Well, for those of you who have been following along with DRR, you know that it has been quite some time since there was an update. Finally with the the holidays behind us, we have found a pocket of downtime with which to catch up and take a breath. I had to actually go back and look to see when my last post was done - last May, so that should give you some understanding of what the rest of our year looked like around here.
We had a very successful growing season in 2022, with both the lavender and the cut flowers. Our irrigation is fully functional and has been a huge game changer for us. All of the plants are so much happier getting regular water. The lavender really took off and practically doubled in size and our crop was several times larger than it has been. We filled all of the drying walls in the barn, it was really quite something!
Off and on over the summer anyone who stayed long enough "got to" pull weeds or harvest lavender. There are worse things I guess? The markets for our lavender products and fresh flowers was really rewarding. It never ceases to amaze me the flowers that we are able to grow up here during our rather short season. At the end of the season I was happy to be done after 8 months of seeding, planting, watering, tending, harvesting...you get the picture.
We took on a few new projects this fall - added a 6' wide flower bed above our retaining wall in our fenced back yard. I was so tired of going out to harvest a plant/flower only to find it had been chewed down by the local deer! So this season we will have a lovely, safe bed for all of those deer favorites and a bonus of seeing all of the flowers out our windows!
The other project was adding a small greenhouse behind the barn. I had attempting growing things back there in raised beds but it was always overlooked and became quite the eyesore. This is large enough to fill with lavender starts and seedlings in the spring and am dreaming of one day having some citrus trees in there all year round.
While it is technically a break for a few months during the winter, there is still much to do with getting seeds started (yes, it's time) and planning on where all will be planted. I have learned it isn't good to procrastinate too much during the winter or you pay the price later. The snow from our last storm is covering everything right now, so calming to sit and stare out the window and dream of spring.
Leave a comment