Spring Preparations

2026-03-29 3:46 PM

#farm #flowers #spring

We finally had a nice Saturday where we could spend some time outside and get things ready for this growing season. There are always a lot of chores to do once the weather warms and this year isn't any different.

First on the list was to move the beehives to a more secluded location. Unfortunately, I lost hives again over the winter. I'm having a hard time figuring out why I can make it through one winter, but never two in a row. It's actually really discouraging...so much that I'm thinking about taking a season off. I decided to cut back this year and really focus on getting some core hives through several seasons. I'm going to change my mite treatment schedule (though I saw no evidence of mites in my cleanouts of the dead hives) and cut back on how much honey we're harvesting. I also moved the hives back into the treeline to provide a little more wind protection.

We're also doubling our flower growth this year which means we need a second garden bed for growing. We cut a new plot (60' x 70') last fall and covered with with leaf litter collected by the town in the fall. We tilled up the soil and mixed the leaves in to provide a bunch of carbon over the winter while they rotted down. This spring, I remixed the leaves and we started laying new compost in planting rows. We'll use a heavy layer of wood chips in between each row to help keep weeds under control.

This brings us up to about 7,000 square feet of growing space for the farm. Hopefully, we're able to max out what we're able to sell this year with our own farm as well as some local connections who would also like to sell our flowers to their customers.

Up next is getting the new bed finished and then focusing on cleaning out the barn so we can pour a concrete floor and add a small walk in cooler for flower storage between harvest and sale.