquets this weekend.

A row of trial varieties of dianthus. These were planted later than we normally would plant dianthus (these were spring planted, we normally plant in fall) for the ASCFG trials, and they are just beginning to bloom.

Flower spikes on the first planting of glads! 

Succession plantings of glads and sunflowers. First planting on the left and most recent on the right. Each row contains 500 glads and about 500 sunflowers.

The first row of zinnias is beginning to bloom.

This beautiful row of safflower is also a trial variety. It's just starting to bud up at about 24". Looks promising!

Calendula in bloom. Our first year trying the variety 'Pink Surprise'. Unfortunately, the surprise is: they are very short! Oh well, look for them in "Herb Posies" at the market this weekend.

Trial varieties of snapdragons in bloom.

Huge 'Fangio' lilies in the back yard border garden. Notice they are taller than the 4' fence!

Bed Stamper

I have gotten a few emails from other growers about how we stamp our beds for planting. (See previous post) Our bed stamper was made from a lawn roller, from which I removed the handle and fitted "arms" out of plumbing nipples and floor flanges to hook it up to the tractor. I ordered planting punches from Buckeye Tractor Co. that normally go on water wheel transplanters and screwed them onto the roller and...voila. It makes great planting holes in plastic also.

Busy time

I haven't posted much lately because I've been planting like crazy. Thousands of 

transplants from the greenhouse have gone into the ground. Lisianthus, scabiosa, 

snapdragons, calendula, dianthus, sweet peas, larkspur, and even sunflowers and 

zinnias were already planted and over 20 others are in the greenhouse waiting. 

Weekly bulb plantings are actually on schedule (so far!) and thousands of bulbs 

have already been planted. I am excited about some of our new perennials that 

should be quite productive this year including 2 new varieties of phlox, monarda, 

agastache, yarrow, scabiosa, hollyhock, buddleia and a red veronica. Our lilacs 

that were ordered for our research trial have arrived and been planted. The plants 

were delayed by a huge storm that left the folks at Syringa Plus flooded and 

without power. Fortunately, they were OK and able to save all their plants. 

Our plants are getting some nice green growth on them and will hopefully gain 

some nice size this year and give us sweet smelling blossoms next spring. 

Here are a few shots from the last 2 weeks...

One of our weekly plantings of sunflowers.

The lilacs were all labeled clearly with great sets of roots.

Forty lilac bushes, ready to grow!

A newly tilled bed (between rows of rye and field pea cover crop), stamped and ready to plant.

The same bed planted, then mulched by mowing the rows of cover crop on either side.

A  bucket of ranunculus.

Homegrown.org

I just discovered this new website and love it. It's definitely food related, not really about growing flowers. But, growing is growing no matter what you produce. There's a great post today about Straw Bale Gardening, which is a great way to go if you have limited space. I also read another great post about vertical wall gardens, which I've seen before and really like. My favorite is the idea for a vertical strawberry garden. I'd love to have strawberries on the deck at arms reach for the kids - and with no weeds!

Check out Homegrown.org...

Project Successful!

Our Kickstarter project has officially ended and we were fully funded! Thanks to generous supporters who are now charter members of our Flower CSA, we exceeded our goal of $2000 by almost $500! Time to finalize the design of our custom shipping boxes and get them ordered! Thanks to everyone who pledged!

New Site is Up!

Our new site is up! Click here and see what's new with us.