I'm so excited about all of the flowers we're growing and wanted to send along a little spring update! Since January, I've been growing foxgloves, snapdragons, sweet peas, Iceland poppies, nasturtiums, carnations, pincushion flower, and even eucalyptus from seed. I've hardened off the seedlings and moved them outside, and am about to start the next round of seeds, including some pastel zinnia trials from Dawn Creek Farm, which I can't wait to see. We're waking our dahlia tubers up and they are taking up every surface in our house! I'm even going to try growing some of Floret's dahlia seeds. Typically dahlias are grown from tubers, which are an exact clone of the parent (so that you know what you'll get), but growing some from seed should bring some fun surprises this summer.
Outside the cold hardy flowers we planted in November have started sprouting, the tulips and ranunculus are getting close, and our anemones and specialty daffodils are in full bloom. Seattle is really waking up! Back in October I had made some "flower bulb lasagnas", or layered bulb pots, which I saw on Sarah Raven's page and they seem to be really popular in England. The ones we posted to our website sold quickly, and it made me think I should organize a little lasagna grow-a-long for this fall. Now is the time to order your fall bulbs in order to get the best selection, so I'll be posting some suggestions soon.
We've also been working hard on completely redoing the way we grow flowers our driveway space. This winter my husband and I changed over from growing in pots on the cement driveway to installing 9 raised beds on top of the cement. At the bottom of the beds we put down rocks for drainage, then lined with landscape fabric to retain soil and protect the driveway, topped with soil and compost. We now have 12 beds, and are always finding ways to add more growing space!
I've been working on some fun spring projects, including a collaboration with a local ceramicist Juri, who owns RIYO by Juri. She made 'Tree Trunk Vases' for our arrangements, which were really inspiring for me and I think the flowers looked like fancy tree tops. Next up she made us some 'Water Drop Vases', so keep an eye out for some more arrangements in her special vases soon.
Last night I got excited about all of the flowers that are coming in and decided to put together some last minute Easter weekend bouquets. I was blown away at how quickly we sold out, and it reminded me that I should let everyone know about our summer CSA. During the months of July and August I'm doing a monthly "flower share" where you will get four weeks of beautiful bouquets made entirely from our Grow Girl Seattle flowers, grown right here in Ballard, with pickup on Saturday mornings. It works like a farm or vegetable CSA where you sign up ahead of time, and then get fresh bouquets of what we have in bloom that week.
We had sold some CSA slots already (thank you to those who signed up!), and I posted another round tonight. If you're interested, check out the shop on our website for more information.
If you're following from afar, we're so grateful to have you here and please write to me if there are gardening topics or anything else you're interested in. If you're following along from Seattle, thanks for the support and don't hesitate to reach out if you have an idea for a custom arrangement or project. No matter where you are, happy spring, and thank you for supporting local flowers when you can!
Big hugs,
Sarah at Grow Girl Seattle
sarah@growgirlseattle.com
Comments