After the frantic month of September, October started with a more rhythmic pace. The dahlia field was still producing an abundance of flowers but with the cooling weather there was a noticeable change in colors - some varieties of dahlias have a definite color change as the season progresses. The annuals field was starting to look a little bit ropey…..(This a great English expression that means inferior or inadequate for those of your reading this side of the pond).
Each autumn I choose a date that my flower season will end. A lot of farmers use the first frost date as the end of the season. However, as the weather seems to be becoming more unpredictable I always decide on a date ahead of time that I will “pull the plug” so to speak. Because I have a very busy Christmas period I don’t want to be digging dahlia tubers at the end of November and go straight into harvesting greens for our Christmas wreath workshops.
I cut down my dahlias on the weekend of October 14th, they then cured in the field for a week. The big dig began, it took us 5 full days of digging to get all 2,400 tubers out of the field and washed. This year I used weed barrier in the dahlia field. This is going to stay down all year, so we carefully had to pull up the fabric, dig up the tubers and then lay & pin it back down again. Even though it was extra work at the beginning and end of the season it was 100% worth it. I was looking back at photos from last year and how bad the weeds were, I think I had forgotten how bad they were, all the extra effort was defiantly worth it. As I write this letter the last few varieties are drying off in the basement and by the weekend they will all be tucked away for a few months rest….that is also what I am hoping for!!
I have been doing a lot of soul searching over the past few months and have been thinking about what direction I want to take my business. I have just completed my ninth season in flower farming, each year I have grown and expanded because really that is what you are supposed to do with a business right? Well, with that growth has come longer hours and so much more work. I have hired staff but honestly the profit margins are so small in farming - all types of farming - that it is not always possible to hire as many people as you need, so you end up doing more yourself. This past couple of seasons I have felt like I have been running around with my hair on fire most of the time, working long hours from March until December. With that being said I made a big decision this month - don’t worry I am not throwing the towel in, but I am going to reduce back down to one flower field again. I have made the decision to no longer provide wholesale mixed bouquets to the local grocery store. I will still be supplying them with sweet peas and dahlias. In my one field I will be growing dahlias - but probably down to 1,700 plants - which is plenty. I will also be growing some annual flowers but not to the extent that I have done in the past. I am going to focus on growing flowers for my weddings, flowers for drying, CSA shares and then possibly some mixed bouquets that will be available directly to the public from my farm. I have more flower related ideas swirling around my head which I hope that this reduction in workload will let me execute, and I want to focus and have more time to be creative with my dried flowers. I am hoping to get a little bit more of a balance in my life from now on, and honestly I am not getting any younger and this farming malarky is defiantly hard on your body. The moral of this story is, that bigger is not always better, I can still be a small but very productive little flower farm and I am excited for the next season, which is how it should be.
November will be spent tucking up the rest of the farm for winter and then preparing for our Christmas Wreath workshops that we host here. Along with that, I will be able to spend some time in The Potting Shed getting creative making all sorts of goodies for Christmas with my dried flowers.
Thank you again for taking the time to read my monthly musings, I do appreciate it.