Winter on the farm can be a little gloomy, and although the flower side of things slows down somewhat, there are still jobs that need doing. Winter is when we finally get around to shearing our ewes. As my husband is a shearer he spends all the warmer months shearing everyone else's sheep, so winter you will find me bundled up against the freezing cold, usually working late into the night picking up wool. We have lambs ready to go over the cooler months, and there's the usual farm maintenance jobs that always need doing. Plus winter is when we need to start feeding out hay to our cattle, and on our farm, that job falls to me. As we are on some pretty crazy hills it's not possible to feed out hay with a tractor, so each day I head out on my trusty four-wheel motorbike towing my
dad's old 6 by 4 trailer behind me loaded up with hay. It's actually not
a bad way of feeding cows. Getting in amongst them on a daily basis means
that my cattle are very quiet and therefore a lot easier to handle when you
need to get them into the yards. However....I most definitely bemoan the
lack of tractor when it's blowing a gale and pouring with rain and I need to
feed cattle up the top. From the highest point of our property you have a
spectacular view over Budgeree, Boolarra and the Latrobe Valley...but you also
end up frozen to the core and soaking wet. I love my cows, I really do,
which goes to show just how much I love them when I will willing head out and
feed them, risking hyperthermia in the process.
Perhaps this is why I love my greenhouse almost as much as my cows. It's such a snug little haven to lock myself away in and get on with the business of starting new seeds. When it's cold and wet outside it is quite comfortable within the confines of my plastic bubble and I have been happily playing with seed raising mix, pots, seeds and my new bright pink watering can. Oh the simple things in life. It does seem strange, however, in the midst of winter to be thinking about the coming spring so soon. With the cold weather lashing about outside the hope of warmer weather seems so far away. But really, truly the hope is there, and it's just around the corner. The photo above of the overgrown garden bed and my jonquils was taken this morning! How about that! Next to these flowers I also discovered more hope in a bud, with a tulip having appeared over the last few days....and not just the growth sprouting out of the ground...no that happened over a month ago...but burgundy/pink flower bud! What is going on!! I guess when we hunker down for the winter and hide out from the cold that we forget that the season does in fact keep turning and spring is always really just around the corner. Thank goodness.
So chores for winter...what have I been up to with the flower side of things and also what can you be doing in your garden? As well as catching up on the business side of things; such as having a beautiful new logo created, ordering florist supplies, working on the marketing side of things and ordering WAY too many new dahlia tubers (can't wait for summer!!), I have been putting my greenhouse to good use. If you don't have one and you are thinking about buying one I totally urge you to take the leap and get yourself one. There are so many sizes and varieties, even simple covered shelving, and you can even start seeds underneath empty plastic soft drink bottles. Being able to start your own seeds not only saves you money but helps you get a jump on the season. Seeds can also be finicky things, depending on the variety, and some you will have a lot more success with if started in trays. Having said that there are plants that dislike having their roots disturbed, and these will do better if sowed direct. Check your seed packet but also do a little extra research. I have a notebook full of information I've sourced from several different books to help me work out the most successful way of doing things but you will find that what works for you might be different from what works for others, so trial and error does seem to play a bit part of gardening. These Everlasting Daisies above are a result of a mostly failed direct sown crop where only two colour varieties did well. The rest where patchy at best so a replacement lot of babies is on the way.
The Cornflowers, also known as Bachelor's Buttons, were put in this February, prefer to be direct sown as they don't enjoy being transplanted. The varieties planted include a rainbow of colours, including mauve, pink, red, white and a variety called Black Ball, which is a lovely dark burgundy. These will make a lovely filler in mixed bouquets and make a sweet arrangement in a vase on their own come early spring.
As well as seed starting the job of weeding has been fairly constant, although this is about to get way worse (!) once the weather warms up and things really get going. Warm soil, warm seeds, hello seedlings, hello flowers....hello weeds. Mulching does help, although it's not fool proof, but it does limit the amount of weeds and makes it easier to remove them. Weed mat is great, although there is the initial investment, but if you take care of it you can roll it up at the end of the season and re-use it again next year.
These stock seedlings were successfully direct sown and they did not mind being transplanted when they needed to be thinned out and spread evenly amongst the garden bed. With a bit of extra care in the form of regular feeds of liquid seaweed I didn't lose any and they are doing well. The mulch is helping to limit the weeds and I am looking forward to enjoying the blooms and having such a beautiful fragrant flower for sale.
(Photo source: Pinterest)
The Sweet peas are well on their way, with those that were started in trays early this year growing happily in their positions along the orchard fence. More will be started early spring as some varieties, particularly the Spencer variety, prefer to be started once the weather starts to warm up.
Sweet peas
Sweet peas are quite thirsty plants and they do also like regular feeds of liquid seaweed in the early stages, so I have been feeding them once a week and once they start to become really bushy I will stop, otherwise I will risk too much foliage and less flowers. These are flowers that are harder to transport, so you won't find florists that are able to source these from the bigger flower markets. My plan is to sell these on their own in jars as a small posy as well as to incorporate them amongst mixed arrangements.
Sweet peas (photo source: Pinterest)
Sweet peas are highly fragrant and so old fashioned. What is there not to love about them?!
Another flower I am really looking forward to is the masses of ranunculus that will bloom this spring. With around 800 plants it will most certainly be a rainbow of colour. I started planting the corms in March, finishing off with a second planting in May, so hopefully they will give me a good two months of glorious shades of pink, red, white, orange, yellow and burgundy.
(Ranunculus photo source: Pinterest)
There is so much to look forward to on the farm, particularly with spring only about six weeks away. The anticipation of all the flowers to come is almost as good as when the explosion of blooms actually occurs. Over the next month I still have plenty of seeds to start, such as Bells of Ireland, Snapdragons, Poppies, Black-eyed Susans, Sweet Sultan and Echineacea....not to mention the hundreds of dahlia seeds that I saved from last seasons flowers. I'm very excited to see what I can grow from these seeds and whether I will have some of my own breeds of dahlias. What fun it will be naming them all!
So even though winter isn't that much fun, I still like feeding my cows (despite the mud), I am enjoying the odd flash of colour that my garden affords me, such as these hellebores that have bloomed next to my water tank, and pottering about with the odd job on the flower farm keeps me looking forward to spring. There is so much to look forward to and spring really is just around the corner!
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