Springing into Spring

Okay, here goes the blog attempt. Flower farming takes up a good chunk of our spring, summer and fall here in rural Iowa, and I'll attempt to keep all you flower lovers and St. Bridget's Farm fans up to date. Plus, I'm hoping this will help me to keep better track of flowers, schedules and past successes. A lot to ask from a simple blog, but we have to start somewhere!

Spring is crazy time around here. Three different spring sports, practices and games to get to, piano for two kids, prairies to help burn, and then, oh yeah, we have a flower farm that needs a bit of attention.

The lovely weather has helped, especially when comparing it to the wet and cold springs of 2008 and 2009. Most of the mulch, garden cleaning and rototilling has been completed. Thanks to Scot. 100%. With little Michael helping at every opportunity. So, I cannot resist pushing up the planting season a bit, and managed to get in 30 dahlias so far, along with 20 lilies, and around 300 ranunculus. Scot has completed all his burning successfully, which is a major accomplishment. Now I only have another 80 or so lilies to put in, and then I can start digging bigger holes. Did I mention we have 400 or so shrubs arriving next week? We WILL find a place for them!

I love planting the ranunculus corms. First of all, that sounds like a foot disease. Secondly, how cute are these before they are planted?

Julia thinks they look like the noses and star-nosed moles. She was a big help--thanks to her, we put in 125 in one afternoon. Lastly, ranunculus are beautiful cut flowers. They resemble the old-fashioned, David Austin type roses, with multiple layers upon layers. They need to be planted early in our area, as they dislike the heat and humidity of July, so, we're hoping to harvest these in May and June with any luck. Pictures to come!!

And how is this for a sweet little vase of flowers? First, I love the vase, a wonderful birthday present from a dear friend. And I'd love to say the flowers are the result of our hard work, but they are from a naturalized bunch of daffodils that grow in our little woods next to the barn, thanks to the folks we purchased our acreage from. Julia collected a huge bunch of them yesterday, and they'll brighten up the kitchen for an entire week. They just kind of shout "SPRING" at the top of their little flower lungs, don't they? Love, love, love the yellow with green stripes, I believe those will be transplanted to my main perennial bed next year.

Thanks to all the new facebook fans, and check out the regular website at http://www.stbridgetsfarm.com/. I will post photos of the new flowers as they are planted and more importantly, as they bloom.