Sunday, August 31, 2008

Sunny Labor Day Coming


August 31, 2008

Ten minutes before 8 PM and I just heard the water stop running to the roadside garden here on the mountain. Gail has been out watering potted daylilies for over two hours but the darkness has pushed her to the limit and she will settle in for the night.

August has sped by for us and we cannot figure out where summer went. The bad weather will be a forever memory but the amount we accomplished in a few months will encourage us on for the balance of this season and on into the next. In most all respects it was a very good summer.

Two nights back we looked at pictures from early May when our new business was but a flat of groomed crushed stone and a pile of lumber. Three and a half months later as business winds down, we can look at a very nice building, two shade houses, electricity, a water pump, twenty four planted gardens of daylilies, a full five acre perimeter fence, and the makings of a very nice daylily display garden. The "things-to-do" list is very, very long but in a four days we'll take a break and head to Maine as we always do. Then we'll return and work as long as the ground temperature remains at 50 degrees or better. We need eight more 12 X 50 foot gardens for more daylilies and two 30 X 60 foot gardens which will shadow either side of a new shade house of that same dimension. That shade house won't arrive until next spring but we want to begin to get the accompanying gardens ready now.

I guess what this shows is that two people, with a business plan, with a dose of mental and physical perseverance, with some good friends and with some loyal workers can really take big steps in a short season. We are very proud of what we have accomplished but without everything and everyone mentioned, it couldn't have happened this quickly or this well.

For a couple weeks now hundreds of sunflowers have welcomed us each day. Like the smiling faces we saw every morning when we started work, the bright sunflower colors encourage us to continue. As summer really ceases and fall moves into winter, I will try to fill in the blanks of moving a business like this. When I started this blog I promised to offer thoughts about this type horticultural business. I've gotten off course at times and missed cues when I had good opportunities but considering the work accomplished, it's understandable. Bear with us


and like two sunflowers sharing sunflower stories, we'll catch up soon.


From the mountain above Peacham Pond, where evening quiet is just that.....quiet.

George Africa
The Vermont Gardener
Vermont Flower Farm





5 comments:

The Diva said...

The angle of your sunflower photos is great. You can really see the endless parade. I'm glad you're mostly enjoying your business venture.~~Dee

joey said...

You have a most interesting year, George. The sunflower photos are breathtaking!

vermontflowerfarm@outlook.com said...

Thanks for your comments, Dee and Joey. I have always tried to concentrate on the flowers themselves regardless of the plant. I need to spend more time learning to take "the bigger picture" but for some reason I always end up kneeling or stooped over a flower shooting close ups.

George

lynn'sgarden said...

Wow! The sunflowers photos are beautiful! I was excited over my one (volunteered) bloom so I know standing in a field of them would be pure heaven! Lynn

vermontflowerfarm@outlook.com said...

Hello Lynn;
It became very obvious to me today that all the sunflowers had turned and were facing south. Unfortunately, there's nothing/no one to see the beauty of the flower heads now but ducks and other birds flying up the river. I'll have to take some more pictures because three other varieties bloomed today.

George