flowers – Sunrise Farm Project

Bless the Rain

What a spring and early summer we’ve had! Here, on this last week of June, just days away from July, we got quite the bit of rain after over 5 weeks of dryness. It will probably not be enough to correct the near drought we’ve been in, but we are thankful nonetheless.

The late May and early June heat wrecked our spring vegetable plans. I always was under the impression that plants loved sunshine no matter what, but there are a few plants that prefer the cooler days, and actively dislike the heat. Peas and spinach have been two plants I wanted to harvest, but disappointingly, a bunch of nothing. Both plants I will reattempt in a few weeks to see if we can get a fall harvest from them.

May is always the month of end of school madness, with different activities honoring our graduating seniors (at the school where I teach), and for my just-finished-3rd-grade son. Both Evan and I have been putting in long hours on the farm as the school year wound down, and into the beginning of summer ‘vacation’.

We’ve been tracking the rain that finally came down today for over a week. Things we never thought we would include in our job descriptions: weather-watchers. It’s really challenging and discouraging to watch your crops fail due to lack of rain. While we are not as bad off as some, it was agonizing to wait for rain. Despite the lack of rain, we still expect a vegetable harvest throughout the summer, just not as soon as we had hoped.

No matter the weather status, there is always plenty to do on the farm. Follow along on Facebook or Instagram for more day-to-day farm happenings.

Waiting for Better Weather

After a week of heat, we didn’t want snow.

It felt like we jumped from winter to summer this week. From the cool temps to sunshine and hot. Beautiful weather makes me want to plant everything outside, but the future-cast said that I needed to hold that thought for a little bit longer. Because we dropped again to the cold and snow.

My daffodils are in the beginning stages of blooming- one of our first signs of spring. Buds are developing on the trees. Chickens are hatching in our kitchen. So far, this April has been a great improvement on last year’s April, not too hot, not too cold- with the obvious exception of this past week in the 70s and sometimes 80s.

Peas were planted on Good Friday, as tradition sometimes dictates. Usually I don’t put much stock in those sorts of superstitions, but this year, it happened to line up with when I wanted to plant anyway. According to the Farmer’s Almanac, this tradition can be traced back to both the Southern United States as well as Ireland. When Easter is celebrated in March, Good Friday is often too early to plant any seeds, even if the plants are cold hardy. I planted radishes, lettuce, peas, and kale the first week of April, but with limited success so far. I hope between this week of heat and the rain we’re getting next week, more success will come.

Livestock acquisitions typically happen in April and May. Our March/April chicken hatch was wildly successful, with almost a 95% hatch rate on our fertile eggs. As this is our first year incubating, we will likely take a break as we approach our mid-May planting season. If all goes well, we may try for an end of June hatch for the birds we want to keep for ourselves.

We are also still working on some larger livestock projects, and may add feeder pigs, sheep, or goats into the equation this year. However, our main focus is a successful garden.

As April turns into May and summer approaches, our busy farm season will soon be upon us. Follow us on Instagram or Facebook for more snapshots of our farm life, as well as vegetable and flower availability as we start our early summer harvests!

2022: A Year in Review

Our year was clearly quite busy, as evidenced by our radio silence these last few months. Between the garden harvest and the early winter weather, our schedules have been quite full. Here’s a brief review of our 2022 on the farm, as we gear up to do so many new cool things this year!

January– Many woodshop projects, including a number of beer flights and cutting boards

February– Trying out our hand at wood burning as well as the creation of new benches for different spaces around the property.

March– Seed starting! Many varieties of tomatoes this year.

April– Getting started on the new 1 acre garden. Abnormally cold temps led to slow growth on the early spring veggies. Pigs came home at the end of April and really filled our days!

May– We brought in a new batch of laying hens. The hops started to establish themselves again.

June– Finally our spring veggies produced something! And we ordered more hens!

July– The veggies start rolling in– first turnips, then the first harvests of zucchini and beans. We harvested our first pig late in the month.

August– The flower season is at its peak in August. So many blooms! Tomatoes think about producing, and zucchini is giving us a bummer crop.

September– Apples start to roll in, and our first batches of applesauce are processed. Veggies continue to roll in, and the flowers still look amazing. We had a surprising harvest of watermelon too. And we dealt with escapee livestock, as the remaining pigs got out several times.

October– We added several new tools to our meat processing arsenal, and had a successful attempt at bacon curing after the first too salty batch.

November- Settling in for the cold weather- early snow hindered our clean up process.

December- Weather turned mild again, and we were able to do more yard clean up. Our youngest birds laid their first eggs.

The second half of the year is full of busy tasks that don’t always seem worth talking about. As per usual, you’ll catch a bit more from us through our Instagram page.

Thanks for sticking around, if you’re still here!

Expanding the Flower Garden

There were a few projects we tackled last summer that were not expected to produce much success early on. The most surprising success was the roadside stand with little flower posies.

small flower posy — a mix of marigolds, sunflowers, and zinnias

Success of roadside stand– Evan built it because we knew we would need it eventually, and he wanted the practice. Neighbors would occasionally ask what we were selling, and I was itching to get something going.
My flowers were a natural choice, as they were one of the few growing successes we had last summer. I waited in anticipation for the first flowers to bloom, and once they started, I started to assemble posies.
It was only a few bouquets each week to start, but at peak season, I was producing 10 to 12 larger bouquets. Pairing color and texture was a fun challenge for me, and encouraged me to start researching more.

More zinnias, they’re my favorite– As the season ended, I geared up to grow more. Starting with my current garden, I worked to save seeds for the following season. I knew off the bat that I wanted to grow more zinnias, as the variety of color and strength of stem makes them a really awesome cut flower choice. All winter, I poured over websites and catalogs, trying to decide which varieties to include, and trying not to go overboard.

cutting ground around the irises was a lot of work

Researching more flowers- amaranth, cosmos, greenery– I also knew it was foolish to invest in only one flower variety, so I started research. Based on our zone, and the traits I was looking for in my flowers, I bought seeds for amaranth and cosmos. Both plants offer a variety in color and height, plus promise the hardiness needed for a cut bouquet. The greenery is still something I am working on, though I will be trying some hardy herbs this year, and continuing to research other possibilities.

Moving the location and cutting ground– With a few new varieties of vegetables to add to the garden this year, I had to find a new location for the flower garden. An existing iris bed was expanded, twice, to accommodate my flowers for this year. As we are still in the transitional stage with this flower bed, I have an odd mix of perennials and annuals as a test to see if the soil and light is the right mix for my flowers.

a mostly mulched flower bed, with rows of flowers peaking through

Watching and waiting– The hardest part of gardening is the year-long cycle of hurry up and wait. As we reach the end of June, we are just watching, watering, weeding (sometimes), and waiting. Wondering if there is enough sun exposure. Hoping that it rains enough, or trying to get watering done efficiently. Keeping the weeds at bay so they don’t choke out the plants.

sunflower against a blue sky — one of last year’s sunflowers

My Favorite Flowers

Growing up, my mom always had the most beautiful flower garden. She grew chrysanthemums, day lilies, zinnias, dahlias, snapdragons, irises, daffodils, tulips. Her garden was a riot of color. Spring and summer and even fall brought gorgeous cut flowers into our house, and I have fond memories of bringing flowers from my mom’s garden to my teachers.

Several times over the years, I grew my own flowers. One year, a marigold I had planted grew to be several feet tall. I was thrilled when we bought our first house, and I found daffodils and hydrangeas in the garden.

This spring on the farm, flowers were first on my list for our garden. I bought zinnias and marigolds and added those to my collection of seeds from the previous year. My son added sunflowers to the mix. I waited anxiously for the first flowers to bloom.

Having cut flowers on my dining room table brings me a lot of joy, and I love being able to share that with others. We’ve been able to sell some bouquets at the roadside stand so far this year, and I am already planning next year’s plantings.

Cut flowers are not always the first thing to occur to people when they plan a garden. However, I think the beauty that they can bring is an important factor in planting. Flowers bring bees and butterflies. They can come in so many different colors- from sunshine-y yellow to rich reds and purples. For me, flowers are worth it.