Garden – Farm to Fork

I love freesias for many reasons

Freesias are my favorite flower. It’s a sense memory that brings me joy.

I love freesias for many reasons.

yellow petaled flower — Photo by Kali Neri on Unsplash

First and foremost, they are a sense memory for me of my childhood. Much like violets (but that’s another post.)

Secondly, they have a robust and unforgettable aroma that I know with just my sense of smell, and I have yet to find any manufactured fragrance that smells even a bit close.

Thirdly, freesias are a true spring flower. Once spring is gone, they are not available until the next year. (Or if they are, they are without the intense aroma that makes them unique.)

And, sadly, I am horrible at making them grow.

I have planted bulbs for them just about every year, and every year, I get a few paltry, weak-looking leaves and no stems. No buds. No flowers.

I know it’s not watering because I get the daffodils and irises and tulips in the same bed. It’s something else.

So, I have serious freesia envy whenever I see them in someone else’s garden. I will go OUT OF MY WAY to smell a freesia (which sometimes makes Handsome uncomfy since it means sneaking into someone’s yard!!)

Here’s a link if you want to try growing them yourself!

So, because mine droop, I have become a cut flower freesia junkie. All spring, I look every place I see a flower vendor for freesias. I smell them, and if I get that hit of memory, of care, I buy the freesias.

But the story doesn’t end there, because once you buy freesias, you have to take care of them every day or they will die prematurely. And they aren’t usually cheap.

So, here’s a few steps to help you figure out how to take care of your cut freesias, wherever you find them:

Align your freesias, so the blooms are all where you want them in a bunch.
Cut the freesia stems on the diagonal so that the stems don’t sit at the bottom of the vase.
Make sure nothing but stem will be under the water line
Fill the vase a little more than halfway with room temperature water
Put in your freesias
Change the water and recut the stems every day or every other for longest life.
Remove each spent (dead) flower when you change water to extend life.

P.S. I don’t use floral preservative, ever.

I’d love to hear your stories about freesia or flower memories in comments!

Spring has Sprung

Spring Equinox has meaning for me as an acknowledgement of the passage of Winter. I love the ritual of it but it doesn’t always coincide with the weather.

Sometimes, especially lately, Spring seems to come out meekly with a whimper and lasts for a whisper of time until Summer appears.

Sometimes, we have a torrential Winter and Spring announces itself boldly with daffodils and poppies and Robins chattering.

And sometimes, it’s like today. It’s my least favorite day of the year, when we “spring forward” with Daylight Savings. We had rain all morning with a downpour including hail around noon. But then the air cleared and the Sun came out and I just knew it was Spring.

The air feels different in the Spring. People stop hibernating (even if it’s just to pull weeds) and visit with the neighbors. Everything feels ready to play again after such a hard winter.

These are a few of my favorite things (wk9)

This week has been the first ~~warm and~~ sunny days we’ve had in a while. The break is needed as this “El Nino” year is somewhat crazy. I honestly don’t care if it is climate change or something else. It’s definitely different.

Here are a few of my favorites right now:

What I added this week:

A recommendation from my Peanut is an app called “Workout for Women” I’ve used it for most of this week and the workouts are free (with some non-invasive ads), it connected to Apple Health automatically, and is very easy to use. There are not always step-by-step instructions but it is straightforward enough that the exercises are easy to follow.

What I am listening to:

The Spotify playlist for Umbrella Academy. A crazy mix of music from the 60s to the 80s, and quite a fun selection of Electro.

What I am reading:

All My Love, Detrick by Roberta Kagan – a book written about the world and how it affects two families of different religions during the Holocaust.

What I’m working on:

Perfecting homemade yogurt in the new gas oven. Something I’ve wanted to do since started planning the remodel. I have made it two times so far and am quite happy with the results, even a bit more so when I drain it into Greek style. Thick, creamy and luscious, and I’m using the extra whey to acidify the garden for some camellias and hydrangeas. This is apparently a hotly debated technique, so we shall see if it helps or hinders. I am using the hydrangeas as the test bed as they actually change color when the soil is acidic.

I hope to be able to write a post about all this after just a couple more attempts.

The quote that sums it up for me in the now:

“Be yourself, everyone else is already taken.” — who knows

Killing my plants slowly

Today marks day 16 of my seedlings and I must say they are a bit worse for wear. Yes, yes, I did read all the articles and posts that told me what to do properly but the truth is that sunlight does, in fact, make ALL the difference.

So now we are trying out grow lights. A lovely little setup that was easily available on Amazon and got here efficiently in two days is now on a timer for 15 hours of sunlight every day starting at 7 am. And perhaps the plants will do more than this:

Not a happy set of sprouts.

The decision to plant a fall garden was somewhat impetuous. The garden has been dormant for three years and while we have grand plans there is lots of hardscaping to deal with before we get to new beds. But I got SO excited, I just couldn’t resist planting something for us to play with.

So off to Sloat’s we went, and then into these cool little coconut fiber pots did some Kale, and Brussels sprouts go along with some cauliflower and broccoli.

Here’s hoping there’s more progress soon.