We had one entire plot of flowers from a reputable seed company which we won’t name here that didn’t sprout at all. Not a single seed. We did everything right and followed the directions. The bed was sowed of both perennials and annuals including Snap Dragons, Celosia, Cockscomb, Larkspur, and Foxglove. It was painful, but after waiting over a month and seeing nothing, we tilled it under and are sowing that entire huge plot again this week. It really is a bummer, because that puts us a month behind on that plot. We got online and started reading reviews of different seed companies. The particular company we ordered from had negative reviews from others who experienced the same thing—bags of seeds that didn’t sprout at all. Needless to say, we won’t order from them again. We went with a mix of other companies with glowing reviews this time. It was an expensive lesson learned!
We are super sad to announce that we won’t have any You Pick flowers for the ARC&D Northeast Tennessee Farm Tour because of bad seeds and being behind, but we will have blacksmith demos and wares available for purchase and a kids’ activity table. We are about to have a TON of sunflowers, gladiolus, and hydrangeas, but they unfortunately won’t be harvest ready by next Saturday. We said in an earlier post, but are reiterating that a hoop house is a must for us next year. If you can make it out on the farm tour, we would love to show you what we have in the works and hope you’ll plan to stop by again when everything is in full bloom!
We installed a new rose bed with some beautiful rose varieties that smell absolutely amazing and will be gorgeous in bouquets. We used newspaper as a weed barrier. It was so windy that we had to use a hose to wet it so it wouldn’t fly away before we could lay down mulch on top of it. We are very pleased with how the bed turned out!
We missed the Jonesborough Farmer’s Market the entire month of May because we didn’t have a hoop house, so we had few flowers. We had a great time today back seeing everyone. We sold out of flowers and sold quite a few blacksmith wares. We were talking to some other farmers and discussing how it’s been a peculiar season with the late frost we had. Other farmers there said they were in between harvests and waiting for things to mature. It’s hard to call yourself a flower farmer when you don't have a ton of flowers, but this is only our second year and we are trying to show ourselves some grace because it is a learning curve and we are doing our best. Come July and August, our farm will be a rainbow!
Back around Easter we got some Guinea Keets for the farm to help with ticks, spiders and bugs in the garden. We started letting them out to graze the past few days. Guineas are aloof, wild birds. We have been trying to get them back in their coop every night, but last night one we refer to as “Limpy Loo” escaped capture and he is still on the lam. We are hoping for his safe return. We have 8 Guineas and hope that our entire flock will make it. We are already quite attached to them even though they aren’t affectionate in the least! Come home Limpy Loo!