Before I begin this one, I have to confess that all I can properly think about right now is Taylor Swift, as I’m seeing her very soon in Detroit! (If you’re at N2, come get a friendship bracelet from me up in the nosebleeds!) So, apologies if I’m not as focused this month!
May has come and gone in an absolute blur, like it always does. Starts out with a prom boutonniere or corsage order, tumbles into Mother’s Day like an avalanche, then all the planting, weeding, hoeing, sowing, and fertilizing fills up the rest and before you know it-it’s gone. All melted away into the lovely June heat.
The dandelions came on- first one, then hundreds- as they always do. The blooms are more consistant now in the perennial gardens. Lily of the valley bloomed, showing off how far it’s sprawled into the woodlot and around the house and smelling up the whole farm with the scent of Spring. We cut as much as we could carry and delivered it happily to our friends at Red Haven Farm to Table, where it’s always enjoyed on the tables. Catch our flowers in their vases this season! Red Haven always holds a special spot in my heart, as it’s where I really decided that I loved arranging flowers and wanted to pursue becoming a florist. It feels very full circle that we now deliver our flowers to them! Their cute patio planters are our handiwork as well, and it’s always a joy to pot them up!
The bearded irises, wild geranium, and clematis are all trying to outdo each other this year. A personal favorite, our Lula Marguerite bearded iris did well this year after last year’s transplanting. We love how it shares our name and colors! In our hazelnut guild, we found a few delightful morel mushrooms! They were a few days too far gone to eat, but it’s such a joy to see them appear in a new spot on the farm, especially in an area we’ve worked hard to rehab. On the other side of the house, our trillium that I could have sworn was dead has been blooming and is slowly fading from bright white to pale pink.
We began planting out some of our seeded transplants, as well as direct seeding some of our summer crops. The first round of sunflower seeds goes in. The first row of sunflower seeds gets eaten by the birds before they sprout. The second round of sunflower seeds goes in and gets covered by the row cover until they are nice little sprouts. Sunnies are on the way! We have some lovely peaches, plums, reds, and whites in addition to the yellows this year. Our suns get sown in succession, so we don’t have 800 all at once-we’ll have them most weeks once they begin blooming in July, through frost (hopefully).
The heat and lack of rain aren’t exactly the greatest for sprouting directly sown seeds and keeping new little transplants alive, but we’ve gotten a sprinkler timer and second sprinkler installed, and we are on our way to a well-watered garden this season! It was a trick to figure out how to split up the spigot so the rest of the farm also had access to it, but thanks to Farmer Luke’s expertise, we got the right timer and now watering is so simple.
In the front garden, our ranunculus are beginning to head up and our overwintered snapdragons are in bud! They should be starting the show in the next week or so.
For now, it’s back to making friendship bracelets and checking on my Eras Tour outfit that I’m dyeing on the front porch. I can’t wait to scream-cry with my fave artist and my best friend for 3.5 hours! See you all on the other side!
Jamie
FMFE
Comments