March 2025—Month in review

The Field Report

Things outside are slowly starting to wake up. The pussy willows flowered, the curly willow and flame will have great coloring, and some of the early perennials have started to emerge.

Inside the high tunnels everything is looking really great. The very first tulips started to bloom. All of the beds are planted and we are hoping to have some anemones, cress, and agrostemma by the end of April. By mid May we are hoping for an entire bed of snapdragons to begin blooming. And the sweet peas! Oh, the sweet peas. We have planted so many colors and we cannot wait to see them.

The Weather Report

March was up and down all month long. A couple of days that were cold and rainy followed by a couple of days warm and sunny. Then cold and sunny, warm and windy. We got some decent rain but not too much rain. Overall it actually felt pretty normal for March for this first time since we bought this property. 

The Progress Report

Progress is hard to measure at this time of year. There is so much happening and it's time to decide which things take a back burner for the day, the week, or even until next winter. The back office stuff is as done as it needs to be for now. I wish I had gotten it more settled but that really is just part of having a small and growing business. There are never enough hours in a day.

We have a bunch of really great workers lined up for the season thanks in part to a new relationship with the Gateway Tech horticulture department. 

We built a super low budget (and flimsy) germination chamber and got a ton of annual seeds started. My ambitions were big in this department and I am finding that we are limited in infrastructure (I find that a lot). We have had to scale it back a bit and plan to make some adjustments to our propagation area for next year. But we will still have a TON of assorted annuals.

I put the finishing touches some perennial and woody cuts orders. Here I am finding that we are limited financially (I also find that a lot) but we still have plenty coming in. Just over a half an acre will be committed to these orders. That is bigger than my entire growing area that I was using at my grandparents. These are the items that are really going to help us have more flowers and foliage earlier in the spring/summer and will provide a solid foundation for this business in the future.