Fall on the farm

2024 was my first full year growing flowers. It started with tulips in March, ranunculus in April, and then summer annuals and dahlias in July. Now it’s September and it’s really starting to feel like fall. The flowers don’t seem to know it yet - they’re still producing like crazy! But I know it - I can feel fall in the air. It’s one of my favorite seasons, but it also means we’re saying goodbye to an other beautiful summer.

I like to analyze, and this whole flower endeavor is perfect for that. This summer was a hard one and I wasn’t able to get all the things done that I wanted to. That’s probably a statement a lot of people can relate to, I suppose. Take sunflowers, for example. Last year I was really good about starting a new batch every couple of weeks so that I had a ton of them to harvest in the fall. This year, I just didn’t get that done. I tried just sowing a bunch of sunflower seeds directly into the ground to save time, but out of like 100 sown, I think I only got 20 sunflowers. And most of those were too big to use in bouquets. The thing with sunflowers - and all flowers, really - is that you have to plan months in advance. Sunflowers are really fast growers, but still, if I want sunflowers in August, I have to have them seeded in June. And this was just not the year for that to happen. Ah, well. Next year will be better. How do I know? I’ve already got stuff planned out on the calendar :)

But what went well? I divided my dahlias and had a lot more this year. I grew snapdragons for the first time, and they were absolutely gorgeous. This year was a year that I wanted to focus on learning what I can grow well, what I like to grow and harvest, and what I think looks good in bouquets. I’ve already got most of my seeds ordered for next year: I’ve doubled down on the stuff that worked and will have a lot more colors next year, and I’ve decided to abandon the stuff that didn’t work so well. Besides actually putting together bouquets and giving them to people, I think it’s the analysis and evaluation and strategizing that I like the most about this little project.

But now fall is here. Which means more spiders, but it also means fall colors and cool evenings, and sunlight that is just a bit softer than it has been for the past few month.