April Showers Bring May flowers
Spring is in full swing! The sun has been out more and more each week, and the temperatures are rising, which means the flower starts and Chase are very happy! The past few weeks the starts have been rapidly growing in the greenhouse and are eager to get into the ground. While it’s easy to get excited, it’s important to wait for the right time to transplant each start to avoid any detrimental transplant shock. There are two major factors I always consider and monitor before moving my starts from the greenhouse to the field. First, it’s important to be sure you are past any chance of frost. Many of the Summer annual flowers can be killed, damaged or stunted if exposed to too cold of temperatures too soon. A safe way to be sure there’s no risk of frost is to wait until 2 weeks after the projected last frost date, if there’s no frost in sight by this point it is likely safe to start transplanting.
The other factor to monitor closely is the state of the flower start. This may seem obvious by last year, out of pure eagerness, I transplanted some of my flowers earlier than I probably should have. Because of this, some of those plants didn’t produce as many flowers as I would have liked, and the stems weren’t nearly as strong as they should have been. It was a learning moment for me, and this year I now know not to make that mistake again. There are a few ways to know if your seedlings are strong enough to be transplanted; the number of leaves, root strength, and stock strength. I’ve found that if there are at least 2-3 sets of leaves, a solid root system has developed, and the stock of the plant is thick and sturdy then the likelihood of the plant thriving after transplant is much higher.
My first flowers to be transplanted are the snapdragons and scabiosa. These seeds took off almost immediately and are now bursting at the seams. Their roots are beginning to poke out of the sides of the soil blocks, and we are past any chance of frost so it will be safe to transplant this week. Transplanting will be quick and easy with the soil blocks. All I’ll need is my hori hori, a great gardening knife with a serrated edge, to dig a hole that is the perfect size for each soil block.
When growing flowers from seed at any level, there are bound to be a few mistakes or hiccups each year. I prefer to call these learning moments. Sometimes these come about because I didn’t do my research and wasn’t thorough enough when starting the seeds, sometimes it’s out of the natural elements and things that are out of my control. Most flowers have very specific needs when starting. Some need light to germinate, others like Chinese-forget-me-nots require total darkness. Some seeds do better when soaked in a water or a wet paper towel for a few days before sowing. Some seeds do better when started early while others, like Sunflowers and Bells of Ireland, I’ve found thrive by directly sowing them into the ground once the chance of frost has passed. It’s important to do your research before starting any new flower, most times there will be some instructions for germination on the seed packet itself to get you started. Sometimes, even when you’ve done the research it still doesn’t work out for one reason or another, and that’s ok!
You also have to consider the unpredictability of nature. I’ve experienced uncharacteristically cold Springs, heat waves, animals eating my seedlings and flowers, summer storms, the list goes on! Ask any farmer and they will tell you; you have to learn how to adjust to these unexpected circumstances, it’s one of the great lessons that comes with this work. It teaches me how to be adaptive, creative problem solve, and ride the ebbs and flows. These lessons all translate into my daily life and allow for me to feel more grounded in everything that I do. Farming can be a lot of trial and error, so you have to be ok with making mistakes and things not working out the way you had hoped. You have to learn to be patient with your starts and with nature. The sooner I understood these lessons, the more joy I felt doing this work and with that came more success.
Once the transplanting is complete, the next step is to set up support so when the flowers grow, they will remain strong and produce straight stems. This season I want to be more thorough with my support. Another mistake I made last year was not having solid support and not setting it up at the proper time. This year, I will be putting 4ft T-posts down each side of the rows, spacing them about 6 feet apart and at the start of each row. Then I will take trellis netting and connect it to each post, so it “floats” over the row (pictures to come). Trellis netting has large enough gaps that as the flowers grow, they will be able to grow through the net and have that support to lean on if needed and continue to grow straight up. It’s important to get your support set up before or at the same time that you are transplanting your starts into the ground. The last thing you want is to be trying to set up this support while trying to work around your growing flowers and not damage them. The extra work now will pay off in the next few months!
On a more personal note, the past month has been quite the transition month for me. I made the decision to move to Bellingham, which is about 2 hours north of Poulsbo, just before you hit the Canadian border. I’ve spent the past few weeks getting settled in my new home, planning for the coming season now that I’m in a new location, and figuring out how to maintain my work in both Kitsap and Whatcom counties. Admittedly, it’s been a lot of work and I’ve had to make some big adjustments. Through this life change though I am learning how to plan ahead much better than I have in the past and be smart with my time.
My flowers will still be grown at Farm Kitchen this season, so I will be going back and forth between Poulsbo and Bellingham. It’s not an ideal situation but it’s the price I will pay to be where I really want to be until I can fully move my business up north. I’ve absolutely loved living in Poulsbo and getting to know the Kitsap community better, but my future is in Bellingham and I had to make the hard decision to move before the exhaustion of busy season kicks in. The silver-lining to this is I get to maintain my Kitsap community while also building a new community in Whatcom county.
I’m a bit unsure of how exactly everything will work out, but I trust that it will, one way or another, and I know that I have a good support system behind me to help when I need it. I’m also thrilled that I will be having some volunteer helpers out in the field this season, which I am so grateful for. Having just one person helping with farming tasks makes all the difference, it cuts down the time and work and it’s just nice to have the company while getting through the to do list. If you’re interested in helping out and getting your hands dirty, reach out so we can chat! I’m always willing to share the wonderful world of flower farming with anyone who will listen. There will be much more to come over the next few months, I will be sure to share updates throughout this season and all the lessons I’m bound to learn.
Last bit of information to share with you this month, May is the last chance to sign up for Full season and Summer CSAs! Sign up ends June 1 for these two options so if you’ve been thinking about it, now’s the time. The Autumn CSA will be available until August 1 so if you miss the deadline, you can still enjoy beautiful flowers in September! I’m so excited to share my flowers with so many people this season. There are so many new things coming that I can’t wait to share with you, all that to come next month!
Chase
