Important upcoming dates:

April 1: Next drawing for our email subscribers! Seriously…it is not a joke.

April 19: Second 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. Asking for a $10.00 donation for entry to help cover the cost of these amazing artists!

This week flew by and surely the next few will be buzzing away just the same. Farm school was on Monday, where we got to try our hands with different types of tractors. We had fun visitors who came to the flower studio to pick up one of my favorite wreaths and peep our little operation. One of them was a kiddo who we loved to share our plant nerd excitement with! Come to think of it, a couple of cool kiddos stopped over this week. The enthusiasm of bright new minds is so inspiring.

Our biggest focus was prepping for the market in Lexington that we were invited to. To do so, we bunched and priced as many dried bouquets as possible, brainstormed ways to transport our wreaths, and staged a mock setup so we would not be scrambling once we got to the brewery. I vacuumed as much loose straw out of the car to reduce a little embarrassment of having a tornado of it burst out of the car in front of these cool artists we were about to work with. Finally packing the “pickup Fit rounded it out in order to see how many little bud vases we could squeeze into the remaining tight spots because, lets be honest, everyone is ready for fresh flowers. The forsythia was more than forgiving, being stuffed in last and we had room for four cute vases of freshies.

There were so many cool new people to meet and we sold a good bit of our dried flowers too! Thank you to everyone who supported us via a sale, a trade, or for joining our email list or for even asking a question about what forsythia is or how catnip grows. The beer was delicious and the pizza was amazing. Everyone who we interacted with from the brewery staff was beyond kind and the crowd was perfectly eclectic, really making us feel at home. Check out the picture of the egg bell I picked up! I have to go out and ring it loud to wake up all of the plants from their winter slumber.

We put Howard the duck in “drake jail” this week, meaning he is going to be safely sequestered on one side of the duck run except for sleeping until fall. Ok, maybe not fall, but if you have ducks, you know what I am talking about. He is going to be seven years old next month. SEVEN! What age does his ED kick in? Please say seven. I really thought the addition of the three new ladies would help mellow the dude out, but it appears he is just extra happy to have more to choose from and they are already over it. In an effort to not gross anyone out here, just do some research about drakes and springtime hormones and you will see what I mean.

Saying that, this is your kind reminder to please only adopt a duck from a feed store if you know what you are getting into. Feed stores only sell domestic ducklings. They are not as easy to sex (to tell if they are male or female) from duckling stage and it is so, so, so important to have a good ratio of males to females for the safety of your animals. I can pretty much say for certain that Dayz might not have survived this spring alone with Howard. Whatever your intention might be for getting a duckling from a feed store (for eggs or meat, or as a bug forager), if you find yourself unable to care for one, for the love of Mother Earth do not “release it to a park to live on a pond”. There are so many domestic duck rescues across the country who are overwhelmed each year around early summer with hungry, hurt, or sick ducks that someone decided was too much to take care of.

Because the breeds sold at the stores cannot fly away to migrate in the winter to a warmer climate, have little to no defense against a predator, and depend on humans for food and shelter, it is our responsibility to care for them the best we are able as you would a cow, or a dog or a cat. Additionally, when these domestic breeds mate with wild birds at the parks it sorta messes with the genetics of the wild ones to make them more vulnerable to these issues. I had zero idea about these things before we adopted ducks and now I can’t unsee it. I can hardly visit a public park any longer in fear of encountering a domestic duck that was abandoned. Adopt, don’t shop!

Check out this article about wild versus domestic Muscovy ducks to kick off your wormhole of duck research.

Seed starting: The stuff we ordered in the winter is here! Three new peony roots (I think they are coral), five hellebore roots, and 20 anenomes are in!

What is blooming: Hyacinth is popping up everywhere and forsythia is showing out. We are on tulip watch as they are looking nice and juicy. All 100 of them. I think next year we need 1000. Nanking cherries are waking up!