Weekly News, 02.08.22
Have you been outside taking walks lately, exploring the beauty of wintertime? I know, I know, it’s winter! It’s cold! Well I hope that doesn’t stop you. I recently bundled up to walk around our landscape to admire the winter interest of our perennials, trees and shrubs. Snow pants, snow boots, a warm hat and gloves, and I was good to go!
I think it was about 4 degrees the morning I took these photos, so my hands did freeze a bit, but it was worth it. Many people complain about the winter and snow, but I honestly love it. I’d rather have the beautiful white of the snow this time of year than look at brown and mud. Regardless of the season or current weather, do you “find beauty everywhere”, as van Gogh did? I encourage you to get out and truly take it all in. There is so much to enjoy!
Here are a few highlights from my walk that frosty morning:
- winterberry hollies
- blue globe spruce (do you see our dog Daisy’s tail?)
- a winter container garden
- ornamental grasses and perennial seed heads that I left up for winter interest
- snow on an old hydrangea bloom
Not pictured but an amazing part of my outdoor experience were the tiny ice particles floating in the air that resembled pixie dust, and the sparkling diamond snow that dazzled me with each footstep.
I know that wintertime challenges are never fun, including the ice storm we just had. We lost power here at the farm, and came dangerously close to losing all of our plants on Sunday morning. The greenhouse alarms yelled at Russ, one after another, as he raced against time and bitter temperatures to get our generator running again. I watched him take off to the greenhouses on the UTV from the house window, nervous and wishing that I could help him. The sun was just starting to rise, and I wish I had taken a photo, because despite the urgency of the moment, it was at the same time so amazingly beautiful outside. Despite the chaos, I was still able to see the beauty of the ice on the trees. Losing power is inconvenient, and in this case can potentially cost a lot from loss and damages. Russ returned home calm and cool, and the greenhouses were going to be fine. And we enjoyed the rest of our day in total awe of the frozen beauty of the landscape all around us. It truly felt like we were in Arendelle with Elsa and Anna.
Here are a few quick notes of interest this week:
- Our Job Fair is just a week and a half away! We add quite a few people to our Team each spring for the peak gardening rush. Learn more here.
- Did you know that we have a cut flower field for pick-your-own bouquets in the summer? We hope you’ll join us this July and August to enjoy the garden. New this year— if you plant your own cut flower garden at home and want to grow some of the same varieties that we do in our field, our Team member Lauren is sowing some of her favorite seeds to share with you. These are flower varieties that are not offered in our standard bedding flat offerings. More to come on this so stay tuned.
- We have some exciting new events planned this season, including Toddler Tuesdays and a yoga mini-retreat. Stay tuned for our spring lineup of educational gardening classes and workshops.
- We’ll be at the Pittsburgh Home & Garden Show next month. You can find us on both weekends in the Farm to Table area where we will be talking about all we have to offer this year, as well as have our wines for sale by the bottle.
- The Great Grow Along virtual festival is coming up next month too. I haven’t personally attended this last year, but it looks like a great lineup of gardening classes.
- If you are a teacher, or know someone who teaches middle school, or have a middle school aged child, check out the Bloom Plant Mash Up contest! Both the student and the teacher can earn cash prizes for creating their own fictional plant hybrid to solve a community challenge.
- Join every Tuesday at noon on Facebook Live this month for “Talk to Us Tuesdays”. We’ll be showing you what we’re working on in the greenhouses this winter.
I think that is all for now. Thanks so much for reading. We’ll do our best this year to keep you informed of what is happening around the farm and in the gardening world. Don’t hesitate to reach out if there is anything we can help you with, even before our opening on March 18.
Enjoy the beauty,
