It has been the most beautiful span of days here. The weather has been unseasonably warm. Tee shirt weather almost. The frogs are already croaking so loudly out back that we can hear them through closed doors. It looks like late March, not mid-February.
Trying to capture the last “winter” scenes for the book has been a bit tricky. All of the early ornamental trees and shrubs are exploding into bloom and around the neighborhood, the familiar hum of lawnmowers can be heard. Fingers crossed we can make it.
The earliest daffodils are about to pop. Just down the road a field of a million King Alfred’s is just turning yellow. Soon the school buses with armies of pickers will descend and begin the harvest and spring will officially be underway in the valley.
The sweet peas that we sowed in the fall and planted into the hoop houses are starting to put on some lush growth. They looked pretty ratty this past month but the recent sun and warm afternoons are making them grow like crazy. Next week Chris will set their trellises because they are ready to climb.
I picked the first handful of Icelandic poppies on Valentine’s day. This fall we planted an entire 100ft hoop house full. That’s 2,ooo plants! I can’t wait to see all of their cheerful faces but know that full days of harvesting are right around the corner.
We’ve been swimming in parrot tulips for the past few weeks. Hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of stems being harvested and sent out for Valentine’s. There’s nothing quite like hauling in an armload of these ruffled treasures. Back at the beginning of this journey, when I would dream of the future, I would imagine the most luxurious flowers I could (roses, peonies, dinner plate dahlias, parrot tulips) and think maybe someday I’ll be able to grow enough to have an armload like the pictures I’d seen in books. Now it’s an everyday occurrence.
How about you? What’s happening in your garden? Are you buried under a mountain of white? Are you picking buckets of flowers yet or start seeds in the greenhouse?
Yasmin on
Hi Floret, I am writing to enquire if you were at all open to- in the future- the idea of an enthusiastic Australian girl coming and helping on the farm there? I have followed your journey for a while after discovering you on Instagram, and I can’t help but ask! My partner and I (he is wanting to harvest in other parts) want to travel over and I’m truly not afraid of hard work. If you at all had a minute to reply and perhaps we could keep in touch if the opportunity ever arises! Thank you heaps, Yasmin.