Yes, dear friends I am indeed still digging in the dirt here on Little Big Farm. I am just a bad blogger who got caught up in a whirlwind of activity last summer and could never quite get myself back to the computer afterwords. I know farmers say this every year but it truly was crazy here in 2011. In all we had an earthquake, a hurricane, two floods and our house was struck by lightning! Oh to be a farmer! If you think picking flowers is easy you should really come work with me sometime…
Anyway, we survived and I will post some pics of all of our disasters. My husband always finds time to take a picture or a video now that he got his new iPhone.
Lots of good things did happen though. I was lucky enough to work with many, many brides (as well as their mothers!) who were so lovely and committed to using local and organic flowers for their weddings that I am really trying to amp up that part of my business this year. So, if you know anyone who is getting married anytime soon, send them our way. Also, our hoop house had it’s first growing season pumping out loads of larkspur, dahlias and the most amazing sweet peas ever. I also started my beekeeping adventures and will post some pics about that as well.
I promise to write more often in 2012 and one of my other resolutions is to have a better sense of humor…I am going to need it!
My Sweet Peas are actually blooming! It is going to be almost 100 degrees tomorrow so I hope they can hold on; they usually do not like the hot weather but so far they are hanging in there. Sweet Peas really are worth the trouble because they produce such a wonderful fragrance. This past weekend we started our Blairstown Farmer’s Market here in Blairstown, NJ and everyone was asking about the “great smell” in the bouquets.
Also blooming right now in the hoop house are lilies, larkspur, buplereum and the sunflowers are about to pop as well. I was able to start all these flowers extra early in the hoop house so these flowers are way ahead of their cousins in the field. So far the hoop house has been a great asset to the farm. But, of course there are drawbacks. This past memorial day the entire family went to the lakehouse without me because I had to stay home to “water the baby plants.”
But that’s okay… The farm is looking stunning these days. I will try to take photo of the it to share with you all but I know it will not do justice to the beauty of this place. Everyday I just can’t believe how lucky I am to be farming such a lovely piece of land.
All my life I thought 4-H was just about the coolest organization on the planet, but I never had the opportunity to join a group. Well, I am finally going to scratch that itch with my own 4-H group. Over the winter, I organized a Junior Master Gardener 4-H club; the kids decided to name the club the Agricultural Adventurers. We have five members, two of which are my own boys. After several meetings, we’re off to a great start. Our goal is to learn about gardening and farming through hands-on activities.
We have already booked our first public appearance for an Earth Day celebration in Blairstown, NJ, that my husband, Kevin, has organized with the Blairstown Environmental Commission. We are going to be doing a composting workshop with worms and teach people about all sorts of different ways to compost. Should be fun and educational for everyone. For more information about 4-H near you visit their website, www.4-H.org.
We are off and running now. You know the season has started when you start the tiller and there’s a problem with it. Or when you are dragging hoses all around the farm. Or when you start about 1,000 seeds (this is not an exaggeration!) in your basement. The seeds, which are currently under grow lights, are all started on heat mats which provide the warmth that helps prompt germination. After germination they are moved off the mats and seem to grow just fine in my cozy basement until they are moved out to the hoop house in a few weeks. Seeding continues successively throughout the spring season so we have a continual bloom of flowers. The timing of all this is crucial to a good season later on.
This season I am trying about 20 new varieties of flowers which brings my total list of offerings to almost 60. Some new blooms I am excited about are: dahlias, callas, allium, lilies, poppies, lisianthus, bells of ireland and agrostemma just to name a few. A lot of the new additions are bulbs that are forced throughout the year to bloom on a schedule. Again, this year will prove to be a real test for juggling the timing of all the new bulbs as well as all the field crops. With that in mind, I have been making all sorts of spreadsheets for these things which should save me the time of actually thinking about it during the growing season. I am not sure how farmers did all their planning before computers, but I am sure glad that I have mine right now!
Farming can be so challenging sometimes. This winter it has taken us way too long to put up our hoop house. We have been beset by lost parts, bad weather and just plain inexperience. As you can see from the picture it is almost finished. Since this photo was taken we now have the plastic on the top and sides and this weekend hope to finally finish with the doors and end walls. Of course all this work was really done by my husband and wonderful farm partner Kevin. I really could not have taken on this project without him.
Speaking of partners, I received a wonderful book for the holidays called “The Dirty Life” by Kristin Kimball. This book is about Kristin and her farm partner and husband Mark and their trials and tribulations of finding a farm, working it and finding love in their work and each other. I read the whole book in one weekend and would highly recommend this book to anyone even interested in farming. The craziest part of this book is that I feel like I could have written it, albeit probably not as well as Kristin nor with as much wonderful wit.
Everyone knows; farming is hard. Loving your work makes it a bit easier, but having someone to share in it all, that is where the real joy is.
Every year around this time, I cannot tell a lie, I have to say that I am a little relieved when we get that first hard frost. The flowers are all gone overnight and a new season has arrived, just like that.
This is the season of cleanup of course. And with the cleanup lots of notes to write about things to do differently next year as well as ordering bulbs and seeds. This year we also have on order one bright new shiny HOOPHOUSE!
Yes, it is finally coming true - a real dream of mine. We had a good year this year selling our flowers and we are rewarding ourselves with a little present. This hoophouse, basically an unheated greenhouse with a plastic covering, will really bring our growing here at LBF to the next level. We can now grow lilies, ranunculus, dahlias that won’t tip over in the wind… and many, many new varieties. Plus our season will last longer as well.
This also means more to manage, but I am ready for that challenge. I will post some photos of it as soon as it arrives. Until then I will continue to clean up, plant my cover crop of winter rye, and plan, plan, plan.
Patti recently gave an interview at the Blairstown Farmer’s Market where she discussed why she likes to farm as well as the importance of supporting local farmers. Check out the video.
About two weeks ago we had a family barbecue and we were all set up in the backyard. We had a tent and activities for the kids, coolers etc… People started to arrive and then about a half hour into the party it started to rain. Well, it was a pretty steady rain and at times came down pretty heavily. We were all okay with it though because it has been extremely dry on the East Coast this summer.
After the storm the sun came out and it was remarkably cool and comfortable –finally, the humidity was gone!
Then I checked the rain gauge.
I was shocked. I thought it had at least rained an inch or at least half an inch, but it had only rained 1/4 of an inch! I then asked our remaining guests how much they thought it had rained. Most of the guests guessed similar to me, one half to one whole inch. At this point I knew that I still needed to run the irrigation the next day, (most plants need about one inch of water a week). Without this little inexpensive little plastic gauge, I would have left my plants without proper water for the rest of the week.
The rain gauge is such a simple tool that gardeners and farmers everywhere do not use but should. It is such an essential tool when you are growing plants of any kind. It is like the stethoscope that hangs around the doctor’s neck - it checks the vital signs for you. Without the gauge it is simply a guessing game and even though I am usually fairly accurate after all my years gardening, I still goof up when estimating how much it has rained.
A rain gauge can be purchased at a hardware store, online at garden supply companies, or at agricultural supply houses like Agway and Tractor Supply. I would urge even small-time gardeners to go out today and get themselves a gauge so that they can stop the guessing game.
Our kids love to check the gauge and report how much it has rained and it really saves me time in the end. If I know it has rained enough that week I don’t have to walk the irrigation lines looking for a leak and you don’t have to stand there with a hose over-watering your garden.
