April started with a lovely weekend trip to see my boys in Los Angeles. Having all the family together in one place makes my heart the happiest. As usual when I seem to travel down that way the weather was rubbish, the Pacific Northwest basked in sunshine whilst Los Angeles had the grey drizzle that we are more accustomed to! But hey, ho we still had a lovely time - the highlight was afternoon tea in Huntington Gardens. If you are in that area, I highly recommend a visit. The gardens are gorgeous at any time of the year and the tea room has just been renovated and they serve the most delicious afternoon tea.
Afternoon Tea at the Rose Garden Tea Room ~ Huntington Gardens
As soon as I returned we started the mammoth task of packing and shipping the dahlia tubers. It took us 1 1/2 weeks of long days to get this project completed. My trusty side kicks Penny & Shannon dug deep and we processed so many orders…at times it felt like we would never get this project completed - but we did!
It is exciting to think that a little part of my farm is going to be growing in so many other farms and gardens across the country. If you ordered dahlia tubers from me, thank you so much.
All the shipping orders of dahlia tubers waiting to be picked up - we had Farm pick up tubers too - it was a mammoth task!
The next task was to plant sweet peas, we packed over 1,000 of them into my sweet pea patch and we completed that in one day. It is going to be beautiful come the end of May. Each year there seems to be something that we are doing battle with - last year it was bunnies that were roaming the property - they have disappeared thankfully but it is now the feral cats that live in the barns on our neighbors property coming over and using my sweet pea beds as a cat litter tray…..and then to add grossness Charlie my dog decides it is best to dig it up and I don’t need to tell you what else she does….bad dog Charlie.
Sweet Peas starts with nice long root systems ready to go into the ground.
The farm starts to explode into life in April with the apple trees coming into blossom and all the tulips and daffodils blooming, they are such a treat after the long winter. You can start to feel the change in the air. However, you should never get too excited with the odd warm day in April and we did receive some hard frosts towards the end of the month. It is a good reminder to be patience planting out all those tender plants.
I love all the double and parrot tulips
In April the greenhouse is full to bursting. It is a constant shuffling operation. Once the sweet peas were in the ground I was able to move the cold hardy starts out into the holding cage to harden off which let me have a little more room to move in the greenhouse. That meant that the field prep had to begin. Tilling the field, adding compost and then putting down the weed barrier. I am now down to one field - you may remember from musings past that I have decided to change what I am doing slightly. I have mixed emotions, I am sad to see my annuals field go but for the balance in my life I had to do it. I am still going to have 5 x 75 ft beds to grow annual flowers which is plenty, I will be growing these flowers for weddings, events, my CSA and then bouquets that I will sell directly to the public. Although I will miss my big field I am excited to see how this year will unfold.
I had hoped to get my dahlia tubers in the ground the first week in May but my schedule with our Spring Market will not allow that, but it will be just fine. The soil will have warmed up and they will be ready to start growing.
Down to one field but still plenty of growing space
The rhubarb plants have been producing a bounty of stalks so in amongst all the farm projects I have been doing some baking too which I love and want to get better at. Oh, and I have taken up knitting again. The last time I did this was 2017……. A couple of lovely friends and I have started a Monday night knitting club! It is the perfect way for me to switch off at the end of the evening and relax. It might take me until next winter to finish our first project but that is OK, it is not a race…this is no stress hobby that takes your mind off everything else that is going on around us.
Have a wonderful May & go get your hands dirty - it is so rewarding.