For many years, I have longed to be a grower of flowers, lots and lots and lots of flowers. I have been inching toward that goal each year. Rows of vegetables in the community garden gave way to rows of flowers. Last year, two garden plots overflowed with zinnias, cosmos, celosia, snapdragons, and sunflowers. More flowers grew on the North Forty. Sunny summer bouquets made their way to the Portsmouth Main Street Farmer's Market each Saturday morning.
Yet, I continued to long for my own slice of land on which to grow flowers. I beseeched Better Half to find me a little parcel of dirt on his family's farm.
And, here it is, in all its glory, on a gloomy February afternoon. All the trees to the right of the grain bins and elevator leg will soon vanish. 2.25 acres will be available to me for gardening. I was fairly dancing with glee.
Some pretty hefty equipment will be required to turn a forest into a garden plot.
The garden will be sited on an abandoned hog lot not used in decades. Fairly sizable trees, grape vines, and old wire fences litter the property.
The soil is heavenly - dark loamy top soil, almost a foot deep. I spent a Sunday afternoon with Better Half digging test holes around the property, delighting in the glory beneath my feet. But, wow, what a lot of land. Glee is giving way to apprehension.
My new favorite Saturday morning hangout. Fencing, mowers, Kentucky 31, seeders, seed starting, discs, and garden sheds - the stuff of a flower farmer's existence. The free popcorn is a welcome treat, as we wander about the aisles.
I am schooling myself in electric fencing - joules, voltages, impedance, ground wires, batteries, t posts and the like. Deer inhabit the space I will now call my garden. They will have to be dealt with.
Seeds are arriving daily from Johnny's Selected Seeds. Better Half helped me to set up a dandy growing station in the basement.
And, we are underway! The first tiny Rudbeckia seedlings have germinated. Many more will join them as spring progresses.
Torrential rains have prevented the dozers from commencing their work. As the list of tasks before me grows, I become ever more anxious to get started. I content myself with research and organization, as I wait for the fields to dry.
This gorgeous book has been a valuable source of information and inspiration.
The Floret Flower Farm blog, a thing of beauty in itself,
is providing me with a wealth of information about growing.
Muddy Feet Flower Farm's gorgeous arrangements spur me on.
A tour of Sunny Meadow Flower Farm,
minutes outside Columbus Ohio,
on a blazing June afternoon last year, showed me, firsthand,
how much effort, hard work, sweat, and persistence
goes into the business of flower farming.
And yet, I persist in the dream.
Much more to follow . . .
Please come back and share in this dream with me.
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