Spring Planting!

Planting our whole field of flowers in the spring isn't everyone's favorite task, but it is satisfying to complete! With help from lots of friends and neighbors we were able to finish this year's planting in just under six hours! That makes it our fastest year yet! Part of our speed is definitely due to the fact that all the kids are getting older. Older helpers made our work faster and more efficient than before :)

Some of this speed was also due to experience. As this is our fifth year of Linden Lane Flower Farm, we have learned a couple tricks to help speed up the process, starting in the greenhouse.

So many different types of little seedlings ready for planting!

Moving our baby plants straight from a warm, sheltered environment to the field would damage and possibly kill them. To help prevent this, we go through a "hardening" process. Each tray of baby plants is progressively introduced to the elements by placing them outside, first on warm sunny days, then days with a breeze or sprinkle of rain, and finally a couple days of harsher weather. Allowing them to recover in the safe greenhouse after periods of severe weather gives them the strength to survive out in the field. There might be a lesson there for us too. ;)

Learning this process helped us to have a higher survival rate as we transplanted everything to the field this year. Having older helpers definitely didn't hurt that survival rate either. ;)

Partway through the planting process, you can see some flowers in their designated places!

Planting with friends makes a slow job pass much faster!

Almost done with their tray!

So many helpers. Many hands (and mini hands in some cases!) makes light work!

Even though planting can be hard work, it's fun too! In just one day, all of our plants go from the greenhouse to the field, and just a week later, proof of our efforts can be seen in their growth! Our final count for planting day this year was 4739 seedlings! That's going to be a lot of beautiful blooms later this summer!

We like to make planting day a fun celebration, sort of a kickoff for our summer that will be filled with work, but also with beauty. This year, that celebration took the form of several huge sandwiches from our local Sandwich Tree. Two sandwiches, each a foot wide and three feet long, were more than enough to feed all of our hungry helpers!

What's your favorite way to add a little fun to your day?

Best,

Jaime