Week 11 already and we have sprung forward into daylight savings time. Did you spend time changing all your clocks? So we will be a bit more tired for the next few days as we adjust to the time change but the bright side is, we have more time to work in the evenings. Is that a bright side?? Oh right, we love our work so its a bright side. This week has been filled with harvest, seeding and cleanup work. Kind of feels like every week is cleanup week with harvest and seeding on the side.
First up for cleanup was our very young hellebores bed. We had some blackberries trying to get established and some grass clumps making a move on the bed. So we spend a couple of hours cleaning and trimming up our hellebores.
What a beauty of a flower with so many colors, shadings and freckles. Our hellebores are on their third year and many of the plants were very small when purchased so we are in the waiting game of harvesting many bunches for our designers. We also are trying to get a feel of when to harvest and the post harvest treatment for long lasting blooms. We are most definitely going to expand our hellebores plantings to 2 more long rows. Hard part will be deciding which gorgeous flower to grow.
Of course, my first thoughts are, I want them all. Just kidding Farmer Tony, maybe…
Next cleanup job was to give our hypericums a haircut.
Getting out the ole hand hedge clippers, no electricity for the electric clippers and getting a good chest and arm workout. We trim them down to about 10-12 inches to really encourage good stem growth. We cut hypericum foliage during the late spring, the berries in the late summer, and into Fall as foliage as it turns nice autumn colors.
We opened up the double stack low tunnel that has been protecting the Scoop Scabiosa all winter. So hoping that the worst weather is over and all our seedlings will be open to grow on. The Scoops were a mystery on how they would handle our winters here in the Pacific Northwest. So we double stacked the row with a plastic cover and at times we had two layers of frost cloth hooped over the top of the plants.
We are happy to report that most survived temps down near 20 degrees. We lost a few plants, particularly the white, which seems to be the weakest plant but the dark cherry was a real trooper along with the lavender. A quick weeding and some fresh compost and the bed is ready to grow for this season. If you want more info on the double stacking, check out our Youtube channel for a video we did onbuilding this tunnel.
A quick walk around and we see that Spring is definitely on its way. The sun warms us but the wind is still chilly. Plants are budding up and popping up.
Our bed of ornamental alliums is popping. We are growing the big ball Purple Sensation and the little drumstick variety. They add an interesting texture to bouquets.
Seeding this week included the last group of 1200 mini blocks of Matthiola or Stock. I seeded the Quartet series and the new Iron series as I learned from Hilary Alger of Johnny’s seeds that they were the most tolerant of warmer temps. Also seeded were Amazon dianthus, Mini sunflowers, Penstemons and Miscanthus.
We began opening our first field row and prepping it for our spring planting by removing the tarp, pulling off any refuse that was not completely rotted and adding minerals and a kiss of compost. Our first field plant was a group of lupines, Cherry, Tutti Frutti and New Millennium.
Thanks Johnny’s!!
The harvest continues with anemones and tulips. Hoping in the near future we will have some of our first ranunculus blooms.
“In the spring, at the end of the day, you should smell like dirt.” ~Margaret Atwood~
Until next time, thanks for stopping by…
Thank you so much for this update, I always learn so much from you two!!!
Thanks for the kind words and for reading the blog!
Thanks so much Denise and Tony! As always I learned much from this blog posting, and have done an abrupt adjusting to my seeding and planting plans because of what I learned from you two. My husband and I have eagerly watched every video you have made, and are implementing a blend of your no-till methods, and that of Ruth Stout, and Charles Dowding. Thank you so much for sharing and teaching us Flower Farmers better, more efficient ways to do things! As always your postings are eagerly looked forward to, and are deeply inspiring.