March is when the farm starts to wake up. I start to see small buds appearing on trees, the carpet of snowdrops are very present on our morning dog walks.
The month started with my annual dahlia tuber sale. As I mentioned last month, there is so much behind the scenes work that happens to make this sale possible. I have to admit that the morning of the sale before it goes “live” I am very nervous. I worry that maybe nobody will want to buy my tubers as there are a lot of tubers sales to choose from. Then of course I worry that maybe my website platform will crash. Of course none of this happened. It was a hugely successful sale selling so many tubers. If you purchased any of my tubers, thank you so much for your support
Yelno Harmony displayed in a jug created by Cactus & Clay Ceramics
In March seed planting also kicks into high gear. All the sweet peas which were growing nicly were moved outside into the “cage” that was constructed for them. They can withstand low nighttime temperatures and I also needed room in the greenhouse for all the seeds I was about to plant.
Many days were happily spent in the greenhouse planting seeds. Everything that is planted is placed on a heatmat until at least 50% of the seed tray is germinated. Then it is moved off onto shelves in the greenhouse. It is a big shuffling act. At this time of year I love coming into the greenhouse each morning and peering under the dome lids of the seed trays to see what has germinated since I last looked, and to be honest with you it is something that now needs my reading glasses with me to spot a tiny little green speck just making its way through the soil up towards the light.
Seed babies happily growing in the greenhouse
hosted some workshops on the farm in March. The first workshops were my dahlia tuber dividing classes. I try to take the mystery out of dahlia tuber diving. It can be a little intimidating when you are faced with an almighty clump of tubers. To know where to start and what a dahlia tuber eye actually looks like. I hope that the attendees leave the class feeling a little more confident when they leave the class and that they can tackle their own dahlia tubers at home.
I also hosted an everlasting wreath workshop. Attendees were able to go into my drying room and choose from any of my dried flowers. It was a lovely few hours spent being creative together, the chatter from the outside world being shut out.
An Everlasting Wreath created by one of my workshop attendees
The first narcissus daffodils started to bloom, such a welcome sign. I love their beautiful fluffy trumpets. I am not sure if it is their gorgeous scent or the fact that when they appear, it means that winter is almost over.
Also with narcissus marking the end of winter of course comes chicks. If you follow me on social media you will know that my chickens are free range. However, this has come at a price. Predators ~ we have a lot of them around here. I lost 16 chickens this year. Bald Eagles are the main culprits but we have also have more than our fair share of coyotes and raccoons. I am down to one loney chicken, so in March it was time to give her some companions. I have started with 4 chicks. I am hoping to get some Lavender Orphingtons later in April and in June I will adopt some of my friend Jess’s chickens as sadly she is moving back to the East coast and can’t take her chickens with her. They won’t have as much free range as they used to - I can’t bare loosing so many again and honestly my girls used to go trotting off down the lane so a little less freedom will not be such a bad thing. I have a plan…as always, I just have to get the head of maintenance on board (my husband!)
Inez & Betty
As I write this months musings I am on a plane heading back from Los Angeles, after spending Easter weekend with my boys - who are actually young men. I am so proud of the young men they have grown into. I am in a different season of parenting now…and it just involves spending good quality time with them, laughing and chatting, drinking a glass of wine and talking about wedding plans for my oldest son and my youngest son has just been accepted into the University of Southern California to work on his Masters program. So proud of him and also happy he will be staying on the west coast for a couple more years.
That’s it for now. I hope that life is treating you well and that you are spending it with people that fill your cup.
Much Love,