New Beginnings

For several years now, this yearning to be a flower farmer has slowly grown.

It started as an I like flowers to Food for the pollinators! to Ohmygosh! Flower fields are the best! to Hey, look! A cut-flower class! to ALL THE CLASSES! ALL THE BOOKS! to I need a truck bed full of flowers! to where I am now. 

Bam. Truck of dreams, right there. Floret Flowers is a huge inspiration for me.

All this under my belt and buzzing around in my brain, and my sister and her boyfriend announce their engagement. 

What does every wedding need? What costs an arm and a leg and your soul and your first born child and the tears of a crocodile? 

Flowers.

YESSSS!!!!!!!! 

I feel like Chekov running down the hallway of the Enterprise shouting, 'I CAN DO ZAT!' and then I whip out every seed catalog and cut flower book and resource that I have looking like an overeager puppy that found the best stick in the world. We most certainly can do this. 

And then I started planning. 

What did I get myself into? 

It's one thing to put a seedling into the ground and cut the blooms whenever it's ready. 

It's another matter entirely when you're trying to have all the blooms by a certain date. 

So to the spread sheets I went, plugging in all the information I thought I needed to plan this whole thing out. That was a long, brain draining afternoon. But it's done, and now all I have to do is reference my handy dandy spreadsheet to know when I need to have things seeded and all the other information that I'll need to have for planting, growing, harvesting, and special treatment requirements. Just to name a few. :P 

I'll try to figure out how to share it with you so you don't have to try to create your own from scratch.

I just had one problem. The greenhouse that I found (brand new, in the box) on Craigslist that I was able to find for quite the steal, is still in the box. Yeah, I jumped on that deal, but we haven't had the time, energy, or cooperative weather to get it up. So there it sits. Still in the box.  We're starting to get the site prepped, but it will take time. But according to my master sheet, I needed to get some things started in early February. Did I mention that the greenhouse is still in the box? I don't have a good place to get things started. Thankfully, my boss is letting me use some space in the greenhouse at work until I get mine up and running. I'm up to 4 seed flats now. :P Just wait until I start up-potting them into larger containers. I will slowly take over! 

One of the things that my sister :really: wanted was Bunny Tails grass. It looks really cool in arrangements, but do you know how weird it felt to be seeding grass? In a greenhouse? On purpose? 

And I'm just blown away at how tiny some of the seeds are. They're so itty-bitty that they are in tubes or teeny plastic bags INSIDE the seed packets. It's amazing how much growing power is contained in such a tiny vessel.

In spite of the hyperventilating that has happened, the seeds are in fact growing. Just like they should. 

When I finished my master list, I had to have some serious pep talks. 

Why do I have so many flowers on the list?!? 

Because you have no idea what you're doing, so you're covering your bases.

Oh yeah... 

If something doesn't work, then something else will probably be available. 

:deep breath:

You know, we're going to be drowning in flowers if all of these work.

Oy vey...

Seed Sources:

Johnny's 

Floret Flowers

Park Seed

Territorial

Botanical Interests

Renee's Garden

So this is me. Jumping in with both feet. 

I'll keep you updated as things keep growing. Next up will hopefully be about either the greenhouse or flower field prep! 

Until next time! 

SG

Sheltered or Hardened Off?

(I've had this in drafts for a while now. The idea was there, but the words weren't quite right. After sitting on it and eventually revising it, it was as ready as it would be for sharing with the world.)

As I was bundled up trying to stay warm at the chef's garden the other day by working with some baby greens in the hoop house, a thought came to me, and it was a rather profound one at that especially considering that it was coming from tending to little lettuces: Being overly sheltered while growing up is the same as not getting hardened off. I'll explain. 

Plants that are started in a greenhouse absolutely need to be hardened off otherwise they fade and wilt when exposed to the full power of the sun, wind, and rain. They don't know how to stand on their own feet because they haven't had to. You give them the best opportunity to thrive by starting them indoors with climate control, mild temperatures, and (filtered) sunlight - all conducive to maximum growing potential. All too soon, they outgrow their pots and might even become gangly if kept inside for too long. It's high time for the baby plants to HARDEN OFF.


There are two options here: plunk 'em in the ground hoping for the best or prepare them for what the great outdoors have in store by acclimating them to those conditions instead of shocking them with everything all at once.

Seeing the same light bulb that I did? How many people just cannot handle what life throws at them, don't know what to do with themselves once on their own, or long for the childhood glory days?

Yes, we want to protect those in our care; we can give them the best start we possibly can. But will your children be ready to stand strong against the headwinds? How do you harden yourself off let alone teach someone else? How do you remain sensitive to others even when you find yourself too hardened? 

Just a bunch of thoughts and questions from the chef's garden. I don't have answers (I'm as single as they come and the only littles I have to harden off are baby plants), and the plants I talk to certainly don't have anything to say. We would have a very different problem if they started talking back. :P 

Until next time,

SG