Yay! It’s Friday! We made it through another successful week on the farm. A fun announcement… We are bringing back our weekly Farm Tour Friday series to share with you the goings on of our family flower farm. What is Farm Tour Friday and how did it start? Each Friday we will do a recap of the week from the successes and failures on the farm. We like to share all the beauty that the farm has to offer each week even in the cold winter months. This series started a few years ago over on Instagram where we would walk around the farm and explain what went on during the week. We will still be sharing FTF on Instagram but we can share more here. We are excited to share our flower farming journey with you.

Where to start? This week has been a big one. Let’s start off that it snowed over the weekend. The white stuff was really coming down. My (Kate, the flower enthusiast of the farm) 4 girls were dressed and out playing in the snow as soon as they saw it falling, even making the first snow man of the season. My geese and ducks were digging the snow too. The chickens however were not, they wouldn’t come out of the coop. Nature is trying to tell me that winter is coming whether I like it or not and I better finish winterizing the farm.

Last week we finished the Great Dahlia Dig of 2021, what a great feeling to have that huge task complete. All of the dahlia tubers are in our barn waiting to be packed up for winter storage. We worked on packing tubers all week into bulb crates and putting them in our cooler where they will be nice and snug for a few months. We are quickly running out of bulb crates to pack the tubers in so I can see us getting very creative in our packing containers. I don't think we will ever have enough bulb crates. I watch them like a hawk and make sure they don’t disappear from the farm. We use them for growing flowers like Calla Lilies to storing dahlia tubers in and everything in between. They are one of the most versatile tools on the farm. Need a chair? Turn over a bulb crate and have a seat, see what I mean they are very useful.

Hopefully the all of the tubers will be packed up by the end of next week. I will report back next week.

My Dad (Mark) and I were able to install our coal stove into our barn this week too. We moved the coal stove from our old farm five years ago and it has been waiting to be installed. We worked together to get the fluepipe installed and it only took a few tries to get it all connected. It will be so nice in the barn now with the stove running. We will be able to divide the dahlias in there and not at my dining room table this year. I feel like that is huge progress.

The next big task that my Mom (Margie) and I completed this week was planting our outside tulips for next spring’s blooms. We made 5 raised temporary beds using a method that we learned from another farmer, Jenny Love of Love N’ Fresh. In these 5 beds we were able to plant around 17,000 tulip bulbs. The bulbs are planted in an egg crate style where the bulbs are very close but not touching. I can’t wait to see the tulips bloom in the spring, it’s going to be magical. We are growing a few varieties from last year like Salmon Impression, Icoon, and Apricot Parrot. With a few new ones like Toplips, Silver Parrot, and Charming Beauty. Spring is going to be beautiful.

Our heirloom Chrysanthemums are still blooming in our greenhouse even though the blooms were damaged by the cold temperatures we had a few weeks ago. It has been interesting to see which varieties handle the cold better and others that will need a bit more attention next fall. We had good intentions of getting our heater installed into the greenhouse this summer for the mum crop but it never developed. This is not too surprising as we have so many ideas and just jump in too fast sometimes which creates the cart before the horse syndrome! The mum plants weren’t effected by the cold just the blooms, making them not suitable for sale. Not all is lost as we have learned so much this year growing the mums again, this is only our 2nd time growing them. The blooms are still absolutely gorgeous even with the imperfections. As a flower farmer I like all the flowers we grow and they all are beautiful. However these heirloom mums will stop you in your tracks and take your breath away with their beauty. A new one bloomed this week and it is a stunner, Daybreak. Even though they aren’t saleable you better believe I have some on my dining room table and are enjoying all they have to give.

I have saved the best new for last. The excavation for our new high tunnel was completed this week. We were all jumping for joy as the crew came to start the work with the heavy machines. The new high tunnel is 34’ X 96’ and will allow us to increase our season extension on both shoulder seasons, spring and fall. Any grower will tell you that a new structure is always a huge investment that takes a lot of time, money, and planning. I have already planted this new space at least five times in my head, I’m that excited. The plan is to plant our ranunculus and anemone crops in it for spring blooms. Now it actually has to be constructed.

There may not be flowers to harvest right now on the farm as you can see there is always work to be done and goals to keep reaching for.

Thanks for joining me for Farm Tour Friday.

Farm Tour Friday

Farm Tour Friday 11/26/2021

The Great Dahlia Dig of 2021