The deer have left us a few calico lima beans. They are so delicious sautéed in butter with some chopped onion (and a little water to help cook the beans); they have a rich, chestnutty flavor. I add the more mature beans to the pan first.

Someone had posted on our school’s listserv that they had a Euonymus to give away. (Thank you!! =) Turns out it was in a GIANT pot and composed of many stems that had been stuck in the dirt over time. My Resident Expert and I were thrilled to have wallowed that puppy out of the pot, into another, through the yard, and up up up on the truck. *Phew!*

I finally ripped out the last of the Barberry (Berberis thunbergii) hedge that had surrounded much of our property when we move in, and fill in with the Euonymus, which I often use for greens in bouquets.

A whopping 20 bouquets today! (Yes, there are more in the wings, not pictured.)

Before

After

A free cucumber with every bouquet! 😉

So happy to have some Lisianthus this year! I love the brown ones, even though everyone else seems to think they look dead. Brown is my favorite color. It’s the color of dirt, after all!

A jubilant bouquet for a jubilant human.

Today would be my father’s 99th birthday.

Snapdragons (Chantilly), Yarrow Colorado Blend, Orlaya grandiflora, Sage officinalis, Honeysuckle, and Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifloius)

I love love love all of the colors in the ninebark leaves in the spring.

Roses, Snapdragons (Chantilly), Orlaya grandiflora, Sage officinalis, Honeysuckle (Lonicera japonica; I’ll use it until I can get rid of it), and Ninebark (Physocarpus opulifloius)

These pictures were all taken on the same day from the same plant.

A lot of snapdragons overwintered this year. (It was a mild one.) What a delight to find so much color at this time of year.

I have a friend going into the hospital… and I was able to give her flowers, even after a 20° overnight low!

Stock, Yarrow, Dusty Miller, and Fringe Flower

My first shelf is lit! Sweet peas growing on at the right, rescued broken bits from a Christmas Cactus rooting, and I started two flavors of Lisianthus today — Apricot and Chocolate-cherry!

A hard frost came Sunday night, after I picked these last of the zinnias.

I started my sweet peas… because Monty Don told me to.

Latest update: 11/3/2023… (On 9/8, We raised our goal from $1000 to $1500!)

I put in more beds for more flowers this year, and it’s paying off. Last year, we had flowers through to the middle of November (!) and raised $1678. Finger crossed for a late frost and no damaging storms…

Past years:

2022: $1680

2021: $1150

2020: No sales due to COVID

2019: $800

2018: $400+

Most seeds are viable for a couple of years. (Seed viability chart from Johnny’s Seeds.) Finding the dates on the packets from many sources can be an annoyance, and some don’t even have them. (What’s up with that, Park Seed?) My new color-coding system makes it easy to see which seeds are less fresh and allows for a quick thinning of older seed at the end of the season.

Frost on the barn roof this morning– oh my!

For a special someone.

For our mantle and for the front desk at work. (I bring a fresh bouquet each Monday.)

Ninebark, Abelia, Loropetalum chinense (Fringe flower), Euonymous kiautschovicus, Salvia officinalis ‘Purpurascens’ (Purple Sage), Rose of Sharon foliage, Zinnias, Veronica, and some mystery purple salvia.

Twenty bouquets this week! (Yes, I couldn’t fit them all on the table.) And I thought the flowers were slowing down…

I am so ready for Flower Power Friday. I picked for a whopping 20 bouquets this morning! (OK. not quite ready; I still need to make the bouquets tonight.)

I was so psyched when I heard that the Ravens drafted Zay FLOWERS…  and that his number is four?  Too easy!

Flower Power

At Flower Power Farmette, I grow flowers and make and sell bouquets as a fundraiser to enable students from Park School, Baltimore City College High School, City Neighbors High School, or the Baltimore Leadership School for Young Women to go on Park’s Civil Rights Trip.

I started these posts as part of my recordkeeping (wait, what did well in August?), and have since started sharing with interested folks.

Pictured above: Campanula persicifolia (Peach-leafed bellflower), a new favorite perennial grown from seed this year.

Pictured below: Making new friends in the yard.

Contact

I brought two bouquets with the last of the Euphorbia marginata (Snow on the Mountain) for the season; I’ll miss them! Such a hard-working, long-lasting super trouper filler for bouquets (once I learned to dip the freshly-cut stems in boiling water, that is…)

Some Euphorbia marginata in the side garden from last July

Thursday morning picking

Thursday evening; clean tools…

A powerfully flowerful Friday

Sometime the Rudbeckia mutates, and I love the surprises, like this spidery green bloom.

All picked! (Thursday morning)

All packed… (Thursday night)

Ready for their day — Flower Power Friday!

This morning’s pick

This week’s desk bouquet

A special bouquet for a special someone

[Not a bouquet ;)] And to think it grew from a seed!

A record 16 bouquets today — fingers crossed to sell them all! (Though it’s also fun to give away the ones I don’t sell…)

It was just one week ago that we picked our first ripe tomato.

The chaste tree is just past its fullest glory. The late sun was lighting up the flowers, but then, a rainbow. Or two…