While the warm weather has been a blessing for outdoor farm projects, we knew snow would happen at some point, and that some point was last week. Last week also happened to be our first week of flower planting.
Without fail, it always snows or is one of the coldest weeks of the winter during our first week of planting, but it doesn’t slow us down too much. The first week of planting is always quite light as we know there will always be kinks to be worked out and equipment to be fixed, no matter how many times we go through things before the season begins.
We have now entered week 2 of flower planting and are back into the groove. Some days are spent filling pots and baskets with soil, while other days are spent entirely planting. By the end of this week, we will be close to having all the greenhouses at our Waverly growing range filled with flowers for the season.
Next week we will have a few small plantings to finish in Waverly, but most of our planting crew will move to our Montrose growing range to begin filling those greenhouses.
At our Montrose range, we will also soon begin seeding some of the crops that will be planted in the high tunnels this spring - like cucumbers, peppers, and melons.
Two Growing Ranges
"Why two growing ranges?" you may ask. Well, Waverly was the first farm we owned. Over time, we began to need more land to expand our operations, so we acquired more land. It happened to be about 8 miles away, however, creating our two separate growing ranges.
Is it ideal? Not always, but it does give us some peace of mind knowing we are spread out. That allows us to diversify some of the risk that comes with growing and inclement weather throughout the growing season.
The 2024 season is off to a great start, and we couldn’t be more excited. Everyone feels rested and ready to tackle another season. There’s just something that gives us all a little excitement as we walk into the greenhouses at this time of year and get a whiff of that humid, earthy scented air, as the sun beats down on you.
It’s hard not to be happy when you see plants, experience some warm and humid weather inside the greenhouse, and have an exceptional team to work with. Here’s to a great season!
