A Look at January on the Farm
We hope your 2025 is off to a great start! After some much-needed rest with friends and family, we're back at it, ready for the exciting year ahead.
This time of year, crop planning and seed starting take center stage. Still, I've learned to pace myself—otherwise, I end up planning for double the space we have! So, I'm also clearing closets and attic spaces, tackling tasks we don't have time for once the season ramps up.
Outside
Things are quiet in the field now, at least above ground. Underground, the root systems are extending and strengthening. Even above ground, in the hoop house, we’re seeing buds form on the poppies and blooms on the pansies. The lone bloomers outside are the hellebores and they are a welcome sight.
Despite the record cold we’re experiencing this week, it won’t be long until we see the early bloomers. The Persephone period, when daylight lasts fewer than 10 hours and plant growth slows, ended for us on January 6th. With more light and warmth coming, the early bloomers will soon make their debut. We can't wait!
Inside
Farmhouse repairs are progressing after a water pipe burst last fall. With plumbing, drywall, and flooring replaced, we're adding a new back door and bathroom vanity top next. Painting and final plumbing are next, and we're optimistic about finishing before flower season gets busy.
Bouquet Subscription Season is Coming Up!
Looking for a Valentine’s Day gift or a little joy for yourself? A bouquet subscription might be just the thing! New this year, we’re offering Friday pick-ups at Molly Creek Company in Ridgeway.
We look forward to serving you in 2025.
Best,
Linda
More August Farm News
We are starting to see relief from the heat! With the temperatures getting into the 80’s during the day and the 60’s at night, our plants are waking up again.
The Late Summer to Fall subscriptions will be starting up in the next couple of weeks. We will be contacting subscribers for delivery start date confirmations in the near future. We expect the first delivery date to be August 30th ( for Friday deliveries) and September 3rd ( for Tuesday deliveries), assuming the weather stays on the current trajectory.
We’re off for a few more days for a wedding in Boulder. It is hard to get time away from the farm, so we are looking forward to it very much.
Next week we will be back at it until frost and beyond. Looking forward to making flowers available for your joy!
Best,
Linda
June on The Farm
June was filled with activity at the farm. Thanks to all who came out for the Ag+Art Tour. We had over 300 visitors and our artisans had so much interesting work to share. We enjoyed seeing old friends and made some new ones too.
Photo: Karl Lindquist
We also held our Growing Dahlias class. We enjoyed a very enthusiastic group of gardeners wanting to hone their skills. I feel confident that they will be growing beautiful dahlias in their gardens.
It does my heart good to have fellow flower lovers at the farm. It is always great to see the enthusiasm people have for what we do.
Dahlia Linda’s Baby
We also had plenty of bed prep and planting work to have blooms for late summer and fall. We’ve added some new beds so that we can have more flowers available. We’ve planted quite a few more heirloom chrysanthemums this year and another 250 dahlia tubers. We do a second planting in almost every bed each year so that we can have flowers over 3 seasons.
There is still room in our Late Summer to Fall subscription, so if you want to have flowers at home or at your office weekly or bi-weekly in September and October, you can sign up here.
Schedule Change
We’ve decided not to hold the “Summer Garden” classes in July and August. The extra warm temperatures are not conducive to making this a pleasant experience for everyone. We will see how things look in September.
Here’s hoping that you are enjoying your summer. Happy 4th!,
Best,
Linda
Remembering Ted Williams
As we mourn the loss of our good friend Ted Williams. I can’t help but reflect on the many contributions he made to my life as a grower.
Born in Japan, educated at Rutgers and worked an esteemed career in the military, Ted lived a successful life. He loved his wife Margaret dearly along with his four children. He was an intelligent, disciplined, deep thinker who demanded excellence and got it. He appreciated the accomplishments of others as much as his own.
Ted was retired from the military when we met. After seeing our garden, Ted encouraged me to apply to the Master Gardener program. He had completed the program and was in a leadership role as Treasurer of the organization. I completed the program and began volunteering at Riverbanks with the Junior Master Gardeners. Ted worked at Riverbanks too. He coordinated the volunteers and ran the Urban Horticulture Center.
During social occasions Ted would always ask me about my gardening activities. When I told him about the farm I was thinking of starting, he was encouraging and enthusiastic. He wanted to help.
The farm remained in the concept stage for a number of years. I ran ideas past him and asked a lot of questions. I went to conferences and reviewed new ideas with him. I had also completed training from a flower farm on flower farming specifics. He was my sounding board and council.
When I finally retired from corporate life, I was ready to move the farm to the incubation stage. I invited Ted to be my team mate in the New and Beginning Farmer program put on by Clemson. This program teaches the business of farming, not anything about growing. We had to develop a business plan to be presented at the end of the class. We met weekly at the farm to review the material and apply it to my business plan. I wrote the material and Ted was my editor. At the end of the program, there was a contest for grants provided by the S.C. Farm Bureau. I had 5 minutes to tell the story. Ted timed me at rehearsals. We took second place and won $2000 for needed farm projects.
Concurrently we were planting a variety of flowers at the farm on a trial basis to see how well they would grow here. I knew what I wanted to grow and Ted had a lot of local growing knowledge. I insisted on sustainable, no-till practices. These were new to Ted but he embraced learning them too. Ted was fully engaged - spreading compost, planting bulbs and other hands-on work.
When Ted had his first heart attack, it was a severe one. Margaret had to deal with so much at that time. Ted was not ready to stop living, however, and he slowly recovered. When he could drive again, he came back to the farm. He wanted to work. He had lost a lot of strength but he was determined. He could strap on a backpack sprayer and feed the plants. At first, I put a chair in the field so he could sit and rest as needed. He came out week after week and built back his strength. He could feed the entire field in 2 hours. After he was done, we would sit and he would review with me what he saw. Maybe something needed more water, some pest infestation was starting up and needed attention or something was almost ready for harvest.
Those were not the only discussions. He told stories about his military life. He was an avid reader. His favorite historical figure was Mahatma Gandhi. He had a keen interest in the workings of Washington DC, regardless of who was in office. Having served in the military he had an insight that made for great discussions. He was soon bringing me books to read and we would discuss them too.
When his health would no longer allow him to work at the farm, he continued to support it by purchasing flower subscriptions for Margaret. Pre- covid, I would deliver and we would catch up for a few minutes on the porch. During the Covid era, I could only leave the flowers on the porch.
One of Ted’s last visits to the farm was during the 2019 Ag+Art Tour. Margaret and two of their girls came and we had a toast after the last visitor left. He was planning to come again this year and I was excited to show him all the progress that we’ve made. He would have been happy to see it.
So, Godspeed my friend, on your ultimate journey. Thank you for everything. Your life mattered. You made a difference, no doubt in many lives, but certainly in mine. I am so grateful to you for your kind friendship and all that you taught me. Rest in peace.
Fall is Just Around the Corner!
Hello Friends!
We’re happy to be back after some time off in July and August. While we still have flowers in these hottest months, the work is more of an effort in the heat and we can work less hours outside. With the arrival of September, the temperatures are finally starting to trend downward, and everything, including me, is starting to perk up!
We continue to offer flowers at the Lake Carolina Farmer’s Market and at Soda City (through Fabel Farms) until the end of October. Thanks to all of you for your support of us and the other vendors at the markets.
As fall arrives, the dahlias will be coming on. We planted a few new varieties over the summer and look forward to seeing them. We will also have sunflowers and lisianthus in our bouquets now.
The infrastructure projects at the farm continue to move forward. Our walk-in flower cooler was completed last week! I have been renting cooler space at another farm which was a big help, but nothing beats the convenience of having a cooler on site. So grateful that my husband Rufus, a.k.a. Mr. FixIt was willing to take this project on.
In addition to the work being done on the processing shed, we are putting up a hoop house (a.k.a. high tunnel, unheated green house) this fall. This will allow us to extend the growing season to the colder months. The first goal is to have local flowers for Valentine’s Day. The beds are ready for planting and the structure will be added over them. There is much to be done to make this happen, so stay tuned!
We are planting significantly more flowers this fall than we have to date. The community support for our subscriptions continues to grow and we are forever grateful for that. We are delighted to have orders for several DIY weddings next spring, not only for the flowers but for the hope that there will be a vaccine and we can gather in greater numbers. We also anticipate that event planners and florists will have increased demand so we want to be ready to support these sister businesses that buy local flowers as we are able to.
We had hoped to have some classes this fall, but there is still much to be done before that can happen. We will continue to work toward that goal in 2021.
We will be offering amaryllis and paperwhites again this year between November 1 and December 15th. More on that to come!
We feel blessed to be able to provide to you and your loved ones with these little bundles of happy beauty. Thank you all for your continued support. Stay healthy and happy,
Linda
Updates From The Farm
Since it has been awhile since I posted anything, I wanted to let you know what we have been up to!
I hope that you have enjoyed the long cool spring as much as I did! In addition to delivering our spring subscriptions, we’ve been taking advantage of the cool weather all season to get extra projects done at the farm.
Spring Subscriptions
This year we were able to start the spring subscriptions in March, earlier than in years past. Everyone is tired of winter by then and it has been our goal to get flowers to people as early in the year as possible. We added some new flowers to our bouquets, including several new specialty tulips and ranunculus in several colors.
Masks and hand sanitizer were de rigeur on subscription delivery days!
We are wrapping up the final deliveries this week. With Covid in our midst, we all seemed to appreciate the beauty of fresh flowers a little bit more this year. Since we had to be extra careful with the drop offs, I still haven’t seen some of our new subscription holders in person! I hope to be able to meet you as conditions improve.
Thanks to all of you for a wonderful spring season!
The new barn/studio
On-Farm Projects
As you may know, we are transforming the old barn into a new barn/studio. We will have a walk-in cooler for the flowers along with a large work area. There should be room for small gatherings inside, but there is also a large covered porch on the front where we can gather when the weather is agreeable. We’re looking forward to holding some classes/workshops there in the future. I expect that we will have this ready before the summer is over.
The salvage tarp is used to kill the grass where the new beds will go without using pesticides. Darkness and heat can do the job.
We added a shade bed for plants that require little sun. Hellebores and ferns have been planted there and a few other things will be added in the fall. These will be ready for use late winter of 2021.
We are also working on some new beds that will be covered by a new hoop house in the fall. A hoop house is an unheated green house. This will allow us to grow flowering plants over the winter in conditions that will make them bloom over the winter. We’re hoping to have flowers ready by Valentine’s Day 2020.
Hello Summer!
First real warm-season harvest.
Summer temperatures and humidity have arrived! We have been turning the beds and planting more heat-loving summer flowers and foliage. Our warm season favorites are finally getting the conditions they need to thrive. Zinnias, celosia, cosmos, dahlias, rudbeckia, sunflowers and lisianthus are some of what is coming on now.
We are also trying some new warm season growers – alstroemeria, lavatera, bee balm, jewels of opar and Greek oregano. We will see how they do in our heat and humidity!
Where to Find us This Summer
1. You can pick up our flowers at the Lake Carolina Farmers Market or contact us through the website www.purpletuteur.com or through our facebook page to place a special order.
2. I am also working with one of my classmates from Clemson’s New and Beginning Farmer Program to make flowers available at the Soda City Market when it opens again. Once I have the specifics on this booth location, I will send an update out.
3. We also offer bouquets at B79 in Blythewood as flower capacity allows. Follow us on Instagram for announcement of pop-up sales at B79.
4. A few other discussions are underway in an effort to make farm fresh flowers available to you, so stay tuned!
What’s Next?
We have had several requests for a fall subscription offering. We are looking at this now. Certainly, with the prospect of a second wave of Covid 19 in the fall, this may be the best way to get flowers to everyone safely. We will be looking at the feasibility for this over the summer.
Finally, I want to thank you all for your continued interest and support in our small farm. It is our pleasure to bring you fresh blooms and to make you smile. In these challenging times, everyone can use a little joy.
Linda