A Lookback on 2022

Wow 2022 was an interesting year for me. Honestly it was a hard year for me personally. In March I had a bad back injury with my sciatic nerve which has left part of my left leg numb. While my back is doing great, the residual numbness is a constant reminder that I’m not superwoman. So the year started off on the wrong foot!

January and February was lots of snow fun and cleaning off the tunnel! Most of the time my tunnel sheds the snow really well but we had a storm with 10” of wet snow/ice mix and I think that may have been close to the max. The plastic had a lot of sag between the supports. By the end of the winter my kids told me they were tired of all the snow….lol. Plus in 2022 I started creating Dried Floral Wreaths for the Spring time. Everyone loved the spring wreaths so I’m definitely bringing them back for 2023.

March/April brought the beginning of beautiful blooms with Tulips, Daffodils, and other spring bulbs. Our first big crop of the year is Tulips and they sure do start the year off right! We had used a method called no till tulips in 2021 but switched back to planting in a big trench in 2022, which was a mistake. I had thought we would be okay with drainage because we sank a big chunk of change into drainage tile for the field but we still had a ton of water draining directly into the tulip beds. Which resulted in losing about 1/3 of tulips to rot. So we went back to no till tulips when we planted in the fall. What is no till tulips? Jennie Love has a wonderful blog post and podcast with lots of info at No-Till Flowers. I’ll give you a quick run down: You build a rudimentary raised bed. Think quick and easy, all it is going to do is keep your compost from running away with the rain/winter snow melt. After your frame is built then lay your tulips on the surface and pile compost over top! Pretty easy! I do usually surface till so the tulips have a way to settle in, then pile the compost on top. Also remember to water them in, Tulips are thirsty. I would definitely give Jennie’s blog and podcast a look, and I believe there is even a video posted about this under the No-Till Growers YouTube Channel.

May/June is always crazy busy. Spring fever for flowers is a real thing! Mother’s Day was very frustrating this year, as my ranunculus were determined to be late to the party. I think my biggest issue was how cold and yucky late winter and spring were. We made it work and still pulled out a good Mother’s Day but I’m changing a few thing for 2023.

A new crop for us was Sweet peas, and boy oh boy did she make an impression on me. I really love this plant just for the scent! I couldn’t help but to stop and smell the Sweet Peas every darn time I walked by. I’m trying to fall plant these beauties for 2023 and so far they look good. My hope is they’ll be blooming a little earlier so I can use the foliage for early spring bouquets.

My Peonies for 2022 were a little underwhelming. I think the issue was a late hard freeze. We had a lot of buds aborting and some other issues too. In the big perennial farm field peonies, we let the weeds take over and had to battle them in fall. We weeded and fertilized everything and I really hope I didn’t stall there growth too bad.

I really have a love/hate relationship with Dahlias. I love their beauty and they can be very plentiful when given lots of TLC. But I hardly have time to give the necessities, let alone pamper these darn dahlias. I did successfully overwinter them in the field and they came back with a vengeance by June. But all good things must end, and by August they looked beaten and battered by bugs and diseases. So I took a little frustration out on them with the weed whacker and chopped them back by 2/3rds. They did rebound with some fresh growth but it was a little too late in the season. I did overwinter them again but I’m changing my strategy this year which will probably involve a lot more pinching and cutting back so when we get really hot in August they don’t have as much bulk and hopefully they won’t stress so much in the heat. We rejoined the Cambridge Wednesday Farmer’s Market this year and will be back again in 2023!

We had an excellent Sunflower season! The deer have stayed out of our field this year. I do a planting every 10 days and I hit almost on the exact day every time. I’ve really dialed in my method of tilling, tarping entire area and using a Earthway seeder to plant about 8-10ft x 100ft section every 10 days. I’ll try to do a in-depth blog later detailing my method.

Frost hit early October and while I was disappointed to lose out on some of the season, I really liked getting a jump on all the fall farm work. Like planting the tulips via no- till method I mentioned prior, and bed prep. We planted around 7,000 tulips again this year and used the supplier Leo Berbee Bulb Company.

Another new crop for us this year was Chrysanthemum or Mums. We ordered cuttings and planted them early June in the tunnel. Mums won’t bloom until the daylight shortens so they need protection from hard freezes in October/November. One mistake I made was not netting/supporting them. About half of the mums fell over and had pretty severe curved stems. But overall these plants are amazing especially the longevity of vase life for the blooms. I plan to expand into several new varieties for 2023.

November/December are the final lap in the farm race for 2022! We expanded our Holiday offerings this year and you all loved it, especially the grave blankets and pillows. I ordered a few things last minute and didn’t quite have the fresh greens as early as I wanted but I’ll correct that for 2023. Whew what a year it was!

Overall 2022 was good but not a great year. We doubled our growing space in the farm field by adding another 3- 100ft x 100ft blocks but our sales didn’t exceed the previous year. Which I’m blaming on the high gas and food prices tightening budgets. But I’ve also realized, like I said before, I’m not superwoman and I need help. So I have made the decision to add an employee for 2023 to help my mom and me out! I’m excited to see how much more we can do! I’m always grateful for being able to chase this dream, and I’m not giving up any time soon. Bring it on 2023!!!

Thank you for taking a moment to read my blog!

Have a wonderful day,

Kelly

Year 5: A lookback on 2021

Just let me say you guys are amazing! All the support and love shown to Three Blooms this year was amazing and I’m very thankful for all of you! So to recap 2021 was crazy busy, wonderfully beautiful, and filled with lots of mistakes or learning experiences as I like to call them.

We started off the year building a cooler inside an existing garage on the farm. Silly me did not take into consideration when I planted 7,000 tulips last fall that I would also need a place to store them. Thankfully my husband is pretty handy and helped me out. We found a design for a cooler using a window a/c and coolbot and we got to work. It took us a couple months of weekends and the occasional weeknight to finish. Overall she works like a champ but I’ve had some issues with humidity causing door to swell shut, which resulted in a broken handle. You can find excellent plans/designs on www.storeitcold.com.

In 2021 we also planted and harvested for the first time in our new high tunnel. The tunnel we found from a local lady who wanted it removed. We spent a weekend in July 2020 tearing it down and transporting it home. We finished getting it put up last fall and I spent most of Dec/Jan getting compost moved and beds made. I started to harvest the first flowers in late March. Harvesting for the first time felt amazing! Getting a tunnel had been a goal of mine since day one and in year 5 I finally accomplished it. This makes all those other big scary goals seem a little less scary!

Ohhh and the tulips were amazing this year! Now I definitely did not account for how much work harvesting, storing, and selling 7,000 tulips would take, but it was worth it!!! I already ordered a similar amount for 2022.

The Hilltop garden perennials are really starting to produce some excellent blooms and greens, especially my first peony plants. I planted about 70 plants back in 2018 and this year I was able to pick on average 5 blooms per bush. We have since planted another 600 plants and in 2024 we will be swimming in peonies.

In March we had new drain tile installed and ditches cleaned out to help with drainage. Which meant we were finally able to put permanent beds and blocks of beds in the field. We now have a standardize bed size and an easier way to rotate growing spaces. As the year came to a close we also accomplished another goal: a water line installed! I don’t know why I find irrigation so intimidating but this feels like a huge weight lifted off my shoulders and a good start for 2022. Thanks again for following along on my journey. -Kelly

Year 4: A lookback on 2020

2020 was an interesting year. Full of craziness and hardship involving a lot of adjustments for Three Blooms. We started the year with plans for our usual sales outlets but quickly had to change as Urban Twigs was closed and meeting people face to face wasn’t an option. So then came along the Self Serve Flower Stand! Urban Twigs was awesome and allowed us to place the stand in their parking lot, which is only 2 miles from the farm.

I always am trying to get a jump on the season by planting earlier and earlier. 2020, as par for the course, decided to make me regret this decision with a late frost on Mothers Day. Thankfully all the crops came through it fine!

All snuggled in for low temps on Mothers Day

The Early Spring Garden with lots of hardy annuals planted. Each year we are getting blooms earlier and earlier. This year we started providing fresh blooms from our fields in April with Tulips, then in May comes ranunculus and anemones. And in June these early hardy annuals bloomed and also some perennial plants started to produce for us.

I was able to cut a short handful of peonies. These plants are still being babied(no hard cutting) until next year. I try to leave as much leaves on the plants to provide energy into developing bigger roots which equals bigger plants and more blooms!

Beautiful peonies

I had a great crop of Ranunculus and Anemones using a low tunnel at the hilltop. I also had an awesome crop of snapdragons! In 2020 we began our very first Flower Subscriptions service!

Spring is also the time to get all the summer annual flowers planted. We started to harvest these flowers in early July.

Summer Annual field: Dahlia Section

The season always seems to go into warp speed as July and August hit. It’s truly a blur of picking, weeding, bouquet making and repeat.

2020 ended on a good note for us. We had several new arrivals: A high tunnel, and new puppy Penny.

Decided to go big for 2021 tulip bulbs!!! Order over 6,000 and Penny helped me plant them. We also introduced winter potted amaryllis and paperwhites. Thank you for a great year!