Rosemary

Herbs ready for spring plant sales

Ladybug on our pineapple sage

Wow, it’s been a whole month without a blog post.  We had some students from Los Angeles email us because they were doing a report on organic.  Here are there questions and our answers below:
1. My major concern is what made you go organic?  We chose to start off without any chemicals because we knew we didn’t want to expose ourselves to those chemicals, so why should we expect anyone else to want to?  We also wanted to take care of the land and the soil we were using, so chose to do that with organic soil amendments rather than just adding lots of chemicals to kill all the microbiology of the soil.  Ultimately, using lots of chemicals seemed scary to us, a science beyond which we were comfortable with, and I am definitely glad we chose to farm that way.
2. What exactly are the main sources you guys grow?  We grow mainly flowers- sunflowers, lilies, zinnias, lisianthus, cosmos, and lots of other mixed bouquet flowers.  We used to grow vegetables, but flowers are our niche and so we decided this year just to focus on them.  The only vegetables we will be growing this year are to feed ourselves and our employees in our own garden.  We specialize in mixed bouquets, and they change throughout the season based on what’s blooming that week.
3. Has organic affected you in any way? How?  We can feel good about the products that we are providing our customers with and the demand for organic, local flowers has begun to increase with the awareness growing both of the local food system and the effects chemicals have on our environment and our own bodies.  Some florists will wear gloves when handling flowers that have been shipped in from all across the world as they are sprayed with chemicals to fumigate them as they enter the country, on top of the chemicals that may have been used in their production.  With our flowers, florists and designers feel more comfortable with handling them and can put the scraps in the compost without having to worry about harmful chemicals.  Growing things organically is definitely a good selling point too.  With farmer’s markets, you are there to talk directly to the customer about your growing practices, but when you sell to a grocery store, the label has to say it for you.
4. Do you believe that organic is better? Why?  I do believe that organic is better.  You are being proactive about creating the right environment to grow healthy plants by adding compost and planting things that attract beneficial insects.  We are taking care of the land that feeds us, building the soil for future years of production.  If we sprayed chemicals and were more reactive, then I feel like it would be more of a struggle to keep everything happy and the nutrients in the soil.  Plus, we get to enjoy being a part of nature rather apart from nature.
5. How can you compare your business to others? I don’t think that people know about the international floral industry that they are buying into when they purchase that $5 bouquet at Wal-Mart.  We work towards educating that knowing where your flowers come from is just as important as knowing that about your food.  We always say that food may feed the body, but flowers feed the soul!  So, why not feed the soul with something that feels good, fresh, and as lively and colorful as possible.  There is a great book written by Amy Stewart called Flower Confidential which goes into further detail about the international floral industry and helps bring awareness to the consumer.
6. What do you use instead of pesticides to help grow your flowers?  I kind of touched on this in one of the answers above, but we attract beneficial insects to our farm to help us with control.  There are tons of praying mantises around, ladybugs which eat aphids, and there are also beneficial nematodes that will help kill fungus gnats.  We are actually lucky that we are a flower farm as a lot of flowers that we are already growing will attract beneficial insects- things like yarrow, echinacea, and zinnias.
& What are some organic gardening methods you can recommend to home gardeners?  Definitely start composting!  It is a great way to cut down on the waste that is coming out of your home and builds the microorganisms and nutrients in your soil.  You can even make compost tea and spray it on as a way to foliar feed plants that need a little extra boost.  For someone who is even on a really small plot, they sell compost tumblers, or get a worm bin.  Also, flowers need just as much TLC as vegetables do, so take care of your flowers the same way you would your vegetable garden.
7. Why would you recommend others to go organic?  Because you can feel good about what you are doing and be confident that you are creating a better environment for the future.  Plus, if you’re growing vegetables, they just taste better!
8. Is organic expensive or cheap? Why?  The certification is expensive as well as buying organic seed, organic soil, and other organic necessities.  Therefore, things are a little bit more expensive when you buy organic products.  Ultimately, I just look at it as my own personal healthcare plan.  I would much rather know that what am I doing is good for me, then handling or eating something that could be potentially hazardous.

Overnight shipping for these babies for max protection!

We recently realized that there were aphids in our heated greenhouse and immediately took action.  We sprayed an organic oil on them and then tried to identify which kind they were to see what the most effective method would be.  We decided to use “biological” control by using some predators of the aphids (beneficial insects) and released some lady beetles.  Here are some photos of them in action, hopefully searching out and finding each and every aphid there is!

They're alive!

Eating those foxglove aphids that live on the flowering tips. (You can't see them in the pictures, but those little sap suckers are in there somewhere!)

Get it girl! (Or boy I guess)

And these are working on the green peach aphid that live on the underneath of low lying leaves.

They've got a lot of ground to cover with all these crates of lilies now filling up the greenhouse quick! Good thing we expanded or else we definitely wouldn't have had enough space for all this!

Our first white anemone... yay!

Seeds have been showing up lately, it's like Christmas every time the UPS man shows up. Just think that these seeds will be transformed into lots of beautiful flowers all throughout the season!

Captain's always a big help around the farm, keeping us company no matter where we go.

Anemones

Our row cover system using high tinsel fencing to suspend above the rows all the way down.

What it looks like from the top

from the side angle

We are experiencing some earlier flower blooms than what we are used to here in Columbus. Our freesia was maybe a week or two ahead of our schedule, which caused some panic for Steve and now our anemones are starting to bloom.  The anemones are beautiful little flowers- they look delicate, but they are hardy enough for these temps- but they are so short we are wondering what to do with them. We are assuming that they will continue to reach higher and higher with their second and third flushes. Irises started to bloom this week as well and are also very short, but these I think are due to the mild weather we’ve been having.

This is our first winter growing through the season and it has been extremely mild, and even sunny (something that usually doesn’t happen in Ohio, especially in the winter- if you check the cloudiest cities, we’re in the top 5). The mild weather doesn’t, however, exempt us from having to wake up every 2 or 3 hours, put on a pair of sweatpants and slippers, unlock the front door, and make the 150 foot journey to add firewood to the wood stove that is keeping all those wonderful flowers at the appropriate temperature (51 degrees).  It has been hard work, and I’m not seeing much reward from having flowers starting in February.

As farmers, we are already looking at the heated greenhouse enterprise, dissecting and wondering what will happen next year. Possibly not heating our greenhouse until February, or adding another heated greenhouse so we can do lots more, the sales we generate from these blooms will determine where we go with it. We have plans to add a rocket stove, which would burn wood more efficiently, but the system is hard to describe.  It runs through a thermal mass, storing all that heat that otherwise would be lost, rising out through the plastic of the greenhouse.  For now though, we’re just focusing on getting all of our winter projects wrapped up before spring sets in.

Snapdragons well on their way for hightunnel planting.

bee hives back by our asian pear orchard

oliver aka raleigh-vos, ro-leap-o, flooff, fluff and stuff, fluffy pants, asshole, or anything else that were in the mood for that moment. He's so damn cute though!

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First shipment of lilies getting planted.

Snapdragons waiting their turn to be planted out in the tunnel.

This freesia was ready for sale on Valentine’s Day- early, but still good timing since the florists wanted something different and something that smelled good!

The first real snow didn't come until January this year.

All of these pictures brought to you by the new camera we got ourselves for Christmas!

Our snow dog sure was excited about it!

Now for some pictures of what we’ve been working on all winter…

Salvia leucantha can only be grown from cuttings, so we're keeping some stock plants in the greenhouse for the winter. Soon the cuttings will be taken!

The freesia is coming along nicely.

Look at those buds forming!

The irises look like onions at this point.

Early ranunculus growing slowly.

The greenhouse gets heated to about 55 degrees to keep everything growing. It's a task with it needing loaded every two hours, like having a newborn baby, especially having to take turns waking up in the middle of the night!

Our propagation station- dahlia cuttings need to be 65- 75 degrees, so we built a greenhouse inside the greenhouse!