News and Blog
What a beautiful day for Mother's day here in Bucks County. For all of you looking for last minute flowers please stop by the stand on Limekiln rd. I started the weekend with 150 bouquets and still have 30 left. These bouquets have been in the cooler until this morning so are still nice and fresh. The only pesticides sprayed on them was horticulutral oil, ( two weeks ago, for aphids) and zero tol ( a strong peroxide for fungus). The bouquets are $15.00 and include various combinations of lilies, viburnum, spirea, hesperis, larkspur, azalea, hypericum berries and statice. Most of the flowers have been growing in the greenhouse. The spirea, viburnum and hesperis are blooming in the field.
For a fun day with mom be sure to visit the Mercer folk fest. You can listen to the music, watch the jugglers, visit the craft booths, eat some crab cakes and watch the colonial reanactments and the sheep shearing. I've been going to the folk fest every year since I moved to Doylestown 18 years ago.
Every week the flower varieties change. Monday I will be pulling out the remaining snap dragons, ranunculus and statice and planting dahlias in the greenhouse. By memorial day the peonies should be ready and I will also have some late blooming prestonae lilac.
Happy Mother's day.
Hey, It really is spring! I had my fields tilled on Sunday just before the heavy rain on Monday. Boy did we need that moisture. Now I'm ready to plant! I'm very excited. Besides the reliable flowers I've been growing for years such as celosia, sunflowers, zinnia, larkspur, bachelor buttons and cosmos I'll be trying some new grasses, safflower, millet, sorghum, broom corn, black tipped wheat, amaranth and euphorbia, lab lab beans and grey striped giant sunflowers for bird seed wreaths. It's an exciting time and I'm very busy. Soon I'll also be seeding and transplanting herbs and all the other annuals I've started in seed flats as well.
I'm adding some new perennials and shrubs this year too. Black knight buttterfly bush, caryopteris longwood blue, wigelia and some lilacs.
The hanging baskets for mother's day are looking great. I have nonstop begonias and geraniums flowering or about to flower in 10 inch baskets. I also have some in 4" pots for those who would like to make their own mixed containers and baskets or plant right in the garden.
I'll be cutting about 200 pink and yellow lilies this week for the farmers market on Sat. It looks like another 400 or so should be ready just in time for mother's day, and oh, the lilacs will be blooming soon too. April and May are my favorite months of the year.
In my pursuit of becoming more sustainable I will be phasing out the plastic flower sleeves I've been using for bouquets at the farmers market and switching over to biodegradeable sleeves manufactured from corn based polylactic acid (PLA) these sleeves compost in approxiamately 45 days. They won't decompose in a landfill however so in order to use these to best advantage they need to be put in the compost. If you don't currently compost I will be happy to do it for you if you bring your used PLA sleeves to the market. Next season I will be using biodegradeable dot pots made by fertilpot. Currently I am using heavy duty plastic seed trays which I have been disinfecting and reusing for the last five years. The advantages of the biodegradeable pots are the multiple sizes and the fact that I will be planting the pot along with the plant. These are the only pots currently listed as 100% organic. Most farmers use lots of plastic. Plastic pots, plastic drip tape, plastic weed barrier, plastic green house film, plastic cartons. Plastic doesn't decompose but can be recycled. I've begun taking my non reuseable plastic to Zook's Plastic Recovery in Lancaster. I feel much better that I have an alternative to the land fill. Now all I have to worry about is the cost of the gas.
My grandmother used to say every flower has a smile. Come visit me at the Doylestown farmers market this Saturday. April and I will be there with lots of flowers to help you have a happy start to your weekend.
It's beginning to feel like spring! Easter was a flurry of activity at Lilies and lavender, most of the flowers bloomed on time but a few just refused to behave. The ranunculus was the most troublesome. The first batch of corms rotted in the flooded basement, the second batch turned out to be a short variety sent to me by accident and the third batch has decided that it will bloom whenever it feels like it, thank you very much. This is the first Easter I can remember without daffodils. Lilies, tulips, alstromeria, larkspur and iris all blooming their fool heads off and no daffodils, it just ain't right! The greenhouse is nice and warm helping the lilies to bloom but the fields were just to cold for the daffs.
I have a family of shrews living in my small greenhouse. They are having a grand time dining on my early lisianthus, rosemary and campanula. I found a nice note thanking me for the gourmet salad bar. I rewarded them by putting out traps filled with peanut butter which April and Czara thought were great treats. Shrews 2 lissies 0. And 0 lissies is exactly what I will have if I can't find the shrews a nice vacation spot for the spring and summer season. Speaking of lissies I have another 2800 hundred plugs to plant, ( in anther cold frame without shrews). I just made a nice raised bed for them today and will start planting tomorrow. In a few months I will be over- flowing with lissies !
It seems strange but I have no flowers blooming now. I cut every flower I had for Easter. If the weather cooperates I should have plenty of flowers from the fields and the greenhouses for the opening of the Doylestown farmers market on April 19. Look for lilies, larkspur, iris, tulips, daffodils, spirea, campanula, ranunculus and maybe some azalea.
Mother's day promises lots and lots of pink and white lilies, ranunculus, campanula and maybe lilacs and viburnum. I will also have hanging baskets of begonia, hardy geranium and other mixed flowers. I will keep you updated on the varietes and bloom times of all the flowers .
Happy Spring!
Easter is early this year, March 23. I will be at the Wrightstown township municipal offices at Chippewa farm, (2203 Second ST. Pike, RT 232) Sat. March 22 from 10:00 AM to Noon with fresh, premium bouquets of Lilies, tulips, daffodils, ranunculus and iris for $15.00 per bunch. To ensure you will have Easter flowers please pre- order. If you would like a bunch, or bunches of a single type of flower, ie, tulips, please indicate your preference, otherwise the bouquets will be mixed. Because this is my first year growing with heat I have only a limited number of flowers until Mother's day. Please keep in mind that if you decide to pick up Easter flowers at the last minute they might be sold out.
Directions:
From Newtown take Rt. 413 north, turn left on Penns Park Rd, pass the Grange and continue to the stop sign at Second Street Pike. Turn left and go 0.4 miles to the market.
From Richboro go north on Second Street Pike (Rt. 232), pass the red light at Swamp Rd. and continue up to the top of the hill about a mile. Market will be on your right.
From Holland take Buck Rd. (Rt. 532) north to the Newtown bypass. Go left, stay straight and pass the Community College. Continue to the red light at Second Street Pike (Rt. 232) and turn right. Go about a mile to the top of the hill. Market on your right.
From Buckingham take Rt. 413 south to the red light at Rt. 232 in Wrightstown. Turn right and go 1.4 miles to the market, on the left.
From Furlong take Swamp Rd. down through Rushland and continue to the red light at Rt. 232 (Second Street Pike). Turn left and go about a mile to the top of the hill. Market will be on your right.
From New Hope take Second Street Pike (Rt. 232) down to Wrightstown, cross Rt. 413 at the red light and continue 1.4 miles to the market, on your left.
See www.buckscountyfoodshedalliance.org <http://www.buckscountyfoodshedalliance.org> for more information or call 215-860-7081.
Kate
215-345-7282
In this, my first blog I 'd like to tell you about my new greenhouse! I have two cold frames but this is my first greenhouse with heat. Michael Harrison, from Garden Heritage, put it up for me with some help from Dylan, my son. We picked a cold, but wind free day in December to put the poly roof on and now I've planted every square inch of growing space available. I've planted 2,000 lilies, 600 tulips, 300 dutch iris, 300 iris reticulata, 100 brodeia, 1,000 daffodils and rows of ranunculus, larkspur, and blue and pink campanula. I grow the bulbs in black plastic crates. They 're heavy but otherwise easy to move. I already need another house because I've ordered too many lilies! What was I thinking? I hope we have a warm spring so I can put lilies in the big cold frame without any heat. Tough love, I know but what's a mom to do? Anyway, I will have lots of flowers in early spring when the farmers markets open.
I will also be selling bouquets here at the farm. As soon as the bulbs start blooming we will put up the canopy. Look for bouquets just before Easter.
To Pre-order Easter flowers contact kate.
215-345-7282
215-313-1429
The Doylestown farmers market will open on Saturday, April 19 and run every Saturday from 7:00 AM to 12:00 noon, through November 22. The market is located in downtown Doylestown boro, on Hamilton st. just behind the boro parking lot which borders State st. All the friendly farmers will be there showing off their early spring veggies, lettuce, baked goods, granola, fresh eggs and honey, you get the picture. Lots of good eats! Oh, and beautiful flowers too! Come check it out.
The food shed alliance, which sponsors the Wrightstown farmers market is still working on a new, permanent location for their market. I'm not sure when it will open but there is a possibility of using the Grange fair grounds as a pickup point for Saturday, March 22. If this works customers will be able to pick up food and flowers for Easter, March 23. I will keep you posted.
