Important dates:

Jan 31, 2026: Deadline to sign up for spring CSA.

February 1, 2026: Monthly giveaway winner drawing.

April 25^th, 2026: Third Annual Earth Day Celebration at Loving Farm! Mark your calendars. We will be having a day filled with fun and music, food and makers!

May 17^th: The Wildwood Faire at Talon Winery and Vineyards in Lexington, Kentucky. We will be there hosting flower crown workshops.

Hi Flowerers,

Loving Farm has been feeling a little like the Overlook Hotel this week, trying to keep our minds busy in this awkward part of the year. We have been dealing with extremely mundane yet necessary tasks such as getting the washing machine repaired and preparing for the upcoming storm. The outdoor spigots are turned off and covered, faucets will be dripping in the flower studio with buckets collecting the water (we use it for the ducks) and in the house at night. We set up a bed in the parlor for the next several nights so we can close off half of the house to conserve heat. This house is great for blocking off areas that do not need to be heated with the ability to separate the entire upstairs and two rooms downstairs from the rest of our space.

The ducks get lots of extra straw in their house and the heated water bowl is out there for them to keep some water always at the ready. Their green water buckets are also out there in addition to a shallow black food bowl that we fill up for them to bathe in if needed. We add some corn or oats into their feed as an extra boost of carbs and then just hope they hunker down and stay as warm as can be. The only nice thing about the snow is that it will hopefully add some extra insulation around their run to hopefully keep it a couple of degrees warmer. This is the 6^th winter the duck run has gone through and knock on wood it has not given up yet! Every year we talk about covering it somehow, but we just have not got a good plan in mind to accomplish that yet, since the entire roof is made with 2x2s and welded wire.

One thing we decided to try out in light of the super cold temperatures in the coming days is to move the ranunculus into the flower studio to see if some flowers might come early. They were in the greenhouse but since they are planted in pots, we were able to transport them. My internet research leads me to believe it is not impossible and seeing that we keep that space at 50 degrees, it might work. TBD, of course.

Last count of the lisianthus was 40 of one variety and 41 of another, out of packs of 50, still teeny tiny, but alive. I gave them a fish emulsion snack this week from above, so we will see if that gets them going any further along by next week. We are expecting to baby them for 10 more weeks before moving them outside, letting them establish in the cold weather outdoors to get them ready for the season. Germinations this week include a lot of mountain mint and a few sweet peas (also in the cool flower studio, in buckets).

Good news: We were accepted into a program through the University of Kentucky involving greenhouse growing! They will be coming to us to work on establishing systems to help us maximize the use of the space. More to come on that!

Pride Update: Thankfully we noticed the weather report soon enough to order food for these guys and gals in advance of the snow. After last year’s storm we learned that Chewy will not be delivered if the driveway is a mess, which it absolutely is.

Tux:

Cat who lived outside.

Did not belong there, was saved.