First and Last

Last of the daffodils for this year.

This was a great week for us here at Bluebird Flower Farm! Our Spring Subscription started last Friday. YAY! I’m always watching for what’s blooming, but last week I was watching everything like a hawk, I tell you! Particularly the tulips—as I mentioned, tulips blow open very quickly in the heat, and I knew we were going to have some warm days mid-week. I needed every tulip I could get my hands on for the subscriptions (x 3) plus 7 Mother’s Day arrangements.

So I was going out a couple of times per day to pull up any tulips that were ready and get them in the cool garage. “Ready” meaning “still closed but showing a hint of color.” I also cut lilac buds and harvested the last of the daffodils, and the first of the perennial bachelor’s buttons. Fun times. I did end up purchasing some flowers from a flower farm in Ogden that sells wholesale, which was great too! Tom grows such beautiful flowers and I was happy to be supporting a fellow flower farmer. I purchased a little bit of greenery from the regular wholesaler as well. I had a good mix that was mostly locally grown blooms. Just a note: as my subscriptions are a harvest share, I used all my own flowers and filler for those!

I had a lot of fun putting together arrangements again. I missed that in April! I put together a few for myself last month, but there’s nothing like making them for someone else and then seeing the joy they bring to that person when you deliver them.

This is the exact stage my alliums are at right now—just breaking open. This was taken last year, on May 19. We are a full week ahead of last year!

This week I’m looking forward to subscriptions again. It’s going to be a purple week! I’ve got 2 different types of alliums in bloom, both purple, plus blue violet camassias, baby blue camassias, and purple perennial bachelor’s buttons. I may even find a few grape hyacinths (purple and blue as well!) to add in there. My daughter and I experimented last week, tugging the grape hyacinths down at the base, so that they come off the bulb itself underground. That gave us another good 6” of stem, so I think they would be long enough for the subscriptions. For foliage, I will probably cut the ‘Dart’s Gold’ ninebark that’s so pretty right now, as well as some of my ornamental plum branches which are flowering.

I want to add in lilac blooms, but I need to experiment first and make sure I know how to keep them hydrated. So maybe this week I’ll cut some and try some new tricks I’ve learned along those lines, and see how long they hold up. Then I can add them in next week if they don’t wilt in 2 days. The lilac buds were awesome in last weeks’ bouquets.

We are working on getting permanent irrigation installed in the garden (pvc pipes underground that connect to removable drip tape in the beds). That will be amazing, once we get it going. Then we can leave on vacation and not worry about everything dying off while we’re gone!

All the starts I planted out the first week of April are growing, but very slowly. I’m going to give them some fishy fertilizer this week and see if that won’t give them a bit of a boost. I need those flowers! C’mon ladies—get a move on! I’ve got dahlias hardening off, and phlox and statice still inside, that I need to bump up to 2” blocks this week as well, so I can start hardening them off.

I have found, in our dry and windy climate, that the 3/4” blocks just don’t do well at all in hardening off stage. If I want anything to survive past that, they have to be in bigger blocks, or in a plastic cell that will retain the moisture. I have a bunch of starts in peat pots, as well, but I’m not a fan. They dry out so quickly, and I think they are wicking moisture away from the roots of the starts, since the peat pot doesn’t stay moist. Again, wind. So I have decided from here on out, I will just collect the plastic 4” pots to reuse in that instance.

Lastly, I need to purchase some Wall O’ Waters for my kiddos’ tomato plants. They are hardened off and need to go in the ground soon, but we are still having cold nights. Again, I don’t want one night of frost to ruin weeks of work keeping those beauties alive!

Always more to do, right?

What do you have growing right now?

Time to Farm

Well, hello there! It has been a long month, hasn’t it? Since I last wrote, the coronavirus has swept through our nation and shut down all kinds of businesses in its wake. Including mine. My county issued a Public Health Order last week (seems like a long time ago!) asking all nonessential businesses to shut down. Not demanding—quite yet.

I had a hard decision to make. On the one hand, flowers are essential to me. On the other hand, I was having to go here, there, and everywhere to a) purchase the flowers and b) deliver them. I guess what tipped the scales towards “closed” for me, though, was that I’m doing this out of my home. There is really no way to guarantee that surfaces are sterilized. Not when I have my 2 year old climbing up to help and other children coming in and out every few minutes. Also, my husband works in the medical field, so the chances of him being exposed and then possibly bringing it home are higher than either of us would like to think about.

This one of the last ones I delivered last month, prior to shut-down.

So…until my temporary shut-down, I actually had taken 2 or 3 different orders from my Google listing and delivered them. That was fun while it lasted. I also have at least 2 people wanting to sign up for a spring CSA subscription (yay!), but I have told them we would just have to keep in touch on that. Here’s hoping I can start back up in time for that goodness.

Even though my floral design work has stopped for now, I have been using any and all extra time FARMING! It has felt good to get back out there and get my hands in the dirt again. I am happy to report that I have had some success with seed-starting this time around, as well. YAY!! I’ve got 2 trays full of forget-me-nots that I just potted up from 2” blocks to 4” peat pots today, in hopes of Mother’s Day sales, along with another full tray of petunias, and a smaller one of pansies for the same purpose.

I also have ammi hardening off, and rudbeckia getting close to being ready for that. I’m thinking maybe one more week for the rudbeckias and they should be big enough to put outside.

Just today I started 6 more small trays of various and assorted flowers: orach, more rudbeckia, 2 types of phlox, statice, and dahlias.

I also bought a whole bunch of starts from Plant & Grow Nursery in Clearfield. I had been debating about buying starts, but in the end, they had a great sale (50% off retail!) and I just went for it. So I have them to thank for my 2nd cool weather succession planting, which ended up filling 3 rows! One whole row of Ammi ‘Visagna Green’ (there were more than I expected of that one), Madame Butterfly snaps, 3 varieties of scabiosas (Red Velvet, Candy, and Raspberry Scoop,) and 2 varieties of dianthus (Amazon ‘Neon Rose’ and Amazon ‘Rose Magic’).

I’m not exactly sure where I’m going to put everything that I’m currently starting, but in the past I have always had bare stretches, so if nothing else, these can fill in all the bare spots out there. Although, I do believe I will have room for maybe 2 more long flowerbeds to fill up.

Other than farming, I have been doing about the same thing as you, probably: homeschooling my kids, hardly leaving my house for any reason, trying to get outside every day for some fresh air and sunshine. Keeping my distance and becoming even more socially awkward than usual with those who do want to chat (from 6 feet away, of course).

Here’s hoping we can get back to more normal life soon!

How are things with you?

Seeds vs. Plugs

I’ve got a decision to make this winter. Rather shortly, as a matter of fact. Here it is:

How much of my flowers do I want to grow from seed myself and how many should I purchase as plugs?

If you’ve never heard of them, plugs are basically seedlings started by a commercial greenhouse. They arrive still very small, but should be ready to plant right out into your beds as soon as they arrive.

There are several factors that go into this decision.

1. Expense

Seeds are going to be much, much cheaper to buy. Your average seed packet costs around $3, and usually contains a significant number of seeds—25 or 100 or even more. The price goes down even more if you purchase a bigger quantity of seeds wholesale.

Plugs generally cost per plant. There’s a range with this too, of course, but on average they’re around $.35/plant. Still pretty cheap, right? Keep in mind that you often have to purchase an entire flat—too hard to split up flats between orders—and on top of that there are usually shipping minimums as well.

2. Time

In terms of time, plugs are definitely the cheaper option. Maybe once I get it figured out better, my seed-growing won’t take so much time, but I’m telling you, growing those tiny green babies takes TIME! It’s not a sprint, either, it’s a marathon—particularly with the ones that take several weeks to get big enough to plant outside. That’s weeks of daily tending! Also, heaven forbid you take a vacation during that time—that would be throwing away all your hard work.

Plugs arrive at the point where you can pop them in the ground—from what I’ve heard. Right around May, when I’m looking at 4 trays of seedlings that need to be hardened off, having a tray arrive ready to go in the ground sounds pretty amazing!

3. Difficulty of growing

Some flowers are hard to grow. Lisianthus, for example, has an entire Facebook group devoted to figuring out how to get it to grow from seed. As I’m still on 1st grade level seed growing, I don’t think I should attempt graduate level work quite yet!

4. Space & equipment for seed starting

I am fairly limited on space in my house. Until we can heat the greenhouse—even minimally—this one is going to be a big consideration as far as what and how much I’m able to grow. I want to direct seed as much as I can, but it would be nice to have the certainty of seed-grown plants. If it could be a certainty—ha!

5. Variety available

Very few of the plug trays are sold as a mix of colors or forms. For nearly all of them, it is an entire tray of that one exact type and color. In the small space that I have, I generally prefer to use the mixes. Unless it was something that was neutral, like Bells of Ireland that go with just about everything, I don’t feel like I can use the space on all of one thing. Also, I’ve got Bells coming up on their own accord and an abundance of seeds to direct sow as well.

So, essentially, I need to decide if it’s worth the extra expense to free up some time this spring. Last spring I found this flat of ‘Rocket’ snapdragons (pictured above) at the grocery store, of all places. Same variety I was attempting to grow from seed, myself, but these were already decent-sized plants. I bought the entire flat for $20 and got them in the ground. None of my own survived and I was so glad I had these to count on.

I am going to keep trying on the seed starting bit, despite my many MANY failures. However, my plan right now is to purchase some select flats of seedlings. I believe they do sell snapdragon trays with a mix of colors, so that may be my first investment in the world of plugs. I also would like to possibly purchase some lisianthus plugs—although those are going to be 1 whole tray of the same. The varieties I’m looking at, though, could be used with many different colors—white, navy, and a deep maroon.

I just saw someone in the UCFFA comment that they use soil-blocking to start all their seeds, and basically plan on it taking just 3-4 weeks from when they start them to planting in the ground. I think I need to call her and beg for more information, because there’s a crucial step I’ve been missing! Or perhaps she plants out her seedlings much smaller than I have been? 

Anyway, along with determining my growing plan, my “recipes” and all the rest, I will be perusing the plug options in the next couple of weeks as well! Wish me luck!

August Bloom Day

I have got to start out this Bloom Day post with a couple of things I'm proud of.

As you know, if you've followed this blog, seed starting has not been a cakewalk for me. 

I have killed so many baby plants over the past couple of years! 

So, behold--2 plants that actually made it! 

(That's right, TWO! Can you be humble and proud at the same time? Humbly proud. 

It's a complicated feeling. Layers.)

First up:

The 'Frizzle Sizzle' pansy.

Isn't she a beauty? 

And here we have the New York Aster!

TA DA! 

[Vigorous clapping is entirely appropriate at this point.]

(Give me my moment, alright? Remember, 2 PLANTS that made it?!)

The seeds for these plants are super duper tiny--specks, is all.

And now just look at it! It's almost 3 feet tall and about read to start flowering! 

(I think--it's a fall-flowering plant, apparently.)

This survivor right here gives me such a happy feeling whenever I see it!

Okay, now that we got that out of the way, here's the rest:

Coreopsis 'Moonbeam'

Very pretty, but very short stems for cutting.

I need some mini bouquets or dance flowers to put these in--they would really shine!

Same, plus a China aster.

This front pot--you can't go wrong with geraniums and sweet potato vine.

It always seems like the fancier I try to get with my flower pots, the worse they do.

This couldn't be any simpler, but I have been enjoying it this summer!

My 'Limelight' hydrangea is finally getting some blooms!

I'm wondering if it could actually use more sunlight.

This seems awfully late in the season for hydrangea blooms.

We've got frost coming in a month. 

Go Limelight Go!

'Fragrant Angel' echinacea, above and below

I have absolutely loved these, especially the green centers before they are all the way mature!

Love. I will plant a whole bunch more this fall if I can find them!

Let's see, roses haven't put on their fall blooms yet, sedums are still green (but coming), and I do have some sunflowers blooming out in my flower farm/cutting garden patch.

A handful of other stuff out there too.

What's blooming in your garden right now? 

Lots of Rain, with a Side of Marketing Decisions

It has pretty much been raining all week. Oh, there has been a break in clouds here and there—for a few hours at a time—but all day, all night, RAIN. Wind too. I had my tomatoes and pepper mostly hardened off prior to this week. I went back to bringing them in at night for a couple of nights (lows in the upper ‘30’s), and finally left them outside, but covered them with frost cloth every night. Even left them covered during some of the days. It has just been so cold and rainy. Oh wait—I think I mentioned that.

I told everyone they would be ready this weekend. I decided today to lower my prices, since they are still pretty small. In a normal week, with warm weather, they would put on some good growth.

Tomato and pepper starts. This was a week ago, and sadly, they look about the same. It has been too cold and rainy for them to put on any noticeable growth.

So, what does a flower farmer do in the rain? Well, let me see…

I managed to rally the kids and get our kitchen/dining room floor mopped. Go us! Um…caught up on paperwork, to some extent. Made lots of phone calls. I purchased flowers. They were supposed to be some that would go with my own, but I didn’t even get out there and harvest any this week. I know—sad!

I still have the same plants blooming as last week—alliums, perennial bachelor’s buttons, and lilacs.

This is in my oval flower bed on the west side. Those bachelor’s buttons have gotten huge! I’m already thinking about moving a couple of them elsewhere—this one in front in particular. It’s gotten so it’s crowding the ninebark.

Yesterday we had a whole afternoon of rain-free weather. There was even some sunshine here and there! I managed to get about 1/3 of my Bells of Ireland thinned and weeded, along with quite a bit of the garden hoed. Also, some other weeding done. So while I was thinning, I left them at roughly 6” apart, for now. They’re supposed to have 9-12” each, according to some sources, but I guess I’ll let them get even bigger before I decide to do that. I can say with a fair amount of confidence, that I will have plenty of Bells this season!

I have also been thinking about and working on marketing a bit. I have a hard time putting myself out there. I am trying to be more active on social media and get over my fear of calling people! Something I’m trying to figure out right now are the “Fresh Flower Fridays” at my Morgan Mercantile booth. Since I started at the beginning of this month, I have sold exactly ZERO arrangements out of there. I have brought anywhere from 3-6 arrangements, always with 2-3 “Grab and Go” bouquets wrapped in paper, and sometimes with smaller/less expensive arrangements in a vase. 

These were my Mother’s Day weekend “Grab and Go” bouquets at the booth (3 shown here.)

I haven’t marketed it as much as I should, so I need to work on that. I don’t think it’s just a marketing issue, though. The store gets plenty of foot traffic, particularly on weekends, which is why I chose Fridays. Yet, no-one buys the flowers. It’s discouraging! I’m trying to decide how long I keep it going with zero results, before spending that time, effort, and product toward a more profitable direction. Maybe I should take those bouquets around to local businesses instead, as a freebie, with my card attached. Or use them to drum up more business subscribers. It’s just such a waste.

The other thought I’ve had is that maybe more people would buy the flowers if there were more of them. However, at zero profit currently, I don’t feel like I can justify stocking the booth with a whole bunch more. I’m thinking next week I need to call the city and ask about setting up a farm stand in front of my house, and putting signage up around town so people find out about it. Perhaps people just don’t expect to see flowers at a vendor booth inside a store, or something. I don’t know. In any case, it’s not working very well right now!

Back to growing things—I have cosmos coming up! Lots of them! I am so glad. Last year I got a total of maybe 4 plants, and they struggled. So at least something is enjoying the rain! Well, something other than the weeds, I mean. Our orchard weeds are about 3 feet tall right now! We let out the chickens to forage and they disappear!

Here’s to some sunshine this weekend, and solutions to all the dilemmas!

Planting Before the Storm

 

This was the end of April. Still very green out there thanks to all this rain!

We’ve had a rainy, stormy week here at Bluebird Flower Farm. It has rained now for 3 days and is supposed to continue all the way through next week. As I looked at that weather, I knew a couple of things had to happen before all the rain:

1. I had to get some seeds in the ground! Our last frost date is coming up, and though it will be cooler at night (upper 30’s, low 40’s), it shouldn’t freeze. Plus, if I could get the seeds planted, all that rain should help them germinate!
2. War on weeds! The same rain that was going to make all my flowers grow was also going to give those weeds a jumpstart as well. Attack!

So I spent some quality time this week, hoeing, making rows, and chucking seeds in the ground. I’m not kidding—I was literally throwing them down! Last year, I was much more precise with my direct sowing. I had my trowel with the measurements on it (bless my heart), and the ones that needed 6 inches—by golly, I was placing a seed or two every 6 inches! Yes, it took a very long time. Nope, not doing that again. Once again, learning from my failures.

The problem I found doing it that way, was that when germination was spotty—which it was—I ended up with huge gaps in my rows. I reseeded in those gaps, but there was still all kinds of wasted space. Did I mention that it took a very long time?

Here’s what my direct sowing looked like this year: with the hoe, clear any weeds out of the row space. Make a couple of furrows. Water the furrows well. Sprinkle seeds generously down the furrow. Tamp down, covering with dirt if darkness needed for germination. Go on to the next!

I may regret this, but I did not put any labels of any kind marking what I planted. (I did make notes of it once I came inside, but that was more how many rows of what type I did, not bothering to try to describe where I put them.) Last year, I very meticulously used my little plastic labels and marked where I sowed each flower, and even each variety within the row. For one thing, MORE TIME! For another, those little plastic labels got stepped on, broken in half by the hose, and pulled up. In other words, they were generally useless by about halfway through the summer.

I pretty much know what the foliage of the different plants I put in looks like. If I’m not sure, I look it up. I also feel fairly confident now with which seedlings are the weeds. Once they bloom, it should be obvious which variety it is—they were all pretty different from each other. For instance, I did a whole row of white cosmos—I don’t think those will be mistaken for anything else.

My new method will require a lot of thinning. I am bracing myself! It’s hard for me to thin out the plants! Particularly when they’ve done so well and come up and are growing strong. However, thinning is absolutely necessary for the health of the plants. Another plant of the same species can be just as bad as a weed at stealing nutrients and water from the one you want to keep, if they’re too crowded together. I’m reminding myself of this as I go out there this week!

My baby Bells of Ireland, which reseeded themselves so wonderfully need to be thinned. They are looking amazing! I hate to pull out any of them! I will need to harden my heart, though, and just do it. It’s for the greater good! I’ll keep telling myself that. It really is—it’s just—hard to do. I worked so hard last year to get ANY Bells to grow. I will do it, though. After a few more pep talks!

I have found volunteer bachelor’s buttons growing in places they don’t belong in the garden, as well. So far I have successfully transplanted those babies to fill in spaces in my bachelor’s button row. All this rain is helping them survive the transplant job.

I went out and checked today, and here’s what I have coming up so far: buttons, Bells, dill, pennycress, sweet peas, poppies, and California poppies. By the way, I found some poppies growing over between my hyacinths on the side of the greenhouse. I forgot that I had sown some there! So that was a fun surprise. Vegetables so far: spinach and peas.

Planted this week: cosmos (4 varieities), zinnias (5 varieties), rudbeckia (3 varieties), what I had left of the ageratum and statice, parsley, chamomile.

All of those were put in on Thursday. I was really hustling to get them in before the rain started! I also did as much weeding as I could while I was preparing seed beds and planting. I got a decent amount done, but as predicted, the rain is bringing them up all over. You know purslane, “mother of millions?” Yeah, there’s probably a million of those seedlings popping up out there right now. That weed won the war last year, big time. It completely got away from me. I’m using cardboard and weed fabric this year to help keep it at bay, along with lots of hoeing on this front end of the season.

Earlier in the week I bought some perennials from the nursery and got those planted into my flowerbeds. Most of them are varieties that I am growing or have tried to grow this year. So be it. I have realized that my tiny perennial seedlings will probably not bloom until next year at the rate they’re going. So I got 3 pink salvia for the front flowerbeds, 3 ‘Fragrant Angel’ white echinacea that I put in the East side flowerbed, 3 red Jupiter’s Beard—which went into the bed I cleared out around the honeysuckle bush, and 4 lady’s mantle, which went into the front shade bed by the porch.

Yes it was expensive. I think it will be worth it, though, as they begin to produce useable stems this year. These ones that I’m growing will just add to that in future years, assuming I can keep them alive! The perennials I put in last year are doing awesome this year. My perennial bachelor’s buttons in the oval flowerbed are huge! They have probably tripled in size—I was cutting 18” stems from them this week! Last year it was more like 10” stems—and not very many at one time. Same with the catmint I planted last year, and the pincushion flowers. They are big and healthy. Bring on the flowers!

In fact, many of them are doing so well that I may need to move or divide them in the fall, to make some elbow room for the other stuff I have planted in the beds. The alliums will need to be thinned for sure! I am already figuring out where I can put a bunch of them—I think in the back, because the deer won’t bother them. Not only that, when I so blithely scattered seeds last year, little did I know how many babies would pop up! They are all attached to a mini onion-like bulb, so they should be fairly easy to transplant.

I continue to get the flowerbeds weeded and cleared out—one at a time. The problem with accomplishing one garden chore is that I always end up giving myself a few more in the process! I got the front shade beds weeded today, and the lady’s mantle planted in them, but realized that the tulips need to be thinned out. Plus, there were several of the tulips practically sitting on the surface. So I dug up several of the clumps that most needed to be relocated. Alas, I didn’t have time to get them replanted this afternoon. So next week those need to go back in the ground. At least I think I know where I’m going to put them; but of course, it needs to be weeded first. Like I said: finish one chore, end up with 3 more.

I will take a few more pictures tomorrow and get them added, so you can see what I’m talking about.

In the meantime, as the rain comes down all week, I plan to work more on inside stuff. Hey, I rallied the kids this morning and we actually got the kitchen and dining room floors mopped! Situation there was getting pretty desperate. I got some mending done. Amazing what prolonged rain can do!

Seed Starting: A Few Things I've Learned

 I am certainly no expert on seed starting, but over the last year and a half I have learned a lot! Yes, that is code for “killed lots of baby plants.” Last year my results were pretty dismal. I had maybe 6 Bells of Ireland that survived long enough for me to plant them outside, a handful of snapdragons, and really not much else. Oh, tomatoes. I did have some tomatoes that made it as well.

Snapdragon seedlings, last year. They germinated great, but only a few survived long enough to be planted out into the garden!

Nothing like setting the bar at ground level, eh?! Perhaps because of all that failure, I am thrilled with any progress that my plants make this year!

So, if you’re even more of a beginner than I am, let me share with you a few of the things I have learned that have helped my success rate go up. Some of it’s having the right equipment and some is giving them a chance to get used to changes.

1. Use a heat mat. They’re fairly inexpensive, and most seedlings will germinate much faster on a heat mat. If you can’t afford even a small one, try the top of your refrigerator, or someplace equally warm.
2. You also need humidity domes of some kind. Plastic wrap works if you’re using cell trays or pots. In any case, get something! Without it, the seed casings will tend to stick to your first set of leaves. If those casings don’t come off, your seedling will die sooner rather than later, because it prevents the first set of leaves from unfolding and photosynthesizing.

This is not like baby chicks that have to peck their own way out of their shells to survive. In a humid environment, the seed casings slip right off of their own accord, usually. Without one, they don't. Simple as that.

The bigger seeds you can usually split with a fingernail or tweezers and gently pull them off. The tiny ones, though, like snapdragons? Forget about it! If they don’t come off on their own, that little plant is finished before it has even begun.

3. Last piece of equipment advice: get a grow light or two. Your baby plants need at least 14-16 hours bright light per day. They’re not going to get that with a windowsill. (Plus, windows tend to be cold, which also inhibits growth!) The plants will do best if you keep the lights just 1-2” above their little heads. Move the lights up as needed.
4. Before you plant them outside, you’ve got to harden them off. This means gradually get them used to living conditions out in the Real World—you know, where there’s wind, bright direct sunshine, and weather. If you stick them directly out into the garden, the shock will kill them. It’s an abrupt and awful end to weeks of work. Trust me on this one!

So, give them some time to get used to it all. A week to ten days is the usual. Start them off with just an hour or two of being outside in a sheltered, shady location. Gradually introduce them to stronger sunshine and longer hours.

I’ll tell you what—it’s the transporting them in and out that kills me with this one! In and out and in and out. If they are COOL FLOWERS, don’t worry as much about cold night temps killing them off, but do go slower on introducing them to full sun. For your warm weather lovers, do the opposite: take them in at night if it’s going to be cold, and maybe go a touch faster at exposing them to the heat and full sun. Keep them well watered outside, too.

 What tips do you have for me? I have killed my fair share of seedlings already this spring, so please know I feel your seed starting pain!

New York asters—in the actual flowerbed out front!! You can see they are still quite small, but they seem to be doing well out there so far! These little guys are supposed to grow up to 3 feet tall and bloom in the fall. I’ll keep you posted!

I am pretty proud of my successes so far, though! To date: sweet peas planted out into the garden—still alive, though they don’t seem to have grown much yet. Also, New York asters planted into my front flowerbeds just this past week. They actually do seem to have grown since getting in the ground—yeah! I’ve got pansies on the back deck looking pretty good, and snapdragons seedlings—still small, but still growing—that I’m hardening off to plant into the garden in the next week. Tomatoes and pepper seedlings are growing like crazy! Need to get them potted up and started hardening off, as well. Project for next week!

Have you had any success with seed starting this year?

Fast Breakers, Snow, First Harvest, and More!

 So, as usual, it’s been a busy week around here. Here’s some of what I’ve been up to:

Sun Sugar cherry tomatoes, one of many varieties I started last week. Keeping my eye on the goal, here! These were grown in my Washington state garden.

Tomato Woes & Seedling Updates

First let me talk about the tomato and pepper seedlings. I learned this week that they are what you might call “fast breakers!” Meaning, once they come up, they really grow fast. Normally that would be good, but with my set-up right now it’s not. Here’s the deal. I’ve got my heat mat on a table in a different room of the house than my grow lights. This is a room we don’t use very often, hence the light isn’t even on in there most of the time. Not a problem for slow breaking seedlings. I water them at least once a day, especially when they’re on the heat mat, so I’m checking on them very regularly. Usually you don’t want to move them to the lights until about 50% have germinated. For the slower seedlings, once I notice that enough of them are breaking through the soil, I move them over to the lights to continue growing. Not a problem.

So I checked my baby tomatoes and peppers a couple of nights ago, and I had some coming up—YAY! There were still just 5 or 6 out of 20 per section, so I wanted to wait. When I checked on them the next day not only were a bunch more up, the ones that had already popped through the soil earlier were now 3-4 inches tall and pushing against the plastic dome! WHAT?! These are leggy seedlings! They’re stretching to find light. Darn it! You can always plant seedlings deeper when you pot them on to the next size, but 4 inches? That’s the size of the pot itself! Ug!

To be completely honest, I wasn’t sure what to do about it. They had already stretched, so it’s not like you can un-stretch them! After moving them under the lights and stewing over it for a day, I decided to just pull out those super tall ones and immediately planted a new seed in the same soil block. Not sure if that will work or not! These took less than a week to grow on the heat mat, so I’m hoping I still have time to sprout some new ones in their place.

Now they’re under the lights, which I have as close to them as possible (my trays are on wood blocks to raise them even closer) and… several of them have stretched out tall again. Sigh. I’m telling myself that they’re not as tall as those first ones. It could be a lie. The peppers are actually behaving better—they’re only slightly stretched. Say, 1 inch instead of 3 inches.

So much to learn with these seedlings!

Meanwhile, on a happier note, I got 2 trays of pansies potted up to bigger containers, and so far they are looking really happy and growing even bigger. Yay! My last tray and a half were still all quite a bit smaller—I’m wondering if they are the violas?—so I’m going to wait to pot them on to the next size up.

Note to self: I need to buy more pots to put all these babies in! Oh, and also—more plant tags! (The popsicle sticks I used all molded/rotted. Oops. Back to plastic, I suppose!)

I want to start hardening off the bigger pansies this week. It would be very helpful for them to continue growing outside, as it would free up space inside under my grow lights. That’s precious real estate right now!

Finally, the snapdragons I started are still very small and few in number, but I noticed yesterday that many of them have started to grow a set of true leaves. That’s very good! Last year my snaps stalled out completely for almost a month. These have at least made visible progress each week—seed leaves growing bigger, etc.—so I’m hopeful they will continue on. Last year a grand total of 5 seed-grown snaps made it out into the garden, and it was July before they were big enough, mind you. July! That’s way too late for the likes of them! So I am hopeful that these will be ready to plant out in a month or less.

The carnations are in the same boat—true leaves just coming.

This Week’s Accelerated Learning Opportunity

We had a really nice spring day last week, that I unfortunately spent inside working feverishly on a marketing project: homemade seed packets as giveaways for a local business conference I attended. I made 60 of them! I’m proud of me. They were asking for 100 to put in the goodie bags given to each attendee, but at last count right around 55 people attended. For the win!

It was a fantastic learning experience for me. That’s business-speak for “I made tons of mistakes!” I really did, though.

Mistake #1: printing off the seed packet templates instead of just ordering some plain small envelopes and being done with it! Even with a paper trimmer, it took a really long time to cut out and glue together 60 seed packets. Especially because I wanted them to look cute, so I had extra papers I glued on, plus the seed-starting instructions. So much cutting and gluing! What a waste of time! They can’t be THAT expensive to just buy. See how much I am learning?

Mistake #2: I printed them off onto beautiful, medium blue paper…which made my information on the front of the seed packet hard to read. Not much I could do about that one after the fact.

Mistkae #3: I put the name of my business on a part of the packet that actually was designed to be a flap, so it got folded under and glued down! I almost gave up right then and there when I noticed that. Instead, I ended up including a business card in every packet, so that they would actually have all my info.

Need I go on? In any case, at least around 50 people have my information and 10 of my precious Bells of Ireland seeds. Maybe something good will come of it. I am actually impressed that I had that many Bells seeds. Plenty leftover, too! I think I would have run out before the full 100 packets, though.

Now to get mine planted!

Snow and More Snow

So, the day after the business conference guess what? It started to snow! It has continued pretty much every day since. Hey—at least it is melting off by suppertime, now. Thank you April. This morning we woke up to snow AGAIN, but this time it melted off by lunch. So there is that, I guess. I was able to get out and plant my 9 new raspberry plants this afternoon, and even mulch the whole bed with pine needles to lower the pH.

Just so I don’t forget, I planted: 3 each of Amity Red, Red Latham, and Anne Yellow.

This was actually 2 weeks ago—but we woke up to the SAME thing this week! I did not take new pictures, because, well—here it is. Or here it was. AGAIN.

The list of things I did NOT get done continues to be longer than I care to think about,. Spraying fruit trees with dormant oil (must get on this one pronto—once leaves start to unfurl, it’s too late!), pruning, spreading nitrogen on the garden and tilling, etc. etc. etc.

Hey—speaking of planting and being in the garden today. Guess what? I found several seedlings out there that have popped up on their own. I can’t quite tell if they’re zinnias or sunflowers. They’re just getting their first sets of true leaves, but those are still pretty small. In any case, they must be very confused, because neither flower does well with cold weather! Now I don’t want to till, though, because I want to at least give them the chance to make it! Not sure what I’m going to do about that. (Scoop them into a pot until after tilliing? Skip that part of the garden? Just plow them under (gasp)?)

First Harvest

I’ve got several bunches of daffodils blooming in my front flowerbeds right now, and the hyacinths behind the greenhouse are breaking into bloom as well—albeit on very short stalks. So I did my first official harvest round of the year. Woohoo! It was so fun to be cutting my own flowers again! I’ve got a bunch daffodils on the verge of being ready—maybe for this week!

My plastic fork deer deterrent has worked for the tulips! So I am expected many more of those this year than last, as well. Did I mention that already? So what I did was take a bunch of plastic forks and stick them, tines up, around my emerging tulip foliage. So when the deer bend down to eat them—POKE ‘EM IN THE NOSE! Ha! Last year nearly every bunch I had got munched down to the ground, but this year they are looking strong and healthy—nearly 6 inches tall now. YES!

Also, the crate full of tulips I planted is finally coming up. That’s the last area to have snow, I realized, so I guess they’re just in a colder spot than everything else. I’m hoping it extends my tulip season out by a few weeks. The ones in the crate are nearly all parrot tulips.

So, what have you been up to this week? Have you had any “fantastic learning experiences” you want to share with me?

Seed Starting, Soil Test Results, and Business Updates

 This

YAY! It’s officially spring! Cue Mother Nature’s crazy mood swings! Over this past week, we’ve had everything from beautiful sunny days to snow on the ground. Again! On one of the nicer days I was able to get a bit of work done outside. I managed to do some weeding, and sow dill and chamomile seeds. Hey, I even noticed some of my California poppies had germinated! Woohoo! So in that case, the snow was a good thing this morning. (I suppose. Sigh.) It watered all my seeds for me.

Speaking of seed starting, it’s time to do the next round! I got some peat moss—finally!—and have everything else to make a mix for soil blocking. If you are unfamiliar with that method, rather than using plastic trays or peat pellets to plant your seeds into, you mix up some very wet soil and pack into metal forms. When you push the plunger, soil blocks are formed. Each has a depression in the top for the seed. The ones I want to use this year are tiny—3/4” square is all. However, I took a seed starting course from Lisa Ziegler—flower farmer and author extraordinaire—and that’s what she uses for nearly everything.

I remembered to take a picture at the last minute!

Just today I got my snapdragons sown into the soil blocks, as well as the rest of my carnations. I also got some gladiolus planted, in a tub. My son drilled drainage holes all around the bottom of it first. Gladiolus are yet another type of bulb that can’t stand our winters, so will need to be lifted out and stored. I’m not a big fan of that. In a tub, I can just let the whole thing dry out and put it in the garage or something over the winter. At least, that’s the plan!

 

That

I received the results of my basic soil test. My soil PH is 7.5, which is alkaline—not a surprise for this area. I learned that raspberries tend to like a lower PH, of 6.0-7.0, so I’m planning to mulch the raspberry row with pine needles and see if that helps them thrive a bit more. Pine needles are acidic, so I’m hoping that does the trick. They have really struggled!

My Phosphorus levels were listed as “very high” and Potassium as “high.” Salinity normal. So, from what I looked at, high phosphorus levels usually mean to much manure used on the garden. I think we did use composted steer manure last year. Other than not using that again, I’m still not exactly sure what to do about that reading.

I plan to order soil amendments soon. I need them here, so I can get them spread on the garden and then at the first break in the weather—Till, Baby, Till! In related news, it’s supposed to rain and snow all weekend. So I may need to pinch back my sweet peas again to last under the lights until I can finally get them outside.

The Other

It has been a great week with the business side of things. I finally got some business cards designed and ordered. For some reason, this has been a long, slightly overwhelming process for me, but I finally got ‘er done! Part of it was some advice from my brother, who is also an entrepreneur. He told me that it doesn’t have to be The One and Perfect Card from the get-go. Get something made, and order a lower amount (I got 250), knowing that as my business evolves, my business card will too. It was the kick in the pants I needed to move forward with it.

I also attended a free business class put on by our Small Business Development Center here in town. It was all about “Planning for Growth.” One big take-away for me was to have a 3 year and 5 year plan and be very specific. You want a new workspace? Great! How many square feet? What color will the carpet be? Put specific numbers to your plan, otherwise it’s just a wish.

Another thing I’m excited about is my email newsletter: Bluebird News! I chose an email marketing site, and have started building my subscriber list. Yay! I have so much I would love to share with you all! Bluebird News will go out every 2 weeks, and will include tips for growing, harvesting, and arranging cut flowers. I published the first issue this week and am already working on the next!

* * * * * * 

On the home front, we’ve had the stomach flu going around. My 6 year old came down with it yesterday. So far me and my oldest are the only ones unscathed. Crossing my fingers that it stays that way!

So, how has your week been? Has spring truly sprung in your neck of the woods?

Have You Planted Your Peas Yet?

 

There are some people I have talked to who insist that St. Patrick’s Day is the day to plant peas. No matter the weather, the condition of the soil, or the condition of the gardener. You get them in on March 17! I will admit to being a bit less fanatic in my pea-planting views. You see, I have also read that if you stick those peas in the ground when the soil is still very cold, it can take them up to a month to germinate and grow! On the other hand, if you just wait a bit longer—say—early April, when the soil has warmed up a bit, they will germinate within 10-14 days. So the later planting tends to catch up to the earlier anyway.

I am hoping that is truly the case, because my garden is not ready for any type of planting just yet! I failed to get a soil test done last year, and I paid the price for my impatience! Soil fertility was very patchy last year. Even though we tilled in a goodly amount of composted steer manure, some things did great (sweetmeat squash, tomatoes) and others didn’t do well at all (beans, cucumbers.)

Garden takeover by the sweetmeat squash. That’s my oldest there in the middle of the jungle.

So this year I knew that I had to get a soil test. At the very least I need a baseline to go from in my soil amending.

It just so happens that I dug all my somewhat-evenly-spaced holes all over the garden, as directed, took a slice out of the side of the hole, and put only the middle section of each slice in a bucket, and stirred. As directed. After all that, they really only want 2 cups worth of soil. I sure hope I stirred it up well enough to get a decent reading on what’s going on! Also, I hope no-one falls into one of my holes in the garden before I get them filled back in. I was feeling pretty proud of myself. Got it sent off. Done! Check it off!

Then I realized—it’s March 17 tomorrow. I’m behind schedule! My sweet peas are getting leggy (I’ve already pinched them once) under the lights, and it is really time to get this show on the road! Except now I’m waiting for soil test results, and then I will order the amendments, and buy the supports, and you know—do a lot of shoveling and tilling and such. THEN I can get my “plant in early spring” stuff put in.

Can you see why I went ahead with the poppies last week? I’m probably a good 2 weeks out as it is with all this other stuff. I will still sow seeds that won’t go into the garden proper, while I’m waiting. I want dill along the fence, between the peonies, and chamomile around the base of one of my peach trees. Yes, there will be plenty to do between now and then. Here’s hoping my sweet peas survive inside that long!

By the way, you do know what I’m talking about when I say “sweet peas,” right? The flower, not the sugar snap edible peas. Please don’t ever eat any part of the sweet pea vine—it’s a bit toxic, so I’ve heard. Even though they’re not the same thing, they seem to like the same kind of weather—cool to cold.

What about you? Are you a die-hard March 17 pea planter, or do you wait until a few more weeks?

This fine patch of peas grew in my Washington garden. These are the edible kind, in case you hadn’t figured that one out already!

Poppies are In!

 

This one grew in my Washington garden.

I’m actually a little surprised that I got this done this week! Monday and Tuesday were beautiful early spring days—mid-40’s, sunny, dry (dead) grass to walk on. Perfect! I decided where I wanted to plant my poppies and got the ground weeded, raked, big rocks removed. My plan was to then sow the seeds Wednesday.

Never enough poppies!

Then it snowed Wednesday. And again Thursday. Oh yep, also Friday. Friday was more sleeting—what they like to call a “wintery mix.” Blah! Woke up this morning to more snow on the ground. Another inch or two. Sigh. Looked like my plans of poppy planting were getting pushed to next week.

This afternoon, the whole story changed! The snow all melted off. The sun came out. It was once again, a beautiful early-spring day. Well, you’d better believe I got my mud boots on and got out there!

California poppies are actually their own species. I planted 2 varieties in my poppy row anyway!

I have never had great success growing poppies from seed. Then recently I learned from the incomparable Lisa Ziegler that poppies are COOL flowers. That means, friends, that all those seed packets I had telling me to wait to sow them until after the last frost were wrong! They like it cool to cold, as a matter of fact. Other experienced gardeners have since told me that they sow their poppy seeds anytime from February on—just as soon as the snow melts and bare ground appears, get them in! In fact, one intrepid gardener in Chicago tosses his seeds onto the snow—with a warning that they will move a couple of feet with the snow melt!

I went a little crazy buying poppy seeds this year, so I had quite a few to get in. Oh, the other tip I learned was to mix the seed with sand or sugar, since they’re so tiny and grow to be so large. The ratio I did was 1/4 tsp to 3/4 C. sugar—or so. Once they grow I will thin them out to be spaced 9-12” apart. I put them in 2 long rows about 6 inches apart, at the one end of my garden area.

I let the chickens out after I had them sown and I was a little worried they would be curious about the white stuff on the ground and go scratch it up! They didn’t even seem to notice it. Are chickens color blind? Hmm…a post for another day, perhaps.

So, when it comes to cut flowers, poppies are notoriously short-lived in the vase. You can get a little more vase life out of them by searing the stems soon after cutting—either with a flame or in boiling water for 7-10 seconds. Even so, you’re looking at 3-5 days, probably, tops. So, that makes them great for event work, where they really only have to look pretty for the one day, or just to enjoy on your table.

Aren’t they pretty? These are dried, but they are just as beautiful when they’re green.

I’m just as excited about the seed pods, actually. I love the way they look! I’m planning to use them in boutonniers and arrangements. The seed pods last a long time in the vase, as you might imagine!

One more poppy picture from my Washington garden.

Let's Talk About Anemones!

 Wait—anemones? Aren’t those a kind of sea creature?
Well, yes.
Sponge-like tentacles that sting, often with clownfish living inside. Remember “Finding Nemo?”
 Yes. Anemones.

Gorgeous purple anemones...that I purchased.

As it turns out, there are also flowers by that name.
Anemones—the FLOWER—are cool weather lovers, which is another way of saying “hardy annuals.”
They don’t mind the cold, which is awesome for us in northern climes!

They come as corms—shriveled-looking little brown lumps, that don’t look like anything special in the least. I am learning that they do better with pre-sprouting, so I did that. First, you soak them for 4-6 hours, then put them in a tray filled with a couple inches of dirt, making sure they are completely covered. After about 10 days, they are supposed to grow roots. At that point, you pull them out and plant them for real this time—spacing them about 4” apart.

So, about 12 days ago I started the pre-sprouting process. Well, today I dug around in my tray o’ dirt and pulled out several. No sprouting yet. I had them in the garage at first, which I think was too cold. So after about 5 days I moved them to the floor of the laundry room, which may have been too warm. They like it cool—55-60 degrees F. They are now in the back pantry, which I’m hoping is JUST RIGHT. I guess I’ll check them in another week.

They bloom 12 weeks from planting, and the more you cut them, the more they bloom, so I’ve heard. I don’t have field or garden space for them this year, but what I do have are some great big pots, and at least 1 bulb crate. My plan—assuming they do eventually sprout—is to plant them into the pots and the crate. As they strongly dislike heat, maybe I could even move them to a spot that gets part-shade come early summer so they can keep producing for me for awhile.

I started these in hopes that I would have some blooming for my niece's wedding at the end of April, as I am providing the flowers. So far, it’s not looking too good for that deadline.

As always, so much to learn. I’ll keep you posted!

p.s. I just found this photo from Feb. 15 of last year. No snow whatsoever and grape hyacinths 6 inches tall. WHAT?! (Alright, alright, I know last year was a drought year and so I am very grateful for all the many MANY inches of snow this year. Sigh.)

A Bit Seedy

So, 2 weeks ago I got all of my seeds organized. It was good and bit overwhelming, I’ll be honest! I have so many! More than 70 varieties, just counting the flowers—not herbs, or vegetables. I am determined to be surrounded by flowers for the entire growing season this year!

Not ALL of those are completely different types, you understand. I went a little crazy with buying poppies and at least 10 of those packets are several different varieties of poppy seeds. I’ve got 4 or 5 rudbeckia, probably that many echinacea, handfuls of this and one or two of that. About half of them are perennials—the flowers that are supposed to come back every year—and if I can just get them to grow, just think how much money I will save this year! (Instead of going to the plant nursery and buying theirs, I mean!)

I bought some to fill out our home landscaping—the various flowerbeds around. A large percentage are for cut flower production, of course, and the rest…? A whim? Momentary seed madness? It’s hard to say, really. If I successfully grow every single seed in those packets, I will be swimming in flowers! Mwah-ha-ha-ha! Ahem, where was I? Oh yes. As I was saying, there are at least 5 more I NEED. Ammi (False Queen Anne’s Lace), 2 types of snapdragons, and 2 types of sunflowers. And then I’ll be done. Probably. For now.

No, for real though. I plan to get my Nurseryman’s license this spring, which will allow me to sell plant starts for people to put in their own gardens. So, I guess I figure that I’ll either make room for them here, or sell the babies on to other people. Nice work, if you can get it.

Are you Ready to Organize Your Seeds?

1. Find your frost zone. The USDA has a nifty interactive map you can use here. Take note of this zone. Ours is zone 5b. Many of the plants you buy will say something about “winter hardy to zone 4,” for example. The zones get warmer as the numbers get higher, so in general, you want to buy things that will live in your zone, or colder. This is especially helpful if you’re buying perennial seeds, because if you go to all that trouble to start them from seed they had better last through their first winter outside!
2. Next, find your last spring frost date, first fall frost date, and figure out the estimated length of your growing season, in days. Our growing season here in zone 5b is medium length, at approximately 113 days. You can google “first and last freeze dates by zipcode.” Several different sites will come up that provide this. This is good information to help you figure out how early to start your seeds. Most of the flowers I’m growing will need longer than our usual summer to grow up and produce flowers for me.
3. Many seed packets very kindly note how many weeks “before last frost” that you should start the seeds indoors, usually with a range. For example, it might say start 6-8 weeks before last frost. Unless it’s something that germinates very quickly, like zinnias, I usually go for the longer number of weeks, because the countdown toward “Days to Maturity” doesn’t start until germination. Many of these seeds take a week or two to germinate—or more. Safe side, you know.
4. Count back on your calender from your last frost date the appropriate number of weeks. Mark down what you should be starting then—or like I did, put the seed packets in groups based on when they should be started.
5. As far as timing goes, the final thing to look at is if they needed any special treatment prior to sowing. Some might need to be put in the fridge for 2 weeks, or soak in water overnight, etc.. If it’s more than a day or two, get that date on your calendar as well—or bump your seed packets to an earlier sowing date in the old shoebox!
6. Get your seed starting equipment ready to go BEFORE that date rolls around. :)

Got it? Clear as mud? Feel free to comment with any questions!

So now my seedbox is neatly organized. I’ve got all the seeds that are supposed to be direct sown in “very early spring, as soon as the soil can be worked” in a bag. I’ve got all the ones to start inside put in my nifty little baby shoe-box (the baby is now 9 years old), with yellow notepaper sticking up to tell me the date that they need to be started.

The reason all this matters? If you start them too early, they’ll get long and leggy under your lights before the weather is warm enough to get them outside and into the ground. The leggy ones don’t usually fare as well. Too late? Well, you may not get flowers at all if they’re some of types that need a really long growing season to produce.

With all of that, there were only a few I started with this very week: hostas and sweet peas.

Let the seed-starting adventures begin!

Hostas ‘New Hybrids Mix,’ because everything I read about growing them from seed said that they take a very long time—months even—for the little darlings to grow big enough to plant outside. Hostas are so easy to divide and increase your stock that way—if you already have hostas, just do that instead! I don’t have any growing here yet, and they are SO expensive to buy from the nursery! So this is kind of just for fun, to see if I can get any to grow. I have nothing to lose. According to the scanty sources I could find, the seeds germinate much better after soaking them in water, in the refrigerator, for 2 weeks first. So the hosta seeds are currently in the fridge!

Secondly, I started sweet peas. I had a baggie of quite a few that I had saved from my Washington garden, and another unopened packet from last year. These, I read, you are supposed to soak in lukewarm water for 24 hours prior to sowing. You may wonder why I jumped on this so early—after all it has been snowing all week here! So, despite the fact that you can direct seed these guys outside, I wanted to get some started, so that when that elusive “very early spring/late winter” day arrives—I’m thinking mid-March—I’ll have some ready to transplant and some seeds to put directly in the ground. The recommendation was to start them indoors 4-6 weeks before you aim to plant them out….which would be now. So here we are. I’m starting the saved ones and will directly sow the seeds from the packet.

The square pots were a little bigger than the standard 4 inchers, so they each hold 4 seeds, while the pots in the middle all hold 2-3 seeds each. This is a tray of approximately 40 seeds right here!

I’m laughing at myself, though. I failed to count those saved sweet pea seeds. I estimated (very badly, as it turned out) that I had around 50 seeds. Even 3 to a pot, my seeds were not diminishing much at 50! Friends, there were almost 200 seeds!! Hoo boy! I have been scrounging for 4-inch pots to put them in. 

I’ve called 2 of my gardening neighbors and begged for pots and I have used every last one of my own I could get my hands on. 200! I guess we’re doing sweet peas in a big way this year!

Are you planning to start any seeds this year?

If not, do you want to buy some starts? HA! If the rest of my seed-starting goes like the sweet peas, I should have quite a selection to offer! :)

Happy seed packet dreaming—I mean, organizing!