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!!!