This week’s blog entry is from a guest writer, Maggie Taylor, Delight Flower Farm.
The end of the growing season is always bittersweet. Sometimes it feels like we just got into a good rhythm, only to have it abruptly halted by the first frost. Other times, we’re pining for the day we can sleep in, slow down, and forget about farming for just a moment.
The sweet thing about nature, is that it always moves in these familiar patterns of birth, growth, slowing, and – ultimately – death. We know the days for rest and repair will come again; so too will another spring and summer, filled with newly incubated dreams and more flowers than the year before.
BUT – before we take a break, we do a LOT of work to tuck the field in for a long winter’s nap. We take up landscape fabric that we’ll store and reuse next year. We amend the soil it by applying compost and planting winter cover crops. Oh yeah, and this year we planted 6,000 tulip bulbs and hundreds of other spring bulbs!
We are a seasonal flower farm growing fresh cut flowers in spring, summer, and fall. We have fresh flower subscriptions for each of these (CSA) and we sell locally to wedding couples, florists, grocery stores, and at the Urbana farmers market. However, since we have nothing fresh blooming this time of year, we have to get creative about generating revenue for the farm. Immediately following Thanksgiving we start to harvest evergreens locally and begin making holiday wreaths. We offer a bunch of wreath-making workshops around town before Christmas. We also turn much of our dried flowers and herbs into packaged goods such as teas, floral bath salts, and other body products. We take a brief break around the holidays to rest and then begin planning for the 2019 growing season. If this sounds like something you’d like to be a part of we are hiring for the 2019 growing season! Get more info on the job.
This year we plan to force fragrant spring bulbs in time for Valentine’s day sales and will have them available at the Feb 9th Farmer’s Market in Lincoln Square Mall. This is what seasonal flower farming is like!
Maggie Taylor, Delight Flower Farm, [email protected]
Delight Flower Farm – A Local, Regenerative Cut Flower Farm (Video)
