Greetings, farm friends!

With Mother’s Day and plant sales completed, this week we’ve finally found ourselves able to get into the rhythm of the season and develop a good routine for our week. This has been one of the most hectic spring seasons in recent memory, with wild swings in the weather and a to-do list that’s miles long. Fortunately, we now find ourselves a bit more settled and well situated to address what needs to be accomplished on the farm. The crew planted out thousands of seedlings this week, and we’ve got plants staked, netted, and even completed the first bed flip of the season! Peonies are blooming in full swing now, which means we’re out harvesting them twice daily- a pleasant bookend to our packed schedule.

*On Wednesday Gray decided to oversee our morning meeting.*

Each day on the farm begins with harvesting. During the hot months, the crew arrives at the farm at 7:00 am and gets straight to work washing buckets and cutting. We have a giant whiteboard in our “headquarters” on which we keep track of everything that needs to be harvested in a given day. We try to harvest the things that are most likely to wilt earliest in the morning, which, right now, means hitting orlaya, forget-me-nots, bachelors buttons, and foliage first. We also try to follow the sun through the fields as we harvest. As we cut, we keep our buckets in the shade and move our UTV full of freshly cut blooms into the barn as soon as we’re able to do so.

Once the harvest is complete, we like to gather together as a crew to do a morning check-in. We go over our to-do lists, set priorities for the day, and relay any information that needs to be conveyed from day-to-day. Since most of our crew works part-time, there’s a lot to keep track of on a daily basis. This is our first season in which our crew members have decided they all want to be part time, and they’ve done an impressive job of making sure that everything is well organized and everyone knows what’s going on. Our check-ins also consist of lots of visits from farm cats and plenty of joking around.

Once we’ve finished our meetings, we divide and conquer (or, if it’s noon, we break for lunch) . Elisa and I generally run to the barn to pack florist orders and put together any bouquets needed for the day, and the crew gets started on field work. On any given day that may include bed preparation, planting, staking, weeding, or greenhouse work. Once we finish packing florist orders, Elisa and I generally try to join the crew for field work, unless it’s a Monday— that’s when we do our weekly field walk and take stock of everything we need to do that week and put together an availability list for florists.

Our days are packed, and there’s rarely a moment of downtime on the farm. Fortunately, we’re surrounded by extraordinary beauty, sweet pets, and a delightful crew who make the busy days pass quickly.

*Karen, examining the very happy honey bees*

Upcoming Events

We’re back to our regular programming, which means one market per weekend! Find us under the JFX on Sunday.

May 21st: Baltimore Farmers’ Market under the JFX. We’ll have bouquets, campanula, peonies, ranunculus, shiitakes, and Two Boots Merch.

Thanks for reading this far!

Wishing you all the best,

Amelia & the Two Boots crew

A Day in the Life of a Flower Farmer