Fieldfarms Market Grower and Nursery

October/November/December

Week Of October 6, 2009

Oh what a difference a week makes. We had our first hard frost on September 30th. I had just had major dental surgery and was still out of it and unable to get out and cover things like I would have normally done. My husband did cover my thai peppers for my Christmas wreaths and swags. This is my compost pile this week; after dumping my leftover mums it looks pretty!

Week Of October 12, 2009

This weekend we bought a new used van to replace our old one. The one on the left cost us $1.00 in 1996 and is a 1990 Ford E150 and was affectionately called the "White Knight". You can see the floor boards are rusting out and he is tired. The one on the right is a 2000 Ford E150 with a V8 and has been christened the "Silver Streak". I need this van to bring extra stuff to the market and just general schlocking. My husband is going to transform the "White Knight" into an open-sided safari vehicle and paint it camouflage.

Week of October 19, 2009

Almost ready for winter. I finally finished planting all leftover perennials in the valley. Some of these I will dig up in the spring and resell them. Otherwise I will use them for cut flowers.

Week of October 26, 2008

My annual rye is coming in nicely. This year I was able to get annual rye planted on all bare ground. This adds lots of organic material in the spring, keeps the top soil from blowing away, keeps weeds at bay, all a good thing.

Week of November 2, 2009

Finished making my pepper wreaths and swags. I made 4 wreaths and 7 swags this year. I will have these available the first Saturday after Thanksgiving at the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market.

November 9, 2009

Finally finished digging up all the glads I grew for Old House Gardens. What a lot of work, plus the weather was not cooperating. This weekend was beautiful and I was able to get these all dug up.

November 16, 2009

Today I spent the day making catnip mice and packages of catnip for the Christmas market. This is my cat Jeremy getting an early taste. He makes it almost impossible to work trying to roll on the bag of catnip.

Week of November 23, 2009

This weekend the weather was exceptional for this time of the year. The two Tom's decided to re-skin the long greenhouse. This needs to be done about ever 4-5 years because the plastic starts to get cloudy with age. Here they have just removed the old plastic. The next day my husband had me help him pull on the new plastic...it was hard to do. Sometimes my husband thinks I am another guy and can do guy things. My arms were so sore from pulling a 100 foot doubled plastic over this frame.

Week of November 30, 2009

This weekend marked my return to the Ann Arbor Farmer's Market. I was delighted to see how many vendors we had this weekend. This was the best turnout I have seen in about 5 years. The weather was in the high 40's and sunny; unheard of for this time of the year and it brought out lots of customers.

Week of December 7, 2009

Spent a lot of time cutting up flowers for my potpourri. This is great way to use up the leftover flowers from the season. I have to make this every week during the Christmas season due to its popularity.

Week of December 14, 2009

Sales have been real good at this year's Christmas market. We have had a lot more vendors than in the past years. This is my display at Christmas. The weather has been cooperating too.

Week of December 21, 2009

Busy making bath bombs. These have been selling well for me at the market. One customer bought 30 of them, which really put a dent in my stock. Fortunately they are quick to make.

Week of December 28, 2009

I can't believe it time to order my seeds! This is such an ordeal and usually takes me all week to figure out what to grow, how much, fill out orders, write checks, enter into computer, etc, etc. This is a typical amount of catalogs I get.