So close I can smell it!

My to-do list is increasing day by day.  I walk outside and I swear I smell hints of spring.  I'm not sure how that can be when it's still so cold and there are about 4 inches of snow on the ground, but somewhere, somehow, the scent of spring is there.  I have the itch to get outside, soak in the sun & work, work, work!  Plugs are ordered for the plants that are just too difficult & time consuming for us to grow from seed -- although, I promise to give a few of these another shot next season!  Seeds will all be here this week and there are just a few more bulbs, tubers & perennials to order.  The high tunnel is waiting to have good soil brought in and then be covered.  Hopefully we can get that project tackled within the next month so that we can get plants in!  SO EXCITED!

We're busier than we've ever been with weddings!  It's a great feeling, but golly...it comes with A LOT of "paper" work.  It will all be worth it.  It's so much fun to work with so many fun, neat people and to see the final products come together so beautifully on their wedding dates!

On today's agenda: finish up wedding quotes, go through the dahlias to see which ones are still viable for sprouting and work out the details of our planting schedule for this season.  Better get busy!

A month ahead = A month behind??

With everything blooming about 3-4 weeks ahead of schedule, we've been very grateful for the opportunity to begin selling early at The Freight House Farmers' Market.

Our March weather will go down in the history books as one of the warmest on record!  Now, April & May seem to be back on track and slowing things back down to normal.  To say that I'm confused about what to expect for the coming weeks/months would be an understatement!  We're still ahead of schedule as far as typical bloom times, but maybe we're getting a little closer to being on track?  We'll see...this wacky weather makes me feel completely behind.  We are still a good two weeks away from our usual frost-free date, though, so I'm trying to stay calm. 

I'm continuing to seed flats so that we'll have a nice succession of flowers this season.  As soon as the soil dries out a bit, I'll be out planting loads of little seedlings, lilies, callas, glads & dahlias!  I'm most excited about the dahlias this year!  I may have gone a little crazy with them this season...but I just don't know how you choose when there are so many gorgeous ones out there!!

Oh, oh!...I almost forgot!  Beginning on June 9th, we'll be at the Iowa City Farmers' Market as well as The Freight House Farmers' Market!  We were lucky enough to get a season-long spot right outside the parking ramp!  We're going to be busy, busy in May with The Freight House Farmers' Market, weddings & the arrival of our baby!  We'll be hoppin' with flowers in June!  You'll find me at the Iowa City Market on Saturdays from 7:30 til noon.  Travis will be at The Freight House Farmers' Market from 8 a.m. til 1 p.m...take it easy on him...he's still learning all of his flowers!  ;)

And...I apologize for the lack of posting & pretty photos.  I'm getting myself back in gear & will, again, start taking my camera with me every time I step outside! 

Excited. *Very* Excited!

Early last fall, I applied for a high tunnel grant.  It really didn't sound likely that we would get one for 2012...especially since there was only one awarded in Muscatine county for 2011!  Well, I kept hoping...and bugging the guy in charge about once a month.  About three weeks ago, I received a phone call saying that we ranked high enough for grants for a windbreak & high tunnel!...we would definitely get funding for the windbreak ($1,010), but would have to wait to find out about the high tunnel.  The good news came a couple days later...we are getting high tunnel funding, too (somewhere close to the tune of $8,000!!)!!  I have been over the moon excited since getting the news!  With me quitting my full-time job at John Deere (7 days left!) in order to grow Seeded Earth & stay home with our little baby that is on the way, the budget will be tight.  It probably would have taken us at least 2 years...maybe 3, until we could afford to put up a high tunnel of this size ourselves.  This will be so great for Seeded Earth!  We'll be able to add a couple of months to our flower production & be able to grow some things that just don't do well for us outdoors.  It's going to be so, so wonderful! 

What else?!  Spring is here!...or maybe it's summer already.  Whatever it is, it's beautiful!  It does have me a teeny bit worried, though.  If it's this warm already, what will we get for summer & fall??  I'm hoping that we cool down a bit, don't get a hard freeze that damages everything that is already leafing out & blooming, get a bit of spring rain and then ease into a nice, mild summer with an even amount of moisture.  I'll keep my fingers crossed that the weather doesn't get too wacky!

Got the Fever...

So, don't look out the window today...we have another late winter/early spring snowstorm blowing in.  But, next Tuesday when it is 61 degrees, I expect everyone to be out cleaning, digging, composting...for goodness sakes, do anything you can to get outside & get your hands dirty!  I'm so ready for spring, it's silly!

We have our little hoophouse frame still sitting in a pile outside.  All we need to do is make a home for it by preparing the ground with a little tilling & composting, get everything marked out & then call in a few friends to help get it all put together (and maybe do a teeny bit more research so that we can limit the number of hiccups that we run into along the way!).

I may be nearly 28 weeks pregnant, but I'm eager to head outside, hop on the tractor and get things rolling!  I have definitely come down with a nasty bout of Spring Fever!! 

Oh, What Fun!

What a busy, busy fun-filled weekend! 

I began prepping for wedding floral on Wednesday night by getting wine bottles sorted & ready to use as vases...some full size & some cut in half.  Flower cutting began on Thursday afternoon with a stop by Miss Effie's to get a milk jug of snapdragons, a few salvia and strawflower.  It's always fun to talk flowers with her!  Then, I made my way home to the flower field to cut as many flowers as I could before darkness set in...earlier and earlier these days!  Friday afternoon was more flower & foliage cutting and then the fun part...design!! 

I always have this vision in my head of how I want things to look...thankfully, Mother Nature & the Flower Gods {they must exist!} were very kind and provided fabulous colors & textures! I really loved how everything for this wedding turned out!

The excitement doesn't stop there!  We had a chance to visit our friends in their new home right after the wedding floral delivery.  The plan was to help them move, but the 2 p.m. delivery and then a 45 min. drive made us a bit too late.  It was great having dinner & laughing with them, though!  

 THEN...on Sunday, we drove 3.5 hours to Niles, IL near Chicago.  Travis & I have talked about getting a large dog to be a friend to Olive & I.  He really likes Bernese Mountain dogs...I just wanted a nice, big dog...one that would be nice to Olive, too.  Out of the blue, I did a search on PetFinder for a dog.  Well...after two weeks of discussing & applying to adopt, we made the trip to Wright Way Rescue to get this little guy!  It was a rough ride.....he gets car sick....but he was happy as could be once we got him home & cleaned up!

His name is Kevin.  ha!  Yep, I know...Kevin.  Travis named him.  We came up with some good names the night before with our friends...Oscar, Tom Selleck (!!), Grover...nope...Travis liked Kevin.  Remember the bird from the Pixar move, 'Up'?  The name reminded me of that silly guy (er...girl) & I did really like that movie.  Kevin it is!  So far {we've only had him home for 19 hours}, he is a really nice, sweet, cuddly dog.  Olive isn't too happy about this new guy stepping on her turf, but I think she's going to be alright.



Into the Future.

It's 11:30 p.m. & I'm just about done with the flowers for a 600 person wedding.  I sit here on our basement floor with my glass of wine beside me {that was poured at 8 p.m.}, look around & think...

I am a dreamer, a wisher and importantly, I suppose,...a do-er.  Some days I am more of a dreamer than others...I get caught up in my excitement & pure hope to succeed in doing something that I am completely passionate about.  For as long as I can remember, I have had this deep desire to have something of my own...working for someone for the rest of my life just isn't in me. 

For the past 7 years, since finishing at Iowa State, I have worked extremely hard at working for others...and I like to think that they have all appreciated the hard work & dedication that I put into my work.  I know that I am forever in debt to them for the invaluable amount of knowledge that they have provided me with...knowledge that helps me tremendously as I make bigger & bigger leaps into pursuing my dreams.

So...anyway...before I get too wordy...I'm here in the chilly basment {who needs a flower cooler?!} completely surrounded by quart sized mason jars filled with flowers  & the entire floor is littered {uh...very littered!} with leaves, greens, stems & a few broken flowers.  Looking at the beauty in this chaos makes me think about the future and where I'll be sitting at this time next year...5 years from now...10??  I have big, huge dreams...and I have enormous hope that we can make them all come true...

All I know is that at this moment I am extremely blessed...and for all that I have been blessed with, I am so thankful...so very, very thankful.

Wilted.

Highs near or at 100 degrees with heat indices near 120 degrees is enough to make anyone wilt!  Looking around the yard, plants that never wilt are wilting and sad...there are cracks in the ground that I'm sure could send my little dog, Olive, straight through to China!

We need rain.  A nice 2-3 day stretch of steady showers would work wonders for the sad shrubs and tan colored lawns.  In the midst of this dry spell, the perennials that we planted over the 4th of July weekend are thriving!  Yes...I have been watering them nearly every other day, but still...the heat alone knocks me out!...still, they stand tall.  Without meaning to, I happened to order quite a few drought tolerant, heat-loving plants -- baptisia, yarrow, helenium...they seem to be loving this insane weather! 

Right before our extreme heat hit, I had the opportunity to help with a beautiful wedding!  I love doing wedding flowers!  We have another BIG wedding coming up on the 30th that is going to be really pretty!  Also, a few more weddings this fall!  So fun!! 

Bringing it Home.

May 12th?!  The last time that I posted {...and had just previously promised to post daily?!...oops!} was May 12th?!  Alright...well, I'm back.  Things have still been pretty busy since our wedding on May 21st.  Here are the bouquets that I made for our wedding -- they turned out great!...and so did our wedding!  An 80% chance of thunderstorms was predicted for the day.  Somehow, we ended up with a light breeze, upper 70's & SUNSHINE!  It was perfect!

We closed on our house & 10 acres and began moving in on May 27th!...and have been busy moving in and getting settled ever since!  We just have one more load of things to move & then we will officially be done moving!  I cannot wait! 

Photos of our 10 acres coming soon! 

Good day, sunshine!

We had a picture perfect Freight House Farmers' Market Outdoor Season Grand Opening & Mother's Day weekend!  Blue skies, sunshine & a light breeze on both Saturday and Sunday!  Perfect! 

The first market of the season was wonderful!  We sold out of our arrangments within the first two hours -- I should have made more!!  On top of that, we sold a ton of flower bundles and had quite a few inquiries about wedding flowers!  What a great feeling to know that customers are enjoying the product as much as we do!  It makes all of the hard work worth it!  Thank you!!

The rest of Saturday & Sunday were filled with flower bed cleaning, weeding & mulching!...two full pallets of mulch are now laid out {on top of biodegradable weed block -- paper}.  It was A LOT of work {Thank you, Travis!}, but the garden looks sooo pretty now! 

Besides mulching, I delivered a beautiful Mother's Day bouquet for a friend & was able to get quite a few seedlings planted.  Half of the lisianthus, snapdragons & cardinal basil are in the ground...Love-in-a-Mist & Bells of Ireland are sprouting up!  LOTS more to go, but they'll all be in & flowering soon!...I cannot wait!

A Bouquet for Every Season ~ Spring!

Oh, Martha!...Browsing Martha Stewart's bouquets {again}...Look at all of these gorgeous spring/early summer wedding bouquets (...or imagine them in a blue, green or clear glass vase in your home) that are very do-able with all of the annuals, perennials and bulbs that we will have blooming! 

There are so many beautiful, creative options for bouquets & arrangements with our fresh, locally-grown specialty cut flowers during every season!  It's a fun challenge to come up with new looks and designs to help you nourish your life with color and happiness! 

Until Spring...   :)