The farm is really shaping up and it’s exciting to see how much work we’ve been able to accomplish over the last month. We are about 2 weeks ahead of where we were last year - I know I mention weather every time I write, but it has truly been bonkers…There is so much anticipation for the first blooms of the season! We have some ambitious poppies starting up, and the peony bloom has begun. It’s a daily race around two peony fields, cutting at least three times a day and then heading into the cooler to store them away. The ranunculus in the greenhouse are almost done blooming; the statice “suworowii” is budding up along with some lavender Snapdragons I’m particularly excited about. Soon the daily rhythms of the farm will include significant harvesting, bunching, and bouquet making along with the normal stuff - keeping up with weeding, succession planting and flipping / cover cropping beds…

Besides starting to harvest, planting and seed sowing, I am cleaning up messes leftover from 2022 and looking ahead to add to the Monocacy Valley Flower Coop availability each week.

Things exciting me right now:

Seeing how happy the thornless raspberries I planted last year are this season — I planted them for the foliage but I have to admit I am pretty excited to make some jam, too!
Harvesting the first Viburnum since planting it a few years ago…It is a lovely lime green color similar to hydrangea but earlier and smaller — it goes with everything spring has to offer.
New baby chicks - two new-to-us varieties of Marans and Brahmas plus a random bonus chick that reminds me of our first year on the farm when we were sent a bonus chick I called Gimmick, a steady double yolk producer who was blind in one eye. I learned some lessons from that hen - It turns out, gimmicks aren’t always tricks! Anyway, looking forward to eggs from these girls later this summer, but until then it’s fun to have babies on the farm in the spring.
Sending the last of the cut-flower gardens to-go out the door and finishing up packing up tubers!

An old picture of that sweet hen, Gimmick - You can see her blind eye clearly in this photo!

Mother’s Day is almost here! Our CSA bouquet subscription makes a lovely gift - 5 bouquets, picked up monthly on the farm will take your loved one through our season. From peonies in May, line flowers in June (snapdragons, delphinium, foxglove and statice), Zinnias and the heat lovers in July, Lisianthus in August and Dahlias in September, this is a thoughtful, unique gift. I can send you a gift certificate and there is still time to schedule your first bouquet pickup for this weekend!

Wishing you perfect planting weather with gentle rain to follow!