Glorious Off-Season at the Flower Farm

It’s easy to get caught up in the beauty and amazement of the summer flower season.  Each new day brings witness to the wonderment of God’s gift of nature in all its glory.  Yet all good things have an end and the arrival of the first frost brings a sudden halt to the magnificent bounty of flowers.  From the flowers first blooms in June to the fading of late October, it is a rewarding yet extremely busy time.  So with the frost and the end of the season does the flower farmer take a deep breath and finally relax?  Well, I guess it possible, but for us it was definitely no!
 
Late fall and winter are the time for planning.  It’s the time to determine what worked last season and more importantly what did not work well.  Seeds are ordered in anticipation of the next season.  Fall is the perfect time to plant cover crops that amend the soil.  These cover crops in turn support the biodiversity needed for healthy and vibrant flowers next season.  It’s the time to improve infrastructure and plan for future growth.  It’s also the time to gaze out on the empty fields and dream of things yet to come!
 
The off-season at Knobstone Flower Farm has been a busy time of improvement and expansion.  We have been diligently working since the time that our last customers came out to the farm in October. 
 
Here is a sampling of a few of our off-season activities:
 

• Installed five new water hydrants and electrical wiring.  This required digging over 900 feet of trenches 36 inches deep (over 80 hours on a backhoe).  It’s all good until the rains cause several hundred feet of the trenches to cave in before the water and electrical lines were fully installed.  There’s nothing like shoveling out clay muck from water logged 36 inch deep trenches. 
• Plowed and disc 5 acres of fields.  These fields were horse pasture and will now be our sunflower and wildflower experience.  We planted these fields with a cover crop, winter rye to protect the soil from erosion and build matter that will be incorporated back into the soil during the early spring.
• Planted over 700 daylilies on the front 300 feet of our property.  These daylilies were a gift from my parents in North Carolina.  We harvested them with a potato plow in late August and planted most of them during the fall on landscape fabric.
• Ordering seeds, bulbs and tubers for an expanded selection of flowers.  We spent hours planning our flower u-pick for succession planting to ensure a continuous availability of flowers throughout the season.
• Built a doggy day spa for our fur babies, Danny and Roxie.  We wanted to create a comfortable area where Danny and Roxie could be out during the day when customers are out at the flower u-pick.  Amenities include access to the yard for digging and business, fresh water, a shaded sitting porch with their favorite couch and a ceiling fan to keep them cool!
• Trim and pick up the branches from the river birch trees that line our driveway.  This was long overdue and ended up filling four trailer loads of branches.  We appreciate the beauty of the river birch trees with their canopy but it’s a lot of effort with management of their downed branches!
• Cleaned up and removed old fence lines, briars and vines.  We have been busy working on relocating and replacing close to 2000 feet of fence lines.  This project started in December and will likely be finished in April.
• Reseeding the cleared land and water line trenches with grass seed.  
• Cleaning up the u-pick garden and perennial beds.
• Creating expanded parking options with a new traffic pattern and gravel.
• Purchased new equipment such as precision planters and a cultipacker.  We will be broadcasting our field of sunflowers with interspaced cover crops and the cultipacker will ensure good germination of the seeds.
• Installing lights & electrical outlets in the flower shed.  We will never forget arranging flowers by headlamps for a fun group of ladies last summer.
• Filling holes; removing barb wire and other sharp safety hazards.  We take your safety seriously and have incorporated a safety survey in our planning.
• Installing bluebird nesting boxes and other small bird houses for our feathered friends!
• Ordering new signage and installing backings for mounting on t-posts.
• Locating, purchasing and creating space for over 5000 mason jars.  We were fortunate to have located a supply of Canadian mason jars through some Amish friends.
• Starting seedlings of some new flowers for the u-pick and our exciting new Monarch butterfly way stations.

 
It can be almost overwhelming at times, but we have a vision that we continuously work towards as a goal for the coming season!  We are committed to investing our time, labor and money with this vision of having one of the most unique and enjoyable friend and family experiences in Southern Indiana.