Apologies On Our Absense - recap of 2016 season

July of 2015? That was the last post, really? You can definitely tell we are more farmers than techies. We'll try to keep our website more up to date.

2015 was a great first year. We dove in head first, learned a lot and met some pretty great people.

2016, we downsized, but specialized in a few varieties, as we were anticipating the arrival of LeeAnn's 2nd future flower farmer, Luke! He arrived in late August, during the heart of our season and a few weeks prior to Kate's wedding.

Weather was a challenge this season. One of the wettest springs to memory. We got 100 tubers in the ground followed by 3 weeks of soaking wet weather. I (Kate) was having some serious downs about potentially loosing 1/3 of our crop because of my negligence to study the predicted weather forecast. However, not by design, I planted them on the high side of my garden and they had adequate drainage to pull them through. Note taken for next season. That was followed up by a dry, mild summer with very little rainfall and a warmer then usual fall. A killer frost hit around October 16th, then followed up with warm and wet into November. A goofy growing season for sure, but we managed well and have a much better design for irrigation for next season.

We had a local greenhouse start plants for us and boy did that spoil us. It is so much more gratifying to plant an actual plant, as opposed to a seed. Not that its not beautiful to see the progression from seed to a producing plant, but when you work off the farm full time, time is precious and it feels like you accomplish more in the amount of time that is given. In addition, we had a much better germination/livability rate this way, in turn saving us money. Those seed packs are expensive.

Three quarters through the season, I broke under the pressure of my replicating weeds and purchased a roll of black fabric to run a trial. It was largely a huge success, keeping the garden neat and having the correct spacing for each plant was such a relief, not to mention a big weight off me. This was such valuable lesson to learn. I find the cost of the fabric will greatly pay off in terms of time for the future. Burning holes and laying the fabric does take more time, but the amount of time it saves in the growing season from not having to weed is invaluable. Sign me up for laying fabric in my whole garden!

All in all, we had a successful season with an abundance of blooms. One of our main goals was to provide all the flowers for Kate's September wedding, as they were the main staple of her decor. What better way to highlight our flowers then fill her reception area with color? We fell in love with feverfew, dreadlock style amaranth, broom corn and growing pumpkins. And provided Lillian all of the pink flowers she should possibly desire.  

Which moving forward into 2017's plan, We'll have even more varieties started for us and are looking at ways to lengthen our market into the fall. It seems like we both have more available time come fall and there's room for growth in our area for fall holiday design.

On a final note, we welcome you to contact us for your flower needs in 2017. We offer a array of color from late July until frost (usually early to mid October). At this point in time, we are not offering design work, but encourage you to try your own hand at arranging flowers by purchasing buckets from us. Its truly a relaxing and refreshing way to express yourself and maybe you'll find a love for it!

July Floral Recipe- Milk glass centerpiece

Attention all inspired DIY persons! We thought it would be fun to post a floral recipe of a quaint garden centerpiece.  Since we sell flowers in bulk we get lots of questions on how many flowers they may need. Many people grossly underestimate the amount of flowers needed to obtain their decorating aspirations.  Here you go!

*Note- We are not a trained professionals so we highly suggest you try this at home!

This is a 4"x4" milk glass vessel in which I used floral foam as a base.

Flowers used:
2 dahlias
1 flowering dill
2 giant sedum
1 apricot nasturium
1 wild poke weed (free from a hedge! )
2 celiosa (one pink, one yellow)
10 assorted zinnia
1 apricot strawflower

A total of 20 stems.  If you budget approximately $.80/stem, (remember I scavenged one!), then the floral cost to this centerpiece is around $17. Add in your container (thrifted for $.50) and your foam and you could be enjoying this at your next event!

Flowers are Available!

 After what seemed like an endless spring, we are excited to see the fruit of our labors bloom before our very eyes. Our flower gardens are hitting their stride and we are enjoying more and more blooms with each passing day.

I added a few more tabs to the top of the page. One gives an explanation of how to buy flowers from us. The other is a quick Q&A to help explain more about what we do and how we operate.

If you have any other questions, send us an email. coseytownflowers@gmail.com

THANK YOU!

What's Growing? Week 10

Throughout the summer you'll get a peek into what is growing on our Pennsylvania flower farm. It's the beginning of March and in our zone 5 climate we are still weeks away from anything being planted in the ground. However, I do have one little thing growing like a well nurtured flower over here!

Lillian is 9 months old this week!

I am currently re-reading The Gift of Good Land by Wendell Berry. This book of essays fits into my reading lifestyle right now. I can pick it up and have time to read an entire essay before my body forces me to sleep or a beautiful babe calls out for attention. Even though it was published in 1981 and most of the essays were penned in the 70's, it is quite amazing that many of the agriculture issues Berry wrote about are still very much present and in debate. You will most likely read more references to this book, as I rediscover points that hit home. In Berry's essay "Elmer Lapp's Place (1979)", I loved how he summarized Mr. Lapp and his farm. He writes in part that Mr. Lapp's farm does really well and he justifies how his farm thrives because of Mr. Lapp's likes. You see Mr. Lapp decides on how and what he farms based on what he likes.

Berry writes, "All the patterns of the farm are gathered into an ecological pattern; it is one "household", its various parts joined to each other and the whole joined to nature, to the world, by liking, by delighted and affectionate understanding. The ecological pattern is a pattern of pleasure."

When Kate and I decided 2015 would be the year we would start Coseytown Flowers, we made some goal. We each did our own research on what plants to grow, but at the end of the day we decided we would always grow what we liked. We never want to lose the enjoyment of why we chose to start our own business in the first place.

We are 99% finished buying our seeds for this year. (You can never be 100% done with purchasing flowers, can you?) I typed up the list of everything ordered to have available for potential customers and I noticed a few things. We are trying new things! YAY! I love experimenting. We have a few tried and trues. Success waiting to happen. And we have a few plants that I have no idea how desirable they will be, but I LIKE THEM. :) And we are growing 20 varieties of Zinnias. Crazy? Probably. But they are our favorite.

Weather today: Cloudy, 30 degrees and sprinkling rain.

The End of One Season Begins Another

Welcome to the Coseytown Flowers Blog! 

There has been a lot of activity behind the scenes getting this fledgling business up and running. Getting this blog operational is my priority for this week. This blog will be used to highlight what is happening on the farm, what is growing, what is being harvested, a place to post lots of pretty flowers, and to let you all know where flowers are being sold.

New logo!

Currently, lots of planning is happening. Seeds have been ordered and now I have to figure out where they are all going. In a few weeks time, new beds are going to be tilled so I need to be organized. 

Measuring out new beds

Soon to be 6000+ sq ft of flowers!

Business planning is also being completed. Our business name has been registered with the state. All paperwork is in order to collect sales tax. We are all set up to accept mobile credit card payments. The logo has been made and business cards are on the way! All the little things nobody mentions. Lists of goals and tasks have been made. Dreams have been written down. And pretty soon, all this planning will be put into action. As soon as the temperature stays above freezing. I am SO ready for that!

Drew out my 2015 planting plans. I need to add two more beds.