Farm Journal: July
This winter could not feel more like spring, only without the dreadful Easterly wind that usually accompanies spring here. We’ve had some truly beautiful clear sunny days. We’ve even spent a few of them catching up on the winter jobs in t-shirts.
T-shirts! In June!
I realise I typically start these journals with some notes about the weather. In small talk it is usually seen as something of a faux pas, or the very boring low hanging fruit. However, I keep feeling the need to bang on about it because in the years that I have been farming we have not yet had a ‘typical’ year, or at the very least, atypical seems to be the new normal.
It is difficult to know when to plant things and when to expect them to flower when the weather is so drastically different from year to year.
This winter has so far been very dry for us, with some big, deep frosts.
That’s relative, mind you. I’m not going to pretend that our frosts are anything like what the rest of the world experiences, or even when you head to other parts of the state.
All the same, yesterday morning the glass was glittering and the hose had frozen into a tray of water that mum had been using for dunking seedling trays before planting.
June is one of the few months of the year when I don’t have seedlings to tend to. All the same I did a little bit of planting after a dear friend gifted me some trays of seedlings that she could no longer fit into her garden.
I took the opportunity to make a small reel about planting into the raised beds that we had made the month before. I’m happy to report that they are keeping most of the weeds out, though the Dock appears to be insurmountable. It popped through the cardboard and compost like it was nothing. I knew I couldn’t trust Charles Dowding that the method would kill couch if it can’t stop Dock. Luckily Dock, unlike Couch, is easy enough to deal with. I keep chopping the leaves off with my hoe as they appear and smoothing the compost back over. If it can’t photosynthesise it will eventually give up. And so long as it doesn’t go to seed I will win eventually. Couch, with it’s creeping rhizomatous growth, would be much more likely to launch a sneak attack, spreading under the surface of the bed before I knew just how deep the infiltration was.
The seedlings are powering along. I’ve been particularly impressed with the Umbels - Chocolate Lace and Green Amni in particular. I wasn’t sure they would thrive through the winter but they seem to be growing by the day.
The ranunculus are also coming along now that they are netted to keep the ducks out. They probably need a good feed all the same. They are hungry little plants.
Progress on the Lupins is slow, but creeping. From memory they jump away as the days lengthen.
I still haven’t put the trellis on the sweet pea posts. I must do that before they have a growth spurt.
Otherwise the jobs are fairly mundane. Weeding the beds that need it, including the perennial beds.
The seemingless endless dividing of dahlia tubers. I hope to have my sale in the first part of July so sign up to the email list here if that’s of interest.
The seedling dahlias were dug out to flip the beds make way for something else and they look promising indeed. I hadn’t realised I had tagged quite so many to be kept. It will be interesting to see how many make it to release two years from now.
The roses are waiting for their prune, weed, and mulch until after I am finished with the dahlia tubers.
The workshop that I hosted with Grown Not Flown was filmed and then delivered. I love giving workshops and sharing what I know. However, the format of them can be a little unsettling. Due to the recorded nature of them, and in wanting to give some privacy to the attendees, there is no one else on camera, so no visible audience for the presenter. It can feel a little surreal speaking to only yourself on camera, though I suppose I should be used to it after filming stories for Instagram.
I knew what to expect this time, however, and hopefully that level of comfort translated onto the screen. The feedback that I have had has been very positive.
You can still watch it on the Grown Not Flown Gym. If you purchase a membership for a month you can also watch the last workshop I did in autumn about harvesting, arranging, and selling your dahlias.
The next workshop will be in October and cover prepping your beds, planting, and taking cuttings from your dahlias.
In other news that is perhaps of interest, I have been appointed the new editor of the Dahlia Society of Victoria Magazine. It’s a twice yearly publication that is sent out to all of the members of the DSV and, in my opinion, is well worth the membership fee alone. It’s my hope to work with other members of the DSV to put together a magazine that will not only serve the society, but also help to educate about growing and exhibiting dahlias, and share stories and the knowledge of the members who have been growing these wonderful plants for many years.
And somewhere in all of that, I turned 34.
What’s Going On in July
Events
The Dahlia Society Conference in Hobart from 12-14 July. It is a shame that this is not yet video recorded for members who can’t make it. There will be a write up in the DSV magazine.
Greenhouse
Next round of cold-hardies will be going in for the very early spring planting. Snapdragons (though I also want to try rooting the pinched tops of my current crop), larkspur, phlox, some umbels/QAL variations, nasturtiums, and some others - I would have to check my plan to be sure. The seeds are in the fridge already in case they needed cold stratification.
Usually I would start them in the first week because they can be a little slow growing this time of year as I don’t typically use grow lights. However, as I am going to the dahlia conference I will start them a week later so they don’t need pricking out, and babysitting, while we are away.
Field
Weeding and maintenance
I think I will add a sugarcane mulch or similar to the sweetpeas to help keep their roots cool in case of a warm spring and early summer.
Speaking of sweetpeas, that trellis wire needs to go on.
The roses will start to be pruned, weeded, and mulched
I have 500 roses to relocate. Dahlia bed prep will begin once this is done.
The peonies are being moved to the field while I work out what to do with them. I’ll share this story later.
Summer bed prep will probably need to wait until August or even September.
Shed
Continued dahlia dividing.
Seeds need to be put into individual packets and listed for sale.
Listening To
Flowers: Six Figure Flower Farming with Jenny Marks, I know I recommended this podcast just last month. However, this episode about pricing strategies and buyer behaviour was very good and a worthwhile listen if you’ve wondered about how different price points impact buyer behaviour, and how to use that tactic to increase revenue without altering your recipes, marketing or anything else. Especially worth knowing if you plan to sell at farmers’ markets.
Subscription: The Sustainable Flowers Podcast. I listened to this podcast for years. I love how the hosts talk about their farms, and share field notes through the year as well as long form interviews in the off season. I thought they had simply stopped and recently discovered that they instead moved to a subscription model on Patreon.
Reading
Flowers: The Flower Hunter: Creating a Floral Love Story Inspired by the Landscape by Lucy Hunter. This has been on my shelf for some time but I am trying to go back through my collection, especially those books that didn’t get a deep read when they first arrived. This book is beautiful and I adore how Lucy writes about them. [This is an affiliate link]
Watching
Not Flowers: Only Murders in the Building on Disney+. I thought this was a show for kids but it is probably more suitable for teens and up because murder, swearing, etc. The trio at the centre of the show are delightful and there’s enough twists and turns to keep you guessing without being particularly dark or gory. Very cosy murder mystery.
What’s going on in your patch of the world?