Farm update April 2025: April storms bring May flowers

The spring rains are here and they are not going away anytime soon. Which I am ok with, I'll miss these storms come July and August. One thing that the storm systems has done this month is slow down how fast I can get the flowers planted in the field. Which is both a good thing and a bad thing. Good because I have had to slow down my seed starting, which has spaced out how many plants I need to get in the ground at one time. Bad because I won't have the amount of flowers available when I originally planned, but they will be available just later and that is what's important.

Statice and globe amaranth getting planted. Still have some to go in the ground but my torch decided to quit on me, so I couldn't get all the holes burned in the fabric.

Last year I had a hard time finding equipment to break up the ground so that I could plant my flowers. My uncle let me use his tiller and that was amazing. This year my brother-in-law gave me this old disc what was sitting in his field forever. He wasn't sure if it would work but as you can see it does an amazing job breaking up the hard ground and digging up the rocks that are hiding underneath. One of the members of my church let us use his tiller this year so that we can get some nice loose soil to plant my flowers in. I can not even begin to thank all of the people that have helped me over the years in helping me get my dreams up off the ground. I have big ideas and plans, but I have to take them one step at a time as money and time permits. Which in the long run I think will be a good thing.

She maybe old but she is still mighty! Of course the 7 inches of rain that we just got helped a lot.

The area that dad was breaking up in this video is where my dahlia's will be going this year. Last year I was on the fence on whether I wanted to really get into growing dahlias. I have to say that I have jumped on to the dahlia bandwagon. I bought over 20 different varieties for this year. I am working on getting cuttings off of those tubers so that I can increase my stock. In the coming years I plan to focus the farm on more specialty flowers than growing a big array of flowers for mixed flower bouquets. I love seeing one type of flower in a vase just as much as I do a mixed bouquet. So I have decided to bring you quality over quantity when it comes to flowers by focusing on a handful of annual flowers. Over the next few years I will be experimenting with the focal flowers that we all love to see what you want to buy over and over.

I know that I am pushing it on getting dahlias in the ground already, but I really need the space in the greenhouse. I can't wait for you to see my set up for these beautiful plants when it is done.

We all have areas on our farm/business that we wished that we'd done differently. When I first started growing lavender I spent hours researching how to grow lavender, the best way to plant them, and what growing conditions they need. I also spent time working out how to build my farm so that it would be as low maintenance as possible (I know, good intentions). I spent hundreds of dollars on landscape fabric, limestone gravel, and brought home hundreds of boxes from work. All in an effort to "beat" the weeds. Now years later I very much regret how I set up my lavender rows. In an effort to cut back on work (and what I thought less money), I did nothing but make my life harder (and more expensive). I used cheap fabric from the store, which does nothing to hold back the weeds, and when I used cardboard it only worked until it decomposed. The gravel may be good for the lavender, but it is also just an other medium for weeds to grow in. Hundreds of hours in labor pulling or spraying weeds, and replanting hundreds of lavender plants when they got chocked out when I couldn't keep up, I have learned my lesson.

I have learned a lot and I hope to avoid those same mistakes in the future. But for now I have to deal with redoing the nursery part of my farm. Which is the original planting area for my lavender. This year I plan to remove all of the gravel that I put down (my back will hate me), replace all of the cheap fabric with the good stuff, and that will be it. Nothing else but the fabric. I will also be redoing how I have my irrigation set up but that will be easy. At the new farm I will also only be using landscape fabric on my lavender rows. Work smarter and buy only what I need is my goal for this year.

The south side of my nursery garden before the redo.

I have a lot going on on the farm this year, but I can't wait until it is done and I can open it up for people to come out and see!