Today marks a terrible failure for me. It is officially March, and my Christmas Wreaths are still hanging up. Embarrassing. But March means we're into flower season, at least in the sense that it is time to get those seeds started and plans underway for the new season!
2024's "Start Indoors" seeds are all organized and waiting. The very first batch (of veggies, not flowers, but we do all things together) are started, but as usual I have ordered way too many varieties and will have to be clever about seed starting space.
I am also waiting on an order of more seed starting trays and liners, so in the meantime I am getting a little creative in filling them out.
For those wondering, egg cartons work great. The only downside is, because the egg carton itself will absorb water, they have a higher risk of molding then plastic. This year I have a bio fungicide that I can use as a preventative.
We'll also be experimenting with tunnel cover this spring. The hope is that we can set up a quick low tunnel (for cheap). Having a tunnel set up, even a rudimentary version would not only allow for season extension, but it would take some of the pressure off the indoor growing space.
Starting seeds is only half the battle of getting set up for the season; we also need to get the space prepped for where those seeds will go once they're up and the weather warms up. We will be breaking new ground this year in New York and hopefully doubling the growing space here.
My husband got me this powered hoe machine for Valentine's day. I haven't been able to do more then turn it on with the frozen ground here, but it should come in handy to get the old beds ready to plant in again. I am also hoping that it will be useful in breaking some sod out of new space, but we'll see how strong it is for that.
2024 Garden
What are we planning for 2024's crop that is different from last year? I'm glad you asked! There are so many exciting things in store for this year, from expanded and new varieties to infrastructure additions!
One of my top goals for 2024 is to actually sell tulips and daffodils. There are currently a couple hundred tulips and 100ish daffodils planted at Hill Place in NH, and another 50 tulips in Greenwich. So far I haven't been able to time the harvest of this crop with lining up a sales outlet, and, well... I have never managed to move any of them.
This year I am working on plans to catch the tulip harvest (hopefully for mother's day!) and use those flowers!
Last year we had just a few Foxgloves, and the crowd absolutely loved them! I was completely unprepared for the amount of interest there would be in them (though obviously they're quite pretty!) and all the great conversations that I had with costumers about them.
I actually left these off my garden plans for 2 years because I was afraid of their toxicity. Eventually we decided to give them a try, because we were already growing a number of other things that were also poisonous (sweet peas, delphinium, etc).
Because of the reception it received, I'm adding a ton more this season. I put in a section of starts last fall, which have hopefully overwintered, and I'll be starting another flat of 1st year flowering varieties in the next week.
Last year was also our first successful snapdragon harvest (you may recall that we grew 1 stem of snapdragon in 2022). We started a staggering 7 varieties of snaps last season, to differing degrees of success. Overall our harvest was a still a little weak, and we used the stems somewhat sparingly in arrangements.
This year I've trimmed the list down to just 4 varieties of snaps. This was based on their performance last season, as well as trying to match the bloom times of different varieties to keep us in season all summer long. The varieties that made the list this season are: Costa mix, Rocket mix, Madame Butterfly mix, and Potomac Apple blossom.
Snapdragons are exactly what I am hoping to use some of that low tunnel space for.
Last year we used what we had to get our flowers set up roadside on Fiddlers Elbow, but this year we've got plans for a brand new roadside stand! Not only will this make us "more legit" but it will provide the flowers protection from wind, rain, and blaring sun. It'll also give us a place to display and sell my art notecards as well!
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