Flowers, Part 1

An odyssey into the unknown. That’s how it always starts. All the milestones one reaches in life, does anyone know where the path will lead? So, Bezold Farms had a major milestone during 2022. The middle child, a daughter, got married and Bezold Farms became a vendor, in name only. A Herculean labor of love to supply all the meat and vegetables for the wedding reception and flowers for the table decorations. A major event makes or breaks on logistics.

At Bezold Farms we’ve been growing our market garden for years, and previously we’ve grown flowers. The two endeavors are separated by many years but some things are really like riding a bicycle. Only never before was it imperative that everything be ready in copious amounts for a specific day. If there wasn’t enough of beans, beef, chicken, lettuce, carrots, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, bunching onions, herbs or flowers….honestly, it was terrifying. Growing things is not like an online shopping web site where the bounty never ends and the shipping is next day. We were on our own.

We did talk with farmer friends and had a backup on some items, specifically cucumbers, since we live in Ohio and have cucumber beetles. But there was no affordable replacement for the flowers. They had to be ready on that day at the appointed time. All pieces had to fall into place, not perfectly but certainly successfully. Seed stratification started in early February and seed starting began in March for a mid-summer wedding. With succession seedings of vegetables, the number of seeds placed in soilless mix in cells and gently tended and celebrated whenever a tiny green shoot appeared, the numbers were remarkable: a total of 32,477 seeds of which 1,930 were flower seeds.

Seeding was only the start. Space, both indoors and outdoors, quickly became another logistical concern but remained manageable once we relinquished most of the basement and garage to racks with seedlings and transplant-ready plants. In the same way children grow and become independent, so too did our little plants. Everything that grows under lights must be hardened off and then planted in the garden. That time came and then we were on our next odyssey into the unknown, the transplanting.

Seedlings under lights