Smokebush and Paper Petals 4/12/24

Smokebush and Paper Petals 4/12/24

Posted by Mandy + Steve O'Shea on


   Happy Friday yet again.  They just keep coming.  Spring is zipping by.
   Smoke bushes are leafing out, the lunaria has formed its silver dollars, the chlorophyll has filled in the leaves of the Japanese maple and obscured the anthocyanins, the bamboo shoots are 5 feet tall, the mower’s broke and the grass is tall, two and a half greenhouses are already finished and empty, and the peonies are starting to bloom.  And if you’re following along from last week….the plums survived!!  So excited about that last one.
   The farm store is open and is actually going to have veggie plants for sale out front this weekend.  Normally you have to buy them in advance, but we’re switching it up and putting them out front for your perusal, so get what you need to get that garden going, because we don’t aim to have them much longer.
   Mum orders are going out the door each Wednesday and we’re already starting on next year’s crop.  2 tunnels that just emptied of ranunculus are already being prepped for a planting of heirloom mum’s so we can offer all the most heavily sought after varieties in greater abundance for next spring.  Sarah has done a great job fleshing out our vision of an efficient mum nursery and we’re super excited about how well it's going and even more excited to improve everything further for next year.  One of the things I’ve come to love about farming is the opportunity to start anew each year and refresh and refine all of our systems and approaches.  Entropy reigns supreme in this universe, so the opportunity to take a small corner of it and flesh out highly considered bits of order that serve a larger community is always extremely rewarding.
   If you missed your opportunity to get the mum varieties you want, you can stay tuned for inventory updates by joining our mum waitlist.
   This has been our shortest ranunculus season ever.  We’re not sure exactly why, but everything tuckered out sooner than all years past.  We have just enough to stock the farm store this weekend, so come on by if you want the very last of them.
   The new pastel poppies have been awesome.  Y’all seem to love them as much as we do and they seem to be a hit at weddings that want the elegance of those papery petals, but with a softer palette than the original colors.
   I’ve gotta run.  The compost facility that I built in 2016 has already rotted through in some areas, so I’ve gotta tear it apart and replace half of the lower section.
Have a great weekend y’all!