Humble Pie Farm

Hello friends. Thanks so much for all your kind words and support last week. We're making some plans and really, it's all business as usual around here. We have more and more and more flowers, and some are already planted in plastic-covered ground. Tonight's low is 26, but then it's supposed to warm up, so we're hoping for the best. We have four varieties of specialty tulips coming up in the caterpillar tunnel in time, we hope, to make some mamas very happy. The caterpillar tunnel is a relatively inexpensive, easy to construct, small hoop house made of PVC bows, rope, ground stakes and screws, and rope. It looks like a caterpillar. Farmer Mike is a pro with them. We've used it every year, but not to its potential. This year we're doing better. The tulips are rocking, and last year's lilies are on their way with the warmth last week, and Earl and I planted snapdragons and some filler flowers as well. I'm soooo excited for the tulips. They are heartbreakingly beautiful. Double flowers that look kind of like peonies in a sweet orange and red, and silver parrots, a fluttery pinky silver, and a pointy lily tulip in a dark maroon.

This is an earth anchor that screws into the ground about a foot and holds the ropes that secure the plastic on the caterpillar.

Healthy tilled ground getting ready for some flowers! That's our little house, and the happy chickens in the front yard in the distance.

Last fall Mike planted barley as an over winter cover crop. It adds and holds nutrients and water in the soil. Last week he tilled it in and we hope to plant early next week. 

It's still springish despite the bitter cold wind and yesterday's flurries.

And in the new hoophouse Emily and I planted 900 snapdragons, 200 delphinium and 90 icelandic poppies. It's so exciting to rent hoophouse space from GOE this year. This is a new level for us, and key to our future success. Bring the learning, we say!

AND, there are all these to be planted! 2100 sunnies are str-etching their stems trying to find the sun that has made itself scarce this week.

Healthy happy celosia and friends!

Here's Earl's college education, or the lisianthus. We've had great germination in most of our seedings so far this year. (Yay, that means we're learning!) We expect to have lots of lisianthus in fall.

Be well this week!

J,M+E