2023 Wrap-Up

The first amaryllis for 2024…’Luna’

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Suffice it to say that 2023 flew by in a blur, as evidenced by the fact that only 16 posts were written in the ENTIRE year with the last one appearing March 9th. I went back to read them, just to get a feel for what I’d already written and possible things I’d left unanswered. Oh, I had such high expectations! That happens during winter, sitting with a cup of tea and a pile of seed catalogs making “wish lists.” In winter, with all that rest my mind is in the “all feels possible” stage. Obviously already by mid-March my body reminded me that reality bites. I just don’t work as fast or as long as I once did. I also attempted to grow too many plants for my basement space, which required moving flats just to get in to water some areas, and moving them back again. Time-consuming and all that bending and squatting made the days more difficult.

Pushing the starting dates earlier from the 2022 schedule seemed like a great idea in the winter planning stage, except that the weather in 2023 did not cooperate at all, with a colder winter and a wetter, dreary spring. With more plants in the ground earlier, many more hours were spent covering and uncovering the low tunnels nearly every day, and of course there were more of them. Additional cover and hoops had to be purchased. It all took time and energy.

March was colder and wetter than usual, and sadly some of the ranunculus in raised beds rotted. The weather wasn’t helpful, so once the greenhouse was filled, plants had to stay in the basement longer than planned and a backlog began. By month’s end 194 varieties had been seeded, and 6,098 were already transplanted into pots or cells. That’s more plants than usual (since selling my big greenhouses, of course) but I’d talked my Home Extension Club into doing a plant sale in May, so I felt obligated to provide enough plants to make it work.

End of April, early May bouquets with the last of the daffodils, the first of the ranunculus, May Queen Shastas, Dutch Iris, a bit of white Dame’s Rocket and tansy leaves as filler.

On to April. Remember that additional 1,000 new daffodils and 800 tulips planted in the fall? Well, they did great and I picked about 4,000 daffodils and used about half the tulips for “Growing Kindness Bouquets.” ”Why only half the tulips?” I hear you asking. Well, most of the tulips were supposed to be late bloomers, but when Miss Spring decided to depart and Master Summer rushed in they all bloomed at once. Add to that, I’d committed to doing two out-of-town weekend shows in April so I wasn’t there to pick them. IF I’d had an extra refrigerator, I could have picked before I left and stored them until I had time to make bouquets, but I don’t. I was also on the garden club program committee and we’d scheduled a field trip to see 200,000 spring bulbs blooming and the Monet Experience down in Indy so that took another full day. The gardening and plant tending had to be done so the days were getting longer, but still 138 bouquets were delivered that month, beginning on April 4th. And seeding varieties had climbed to 270, another 1400 plants had been transplanted and direct seeding of some flowers and vegetables had begun in the potager. 

Buckets of annual phlox…I love them, but picking them is time consuming.

Keep in mind that according to my calculations, each bouquet takes about an hour from picking, leaf stripping, conditioning, hauling to the basement, then arranging, adding the tags and ribbons, hauling from basement to vehicle, making the list of addresses and organizing them into a route, the actual delivery, and then returning the carriers to the basement, scrubbing up the buckets from picking, and making another batch of flower food for the next picking. No gardening time is included, nor is the time spent e-mailing or messaging for names or filling up the gas tank, or printing out the tags and punching them, or cutting the water bottles into vases. So, in essence 40 bouquets a week is equal to a full-time job!

If April had seemed hectic, May made that seem like a walk in the park, if walking in the snow and cold can be considered a pleasant walk. Combined with heavy storms that often included hail, outdoor work was at a minimum. I deadheaded over 500 daffodils that were ruined by hail. Farmers worried and tinkered on equipment because they couldn’t plant in wet fields. I spent hours packaging sunflower seeds into coin envelopes to give away for the new Sunflower Growing Contest our garden club would be sponsoring in July, made posters for both plant sales, hosted our Gourmet group, put the temporary fence up around the Cutting Garden and battled the critters, who were undeterred by inclement weather. Deer, rabbits, raccoons, squirrels were rampant, but the worst battle was against moles, voles, and the absolute worst, chipmunks! Apparently chipmunks can have two or more litters per year with 4-5 babies at a time. They dug up hundreds of crocus bulbs, ate most of the tulip bulbs and dug up planters and newly-planted seedlings not only in the gardens around the house, but a family managed to move into the potager as well!

Eventually the weather did clear a day here and there, so I was able to plant out in the raised beds, and although it was chilly both plant sales did very well. By month’s end the dahlias went into the ground and it was 90 degrees, which pretty well ended the ranunculus, who hate temperatures above the mid-70’s. The seeding done in May was not even recorded (and you know how I love record-keeping) and even the number of transplants stopped being entered on May 15 at 8,263. There were only 34 bouquets delivered that month. 

Feverfew calendula, lilies, rudbeckia, Bells of Ireland, stock, larkspur, shastas, the first snapdragons

June continued with lots of 90 degree days, which is a bit unusual for our area. The ranunculus bit the dust early, but other flowers were coming on fast. The critter battle continued, with mostly defeat on my side. I tried every repellent mentioned on Google. None of them were even slightly tempted by the baking soda/peanut butter/cornmeal crumble that was highly touted. They were too wily and small to be contained by live traps and every day I found piles of the skin/coatings from tulips and crocuses on the deck, sidewalk and paths. I gave a couple of speeches that month, froze rhubarb and strawberries, and finally got lots of mulching done when it dried out enough to get the truck here and there. Also we attended the big national GOF (Gathering of the Faithful) MG car show in South Bend for three days, and our kids from Florida came for a visit before they left for Italy. And I delivered 106 bouquets that month. The Canadian wildfires began to really affect our air quality by the month’s end, but it made us count our blessings that we weren’t closer.

There was an abundance of flowers in July!

July continued to be hot, no rain, and bad air quality. I froze peas and blackberries, and did lots of veggie prep for meals. Hosted a “Snip and Sip” which was fun, but probably won’t be repeated. Continued to battle the critters although by now the deer and rabbits had retreated to the shade of the woods. July is Fair Week, so I baked pies daily and worked at the cash register one day, made all the bouquets for the Ladies Afternoon Tea, and gave a presentation on flower arranging. The garlic and shallots were also harvested, almost two weeks earlier than usual, and 172 bouquets were delivered.

A cartload of bouquets…zinnias Irish Eyes rudbeckia, lemon basil, snapdragons, feverfew lisianthus, statice, gomphrena

August was another hot, hot month but that’s more usual for Indiana. Most time was spent watering, and sadly attending 6 funerals that month. I spent a day freezing corn with my mother, and made a Low Country Boil dinner for friends, which I’d never done before. The heat took a toll on some flowers, so only 145 bouquets were delivered, mostly lisianthus which were outstanding this year.

September continued hot and dry, in fact some areas of Indiana were designated drought areas. Lots of tomatoes, spaghetti sauce, tomato juice was canned and grape tomatoes were sliced and dried. A presentation was given, centerpieces were made for a district meeting at the fairgrounds. I dug plants at the historical museum and potted them for next year’s plant sale, my cousin from California came to visit, I had some dental surgery, and we did a fun MG car rally for three days in the Dayton, OH area. The bouquet total was 108.

The last bouquets for the Growing Kindness Project for 2023…feverfew, phlox, celosia, mums, sunflowers, millet, lisianthus gomphrena

October started off well, with 16 bouquets delivered the first week. We had more funerals to attend and I had a major speech for the Women of Worth at the Lake Placid Conference Center, and another for the Garden Clubs of Indiana district meeting. Then when Mother broke her arm, all farm work was left undone and all other events, commitments were cancelled. I did manage to get seeds ordered and revised the seeding schedule for next year. Fortunately there was enough rain to keep things alive while I was away, but we did have frost, which did in all the usual candidates (zinnias, dahlias, etc.) but I was able to get the amaryllis pots and other tender plants moved into the basement before that occurred. 

One of many trenches dug for tulip planting. You can see how dry our soil was…

November was a catch-up month, trying to get gardens and beds back into shape, weeds out, 1800 bulbs in. Fortunately the month was sunny and mild, a real treat! All the frosted and dead annuals were cut off, deadheading done. Eleven beds were replaced in the potager (which sounds a lot simpler than it was, since lumber shopping, staining, assembling etc. all had to be a part of it) The garlic was planted, dahlias dug and all but a tiny section at the top of the back of the Lady Cottage was stained. We took a five-day trip to Florida (to salvage “use it or lose it” plane tickets we’d purchased before COVID!) and had a great time. At month’s end I began decorating the house for our annual tree decorating party and had lunch with friends at the Vera Bradley hotel in Fort Wayne. And, I finally had time to trim and clean the hundreds of ranunculus corms that were dug way back in July!

Decorated for the local town’s annual Christmas Parade!

December just flew by, with our Tree Decorating Party, lots of other parties, baking, and all the holiday events of the season. Pots and flats were stacked and hauled to the barn, a closet or two were cleaned and donations hauled to Good Will. I gave the basement seed-starting area a good cleaning, organized the tender plants finally, and the first 300 lisianthus seeds were planted in soil blocks on December 10th. The second 400 were seeded on December 20th, along with several perennials and some lemon grass destined for the plant sales. So, that was my 2023 season in a thumbnail sketch. 

Happy New Year to one and all! May 2024 be peaceful, productive and inspiring for each of you! Thanks for reading!