Helloooo sunshine! It has been so beautiful outside. This week, we attended the last of our Monday cut-flower webinars and learned a good bit about seed storage. Spoiler alert, we have room to improve! Hey, at least we don’t leave them in the Flower Studio, as that is the most unregulated place temperature-wise, ninety-nine percent of the time. We did have a plan for a mini-split installation in there to help with temperature consistency, but the grant we applied for and were approved for, is on hold at the moment. It’s fine. We will figure it out. There is a silver lining to that story developing which I hope to share very soon.

If you are not aware, a mini split is a ductless, wall-mounted heating and air unit. They are really quiet and seem very efficient so we thought it might be good to have in the Flower Studio in advance of trying to get a floral cooler first. Today, we heat the studio with forced air via the original heater and in the summer we have been using a window unit that a local market friend gifted us a couple of years ago. It also still works, so we may be rocking that out once more this summer. It does the job, but we thought it would be helpful for us to have the mini-split to better regulate the temperature for our flower harvesting days. Since we do not have a cooler, we have to be very mindful of how many flowers we grow and when we harvest them in order to make sure we get to shlep them to their final destinations asap after cutting and arranging them. We currently cut and process everything with 24 hours of delivery, with the exception of say, zinnias, which do not require refrigeration. Perriee and I like to scale up slowly so we thought the addition of the unit would be a nice stepping stone to a floral cooler.

Otherwise, this whole week ended up being packed full of amazing people. Our dear friend and amazing diy mentor got up on our roof on Tuesday and advised us on how to repair our leak. It might not cost more than a couple of tubes of caulk and a little elbow grease. We are so lucky to have such a knowledgeable woman to help us with stuff like that. On Wednesday, we ordered another round of compost and always enjoy chatting up the delivery guy when he comes to drop it off. Thursday we planted a bunch of yucca plants that he brought with him from another client who did not want them any longer. Did you know their flowers are edible?

Friday we had the opportunity to attend the Black Farmer Conference in Louisville. We missed it last year due to a conflict and this year felt so important for us to get there. My mind is still a buzz with all of the amazing information that was shared and all of the new connections we were able to make! Saying that, if anyone knows of a farm for sale in the area, about 30 acres large, let us know. We met some folks from Cincinnati looking and can’t wait to be their neighbors! The icing on the cake was picking up our drip irrigation system from Grow Appalachia, which looks so legit. I think we’re really farmers now.

Back at home, the weekend was rounded out with more amazing visits from friends and neighbors. We were gifted some snappy seedlings that ended up filling a whole 72 cell tray. I wanted snap dragons so bad this year and my resistance to buying new seeds paid off! Whoop!

Thank you all again for following along! If there is a topic that you might want to hear more about, feel free to shoot us an email. We are definitely open to suggestions and love hearing from you. Have a great week. Keep strong everyone. We got this together.

Seed starting this week:

Breaking in the low tunnels by planting carrots, radishes, turnips, lettuce and peas.

Started a tray of peas inside to grow some micro greens because I want a salad dang it!

Seedling watch: I think we are going to be bergamont rich! Not sorry.

Important Upcoming Dates:

March 12: Volunteer day: move some compost, map out new garden beds, pollinator patch prep, cut honeysuckle, volleyball court prep?

March 15: Volunteer day: move some compost, map out new garden beds, pollinator patch prep, cut honeysuckle, volleyball court prep?

March 19: First open to public day at the Kentucky Flower Market for the season!

March 22: Find us at Blue Stallion Brewery 12-6 for Blue Stallion & Hollow Haven Bazaar Equinox & Ales! It is shaping up to be a really cool event!

April 19: 2^nd annual Earth Day at Loving Farm. We have a lineup of 3 bands: Violet and the Newsroom, Hogtown, and Highly Likely for a day of music, nature and friends. Save the date!