Well, fellow flower farmers and gardeners, welcome to May—the month we’ve been anticipating, the month we begin to see the result of all our preparation and hard work, and the month for more garden chores. Depending on your USDA Hardiness Zone, May is our green flag to get going.
The cool flowers we planted some time ago are now blooming. We can start harvesting these flowers and offering them to customers. As a flower farmer, I harvest everything that’s in season, and that includes blooms from flowering shrubs and early herbs. Of course, there are plenty of other tasks to do this month, but hey, a flower farmer has to make a living while prepping for summer’s bounty.
May is a busy month. In fact, it can be quite overwhelming. In between the harvesting of spring blooms, we need to prepare the summer crop by sowing seeds and planting seedlings. And we need to maintain the gardens and field. Setting priorities is key.
Here at the farm, we’re planting dahlia tubers. Typically, we pre-sprout dahlias, but this spring we didn’t have time. The result is we’ll have a later harvest date for our dahlia blooms, but it’s a change we had to make. That’s the thing about growing a flower-farm business. Each new season comes with new learning, new opportunities and new plants. You have to be ready to adjust as your priorities change.
Setting priorities can be challenging, but it’s important because there simply aren’t enough hours in the day to do everything. When it comes to planting, I give preference to my highest commodity items, in this order:
- Dahlias
- Gladiolus
- Young Perennials
- Annual Seedlings
- Direct Seeding
Now let’s talk about weed control. It’s not my favorite task, but when May comes along, it’s a necessity. Weeding and mulching create a healthier ecosystem, which actually gives me more time for harvesting, designing florals and even sitting in the shade to relax once in a while.
Here’s a tip I’ve found to be therapeutic for the gardens and for myself as a flower farmer. I set a daily goal of filling one 5-gallon bucket with weeds from either the gardens or the field, working either in the early morning or late evening. I skip rainy days, but when the showers have ended, I tend to fill two buckets—weeds are easier to pull from rain-soaked ground.
Happy Gardening!
Pamela Anthony
Beehind Thyme Farm & Garden