Well I did it again, I totally forgot about the blog for a few years. Life happens, you get busy 🙂 But I have been busy gardening, crocheting, mom-ing and working at the farm. 2022 was a great year. I will share some photos later on of the adventures we had. Right now I want to share with you what is going on in the garden.
I have made the switch to flower farming! I have grown flowers in the past here and there, but only with the intention of drawing in the bees to pollinate the vegetable garden. This year I wanted to focus on flowers. I am still growing tomatoes for summer snacking and canning sauce. I grew 22 tomato plants from seed in the shed. They are my babies! So healthy and beautiful. I only have room for 9 plants, so I am going to sell some and give away the rest. I also grew flowers from seed, 19 babies! I grew Orlaya, Stock, Bachelor Buttons, Milkweed, and a lot of Chinese Forget-Me-Not. The rest that I tried to start did not germinate. I need to learn how to have more successful germination.. For another day.
I started the season focused on filling in the Secret Garden, my English Cottage style garden in the front yard. I filled her in with lots of perennials, Marigolds, and Hollyhock. I will add Daffodils and Tulips in the fall for next year. I also painted some pots black and added white Hydrangea plants to those. Love how they turned out! I love a good black and white moment.
Moving to the back yard, I have one bed for flowers and potatoes, one for tomatoes and garlic, and one full of strawberries and lettuce. For the flower bed, I have some Dwarf Dahlias from work at Schuh Farms and Dahlia tubers from Blackburn Gardens. In the fall I went to Blackburn Gardens for a Dahlia tuber workshop. It was awesome, I learned how to divide and store the tubers. I was able to keep them alive through the winter! 🙂 5 tubers sprouted and are in the bed growing lovely. Can’t wait to see what the babies look like in bloom. Recently I found my first podcast to listen to, about flowers of course! Let’s Grow, Girls is hosted by Nicole and Sarah out of England. I have learned so much and found my people. My Nana Dorothy was from England and her and my grandpa always grew roses, I feel like they are here with me on this journey.
My next project is just unfolding. I am going to convert some grass to a flower bed for more Dahlias! This area of grass was previously a garden that I filled in when we first moved in…lol All that work for grass, but really it’s not level and full of clover. So happy to see it go! I have 14 more tubers to plant, thanks to a fellow Skagit Garden Geek, Steve in Anacortes. Some will be a surprise but I am most excited to see Cafe au Lait, she looks to be beautiful. It has been fun making bouquets with the flowers that have been growing so far, can’t wait to see what comes this summer. I promise to post more and see you on my Instagram!