March was a blur, wasn’t it? Between all of us coming down with the flu, which lasted for multiple weeks for each one of us, we also were using every spare second that we weren’t sick or otherwise engaged working on flower farm tasks since spring is the season that’s by far the busiest. Our biggest priority last month was finishing the high tunnel and planting everything out in it, and to do that, I made sure to keep the rest of the goal list relatively short.
While I will probably feel perpetually behind every single spring that we decide to grow cut flowers to sell, I am feeling at least like we’re ahead of where we were at this time last year, so…progress.
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March Goals
Finish high tunnel- Okay, while we haven’t technically finished the high tunnel 100% (since we still have to do the roll-up sides for venting), we DID complete it enough that we could plant everything into the ground, which was the #1 priority, so I’m counting this as good.
Get both successions of ranunculus and stock in the ground- All of the ranunculus is now in the high tunnel, as are the first two successions of stock (I’ll be planting out 2 more successions in April). Some things don’t look as good as I would have hoped for, but that’s probably just because they had to stay indoors for so long and so took a longer time getting over transplant shock. We did lose maybe 10 or 12 plants, but considering that we planted out probably between 350-400, I’d say that’s pretty darn good.
- Direct seed and/or sow indoors all hardy annuals
- I’m right on schedule for all the indoor sowing, but I haven’t direct sowed everything that should be outside yet. It’s partly because the weather hasn’t been ideal, and partly because we’ve been so busy doing other flower farming tasks. This will be a rollover goal.
- Pick up load of compost
- Nope. We really need to ASAP, though. Rollover goal.
Order soil amendments for roses + landscape fabric- Not only did we order everything, but the roses are already in the ground! The bare root roses I ordered from David Austin back in December got here at the end of March, and we spent an afternoon prepping the ground and getting them in the soil. I’m super excited to see what they look like in a few months!
- Build at least 2-3 raised beds (ideally 4-6)
- Nope. We didn’t get a single raised bed built in March, which means that all of them will have to be finished in April.
Find new dentist for kids + set up appointment- Our kids didn’t have the best experience with a regular dentist I’d taken them to locally, so I decided it was worth the hour-plus drive north to take them to a pediatric dentist. Their first appointment is in April, and I think it will be about 1,000% better than their experience with the regular dentist.
Set up Hyrum’s well-check appointment- It only took me 3 months, but I finally did set this up (considering he turned 2 back in December).
- Fix doorbell
- Nope. All household goals have gotten pushed back due to me needing Matt to spend all of his spare time on flower farming stuff.
Clean out fridge- This wasn’t a 100% cleanout, but it was awfully close, so I’m counting it. At any rate, I can see everything in the fridge again, and all the moldy stuff is gone.
- Buy tickets for Hawaii trip
- Not yet. I’m kicking myself that I didn’t buy these back in February when the price was amazing, but I do think we can still get an okay price if I wait until the right deal comes up. This will probably for sure happen in April.
- List Buick
- I knew I wouldn’t get to this in March, but I kept it on the list just so I wouldn’t forget about it 🙂
April is a month that requires a ton of flexibility, mostly just because we’re entirely dependent on the weather for our planting and sowing schedules. For instance, I’d planned to transplant out several trays of hardy annuals about now, but with temperatures around 17 degrees forecasted a week from now, I’m going to have to hold off for awhile yet. And then, when I can’t transplant out my hardy annuals on schedule, that means I also start to get behind on sowing the tender annuals that should be planted and put in their places under the grow lights.
It’s a tricky balancing act that changes constantly, but April also brings the first of the blooms on the farm, which marks the official beginning of the season, at least for the public. Since we didn’t have fall-planted bulbs last year, I’m really excited to see how spring sales go this month.
It’s also a fun month of celebration since we have both Raven’s birthday and Easter, and we already have several plans in place for both. It’s going to be a good month!
April Goals
- Complete the roll-up sides on the high tunnel
- We bought some hand cranks you put on each side of the high tunnel so that we can roll up the sides and allow better air flow on warmer days. It’s the very last step we need to do so that the high tunnel is 100% finished.
- Get oil changed in van
- Self-explanatory.
- Build and fill all the raised beds
- We’re building 7 new raised beds this year, and thanks to my in-laws, we already have all the lumber we need to construct those, which is a huge load off my mind. Now we just need to do it!
- Plant and/or sell all summer bulbs
- Any day now, I’m expecting the large shipment of all my summer bulbs (lilies, dahlias, etc.) to come in. Most of those will be planted in the new raised beds or in other places on our property, but I will have a little bit of excess that I’m planning on selling directly to the public. For sure all of these need to be sold or planted by the end of April.
- Transplant out all hardy annuals and finish direct sowing the rest
- It’s time to start planting out! Everything that’s more cold hardy will need to be transplanted out by the end of April for sure (and much of it ideally by about halfway through).
- Pick up load of compost
- Rollover goal.
- Compile list of pay-it-forward bouquets
- This year, we had even more generous donors give money so that we can give away bouquets throughout the growing season to people who need a boost. As we did last year, I’ll be writing a post on the local community page in Facebook and asking for people to submit the names and addresses of people they know who could use a free bouquet. We gave away over 35 bouquets last year, and it was definitely a highlight of our season, so I’m excited to continue to spread the love this year! (If you’re interested in donating to our pay-it-forward program, you can Venmo us any amount @dreamacreflowerfarm and just put “pay it forward” as your description.)
- Decorate Easter eggs
- Time has gotten away from us the last few years, and so we haven’t decorated Easter eggs as a family for a long time. I know our kids would love it, so I need to make sure we prioritize it this year.
- Buy tickets for Hawaii trip
- Rollover goal. Fingers crossed the right deal comes up soon so I don’t have to worry about this one anymore!
- Teach Raven to ride a bike
- Raven turns 7 this month, and we bought her this bike helmet for her birthday (along with this kids’ camera, which she’s been asking for for months). We’d wanted to teach her how to ride her bike without training wheels last summer, but things were just too crazy with the flower farm, and it’s kind of tricky to do close to home since we don’t have any sidewalks or a paved driveway. The plan now is to take her down to the local park this month and finally let her experience this milestone!
- Change over all kids’ clothes to summer and pack away everything that’s too small
- ‘Tis the season. Plus my kids continue to grow every month (the nerve!), so this is a must, as we also need to size up.
- Make list of needed clothes/shoes for kids
- Obviously this goes hand in hand with the above line item. I anticipate that we’ll at least need to buy some sandals for all of them, as well as maybe a few extra pairs of shorts.
- Give everyone in the family a haircut
- My own haircut is probably good for a couple more months, but everyone else (esp. the boys) all need one. We’ve definitely already gotten our money’s worth from the home haircutting kit we bought last year (which I’m now kicking myself we didn’t do sooner because we could have been saving SO MUCH MONEY over the years).
- Go through pantry and clear out expired food/stuff we’re not going to eat
- Seeing as this is a household goal, I’m not sure I’ll get around to it, but since we’ve been working diligently on building up our food storage for the past 6+ months, our kitchen’s pantry shelves are starting to get a little crazy. I know there’s stuff way in the back that we haven’t touched since we moved in and that we will likely never eat, and I want to clear out everything that’s old and unwanted so that we can more easily access everything we do want in the front.
- Fix doorbell
- Rollover goal.
- List Buick
- Considering that the second half of our payment on our new energy efficient windows is due in the next month or so, we’ll need all the cash on hand we can get, so this needs to stop being a running joke and actually happen already 🙂
Hope you have a great month!
