May/June

May started off with a mother hen hatching several cute little chicks. We had flowers bursting out of the high tunnels and fields, the grass was green again, and new birds were arriving from their winter vacations from the south each day. To say the farm was bursting with life was an understatement.

The first week of the month is what we had been preparing for since last year’s Mother’s Day. We were harvesting and packing as many flowers as possible that week. We focused our efforts on selling this week and did the bare minimum of other work on the farm. Mother’s Day after all is a flower growers Super Bowl. It was one of our best Mother’s Day yet. All of the planning had really paid off. We sent flowers to as many florists and grocery stores as we could that week. The last of the tulips made it into the bouquets that week.

Then for Mother’s Day, my brother, dad and husband built our cooler that was laying in pieces for the last 4 years mocking us every time we walked past it! It was up and operational just in time for the ranunculus crop, as it was really starting to kick it into high gear mid-May. The early crop was starting to fade and the succession plantings in the other high tunnels were blooming. The plants were producing blooms everyday and we were harvesting arm loads at a time. We can never get enough of this beautiful spring flower and each year we grow and learn more about this amazing crop.

Some of our favorite ranunculus varieties that we grew this year were Gigi White, Le Belle Pink, Champagne, and Chamellow.

If we weren’t harvesting flowers and packing orders we were transplanting seedlings out into the field. At this time of year almost all of our seedlings need to be planted. We spent weeks transplanting hundreds of thousands of seedlings. We had changed a few things around in our field to have longer rows, 200 foot long, in anticipation of getting a riding planter. An attachment that hooks up to the back of our tractor that we could ride to plant the little seedlings. It never came even though we ordered it in the winter. The disrupted supply chain got us again. However we worked extra hard to get all of the seedlings in the ground.

By the end of May we were delivering to florists and grocery stores every week. The flowers were really blooming in the high tunnels and some perennials started to bloom outside. We had already removed some early spring crops in the gutter connect house and replanted the beds with a second round of Stock seedlings. We were starting to get into the summer rhythm of waking up early before the heat really set in, then taking a break after our workers went home for the day, and then back out to do some more work as the cool evening approached.

June started off with the first harvest of the Stock and Snapdragons of the year from the high tunnels. They were gorgeous and the smell was overwhelming. We grew Katz Stock and Chantilly Snapdragons in every color because yes we need every color they come in. The ranunculus were starting to slow down but we were still getting a good harvest.

Our sunflower succession plantings were growing well and we would soon have sunflowers for bouquets. We seeded sunflowers every 7 days to have a good supply all season long.

We were still moving into the barn but had been packing orders in there and using the walk in cooler. This was a huge step for us! It took awhile to figure out how the work flow was going to go and we changed the set up multiple times to see what worked best. In the end we found that having several areas for multiple people to work on different orders at the same time was the best way. The flowers came into the packing area to cool off from the field and then went into the cooler before getting packed up for delivery.

We now had 3 employees that helped us everyday. It was amazing how much more we were able to get done each day and with help we didn’t feel as drained. This was amazing!! With our employees help we were even able to take a short weekend trip to Lake Erie as an entire family for the first time ever. All eight of us were able to leave the farm in good hands and not worry about it. It was so refreshing to step away from the farm for even a few days as a family after an intense spring.

One of the biggest planting jobs in June was getting the 8,000 dahlia tuber in the ground. Every year this is a large task and most of the time it would take several weeks. This year we tried something new and used a our bed shaper to help us dig trenches in the rows so we could just drop the tuber in the trench and cover it with soil. This method worked really well and we got most of the dahlia tubers planted in one week. Our Calla Lily trial was going well too. We were planting the bulbs every month to have them all season and the blooms were abundant and beautiful. They lasted a long time once cut and made a great addition to our offerings. Flowers seemed to be blooming everywhere you looked around the farm. The field flowers that were planted on those cold spring days were starting to bloom as were the perennials.

Each week our grocery store bouquets were different. We could see spring fading away and the summer flowers taking hold by the end of the month.

July/August

July started off with loads of sunflowers coming in from the field each day. Sunflower harvest was a daily task that everyone helps with. Most of our sunflowers went in grocery store bouquets and they made them bright and cheerful. We continued to seed them each week as well.

At this time most of our seedlings were planted and we were just trying to keep with with the weeding. Well the weeds did get away from us this year unfortunately but the flowers didn’t seem to mind. Although we all said that our fields have never been so weedy before. The weed pressure was crazy.

The lisianthus we planted out in the field started to bloom. Once this crop blooms it’s all hand on deck. The field grown lisianthus is not the same as the ones grown in the high tunnel however they are still great. Another big bloomer that time of year was the Scoop and Focal Scoop Scabiosa. We harvested loads of this flower everyday and they were beautiful.

We continued to work on our packing area in the barn and put up a homemade chalkboard. This was a great addition as we were able to put a harvest list up each day with orders and have our standard recipe for bouquets. It allowed our team members to feel more in control of the work space. They didn’t have to turn to us for the next step or how many stems went in the bunch of flowers they were working on. It was amazing how the work day started to smooth out. Eventually we had a morning “Board Meeting” at the chalkboard to talk about what the day’s task were and the overall goals of the week. We also purchased 7 sets of shelving on wheels. We no longer had to carry each individual bucket of flowers into the cooler. We would place all the flowers buckets onto the shelving and they would roll directly into the cooler.

Once the lisianthus started to bloom in the high tunnel we couldn’t get enough of it. The blooms really made all the meticulous weeding worth it. They had tons of blooms on long stems. Each year we grow more and each year we never have enough. Some of our favorite colors are all white, apricot, champagne, rose, purple, and yellow. By having the lisianthus grown in the field and high tunnels it allows us to extend it’s season. The high tunnel crop took us well into August.

By August the marigolds, cosmos, and zinnias were in full bloom. We were still harvesting like crazy and filling orders each week but the flowers were starting to feel a bit fall like. Even though summer had a good hold on the farm we could see the shorter days and cooler nights coming quickly.

The dahlia fields were growing well and we focused most of our energy up until this point of the season weeding and caring for the plants. The dahlias started to send up their first blooms in the end of July and by mid-August we were starting to get a few buckets each week. It was like seeing an old friend again when they started to bloom. We know each of the 75+ varieties of dahlias that we grow and have cared for them not only all of the growing season but also during the winter months too when they are in storage. We go many months without seeing their unique blooms. Each year when they bloom again it is like a fantastic reward for all of our hard work.

The end of the month brought great change to the farm. Our summer help was going back to college, and we were training a new team member, and still looking to hire additional team members. We went from a team of 7 down to a team of 4 going into fall which was looking like it was going to be busy.

Here are some more highlights showing how our grocery store bouquet changed each week.

2021 Year in Review Part 2 of 3

May/June

July/August

Farm Tour Friday 1/21/2022

Farm Tour Friday 1/14/2022