Hello hello! We are busy at work as always. The mandated social distancing is giving us a lot of time to work on the many projects that are on our table. We're starting seeds, caring for seedlings, dealing with new plugs, dividing and planting our dahlias, weeding, cleaning, weeding, cleaning...did I mention cleaning??
Before I launch in, I have to say that we're still trying to sell Summer Flower CSA Shares! These options are available on our shop page. We're also now offering digital gift cards, that can be redeemed with us in person this season (or whenever! they don't expire!) and eventually also on our website for local deliveries. These are two phenomenal ways to show us your support during this confusing time. Please consider these if you are able!
Things are really kicking off! It is as glorious as ever to watch things grow. It takes a ton of work on our part for this--sorting all our cell trays, cleaning them, fitting them, filling them, seeding them, monitoring heat and humidity... but nothing is more exciting than seeing little seedlings emerge! At home, we have seeds germinating in trays all over the basement the basement. Once they pop up, they graduate to the garage to sit under grow lights and next to a fan. It is quite the operation.
For the dahlias, we have potted up around 200 tubers. They live in the greenhouse at the farm now, where they can get light during the day, and our overhead heater kicks on at night to make sure they don't get too cold. We're starting to see the eyes on the tubers shoot up and turn green!
We were extremely lucky to get to take Gwen's tubers in with us for the winter. They need to be dug up in late fall before the ground freezes, and then divided and grown again in the spring. All in all, we had close to 1,000 tubers. We made sure to pot up at least 5 of each variety. They are a gift that never stops giving!
Work in the garden has started as well. We built a second trellis for perennial Sweet Peas, and built several raised beds already. We've direct sowed some seeds that like the cold for germination. Gorgeous Cherry Caramel Phlox and Misty Lavender Larkspur are starting to spring up in their beds! It's so gratifying to have all of our planning come to life. I swear, we will deliberate for ages where something "should" go, but it makes all the difference in the world when we're up at the farm. We find a spot, we decide--let's plant this here!
We're looking forward to this perennial Sweet Pea! Lathyrus latifolius is not fragrant like Lathyrus odoratus, but we'd rather have them for a longer season and get to see them again next year.
And, because I guess I decided I wasn't busy enough, I started a new project. While playing with the hellebore that's blooming, I discovered I didn't have a great backdrop for taking pictures up at the farm. At home, we have beautiful bricks and stone walls to hold bouquets in front of, and I've been spoiled.
I took two old paintings of mine from college and started to ruin them. One on a wood board, which I spent a fair bit of elbow grease scraping and sanding as much paint I could get off, and one on canvas I stretched myself that I promptly covered with a fresh coat of gesso. I wasn't really sure what was going to happen, but I was hoping to have two different options as sort of "styling boards" to either use as backdrops, or to lay bouquets onto for photos. Any many many coats of paint and wood stain later, here are the results!
I can safely say they weren't what I intended, but I am very satisfied with the results! Now that they're dried, I can move them up to the farm! Expect to see a lot of these two on our Instagram feed.
Alright alright, I'll let you go. But first, have some more pictures of flowers!
Thanks so much for reading and keeping up with us!
XOXO, CG
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