This past week, Vanessa, Jocelyn, Grace and Audra all entered flower arrangements at the Effingham County Fair- and Hannah entered a quilt she made with her grandmother.   After all the hard work, we were all excited to see the many blue ribbons-

Kudos to all the winners this past week!

You are invited to visit the Farm this Friday evening from 4-7 pm and Saturday morning 8-Noon to see the “glorious” flowers!  All the gardens are blooming, and the effect is simply beautiful.   As one visitor said, “It really inspires me to keep working in my own yard!”

So come be inspired and enjoy a walk among the daylilies, perennial and vegetable gardens – greet the goats, barn cats and guineas.  A visit to the Farm is a great way to end the work week or begin the weekend.

And if you choose to wait until Saturday to visit, plan to stop at our northern neighbors, “A Stone’s Throw.”  Offering stained glass stepping stones, garden stakes, window handing and Christmas items as well as taking customized orders, Sue Pikesh and Joy Shumard are hosting their eleventh annual Open House.

Directions are simple:  On Route 32 watch for 1200 North.  You will turn west and drive to the second house on the right side of the road.   Or stop at the Farm, and we will be glad to send you through the “country route.”

It doesn’t seem possible, but summer is only days away.  The Farm is already bursting with incredible produce and breathtaking flowers.

This Cancun lily is a favorite of mine.  Gorgeous yellow color which is complimented so beautifully by the Big Daddy hosta.  The hosta was planted just four years ago so you can see just how truly “big” it will grow in a short time.

Below is the Butterfly Weed a plant that loves sun, warm weather (it will also tolerate wet soil)- and Monarch butterflies!  It is also wonderful in bouquets.

Remember when you visit the Farm we are ready to dig the flowers you are interested in and send them home with you that same day!

So don’t think you have to wait until Fall to get a piece of your favorite plant – we want you to begin enjoying your garden as we do ours

Thanks to all of you who visited the Farm this past Saturday.

We were so excited to see you either in Strasburg at the Flea Market or at the Farm’s location just 1/4 mile north of Strasburg.

New to the Farm this week is this beautiful Cecropia Moth.  What a treat it has been to watch this creature every evening and morning-

Also new to the farm is our Fishing Gnome.  With all the gnomes in Strasburg we knew we had to have one for our Rural Route address.

He doesn’t have a name yet, but all the men involved in the Farm appreciate the fish on his line and his laid back attitude.

Have a great week. Take some time to enjoy the summer of 2010- and come stroll through our Farm soon!

This weekend at the farm, we are all celebrating the sunshine and warmth!  It won’t take long with the 80 degree + temperatures for all the plants to recover from last weeks cool rains.

Early Spring to Summer has to be one of my favorite seasons because you can walk through the garden each day and notice great changes!  The pictures above certainly highlight some of Spring’s best.  The top pictures is a variety of false blue indigo.  Typically, a true light blue this variety is actually almost burgundy.  Because this flower holds so well, Vanessa loves to use this flower in bouquets.

The second picture is our guineas or sentinels.  When you visit the farm, listen for their constant calls or watch for them ducking in and out of the prairie grass or walking with goats.  We have been so pleased that they have made it through the winter.  We hope some are beginning to sit on nests, but they are notoriously attention deficit about nests so having young ones this year might not work out.

I love iris.  They are such a stately spring flower and bi color ones are especially gorgeous.  Then can you guess the next flower?  It is a foxtail lily.  Very unusual and eye-catching.

Saturday, June 5 from 8-Noon, we will be hosting a “sneak preview” of the gardens at the Farm in conjunction with Strasburg’s all-town garage sales (although only the earliest of daylilies will be blooming) produce and plants will be available for purchase at the Farm.

For those interested in flea markets, look for us at Patsy Lenz’s Flea Market (east side of Route 32 at the north end of Strasburg – you won’t miss it ).  We plan on being there from 7:30 a.m. to Noon too.

Spring Planting began in April

Spring at the Farm is such fun!  We planted over 150 pounds of potatoes, 100 tomatoes, etc.  The whole family turns out to work on days like this… With the early warmth, most plants are growing quickly – and those almost frosty nights have had us all holding our breath.

Vanessa’s email produce route begun last week.  It was so good to see many of you and catch up on what has happened over this past winter.  If you haven’t had a chance to email Vanessa and add your name to her weekly email, please do.  We will be glad to let you know what is available-    Have a great week and keep watching for the sunshine.

There were five baby goats born in March. They are Dreamer, Kicker, Oreo, Hershey, Jumpy. The goats are fun filled and active and like to run around in the pen with their moms.

With all the gloriously warm, almost summer like weather, we are all eager to continue filling those flower beds and gardens.  Please stop by our location 1/2 mile north of the route 32/33 intersection and see all the new flowers and plants that we have to offer this year…

And enjoy the following video too -

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

We are so excited that the weather is finally promising to clear and that we may have a few dry, warm days in a row.  Gardening in Central Illinois may actually begin!    Looking ahead then into April – we hope to see all of you at one of our Spring Plant Sales (kickoff Friday, April 16).

The following is just a partial list of the plants we will have for sale this Spring:  French Tarragon, Greek Oregano, Italian Parsley, Large leaf Italian Basil, Sage, Brussel Sprouts, Stonehead and Red Acre cabbage, Fennel, Broccoli, Cauliflower, Cucumbers and Eggplant.

Then there are all the wonderful tomatoes:  Jubilee Tomato – golden-orange small, Early Wonder Tomato – 55 day 6oz, Gulf State Market – nice red tomato (sold out of these last year), Lemon Boy Tomato – yellow 7 oz, Pink Girl Tomato – 8 oz. (new to us this year; highly recommended by expert gardeners) Celebrity Tomato (you cannot go wrong with a Celebrity),Better Boy Tomato and back by popular demand, the purple Cherokee tomato.

And Big Bertha sweet green bell peppers.  It makes me wonder who names these varieties…

Have a great week.  We look forward to seeing you soon!

Thanks for the question.  Yes, we will have some seeds for sale on April 16 &17, but we won’t have the German radish seed.  We order the seeds that we intend to grow and then because we can buy in bulk quantities, sell smaller portions to interested gardeners.  This process works well for us since we know and like these products.

Seeds: Blue Lake Green beans (great variety, sold out of these last year), Jade Green Beans (another outstanding green bean), endive, Ruby Queen beet seed, Candy King (all yellow sweet corn variety), mixed gourd and Connecticut Field  pumpkins (large, jack o lantern pumpkins), Black Seeded Simpson and romaine lettuce as well as Sparkler (25 day) radishes, Sugar Bon and Super Sugar Snap snowpeas, Melody and Unipack 12 spinach.

For unusual varieties of seed, we have had a great experience with:

http://www.kitchengardenseeds.com/

http://www.totallytomato.com/

http://www.jungseed.com/

Have a great week and keep those seedlings warm!

This year our annual flowers highlight the spectrum of warm tropical colors.  So prepare to shake off winter with these wonderful beach like additions.

French Vanilla Marigolds, Orange and Yellow Marigolds, Zinnias, Nasturtiums, Wave Petunias- pink, purple, red and starfish (a variety of colors), and Up-right Elephant ears

Wave petunias will be available in hanging baskets as well as the traditional 4″ pots.

 We are very excited about this year’s perennials.  A few like red  yarrow and the hellebores (or Lenten rose) are new to us while others like red hot poker and large hostas are staples for any flower garden. 

Red Yarrow, Hellebores- mixed colors, Astillbe, Delphinium, Dianthus, Fox glove, Coral bells, Large Hostas, Pink Hydrangea, Red hot Poker, 2 kinds of Lavender, 7 Kinds of Asiatic and Oriental Lilies, Phlox, Rubeckia, Bi-color butterfly bush and Blue Butterfly Bush

Just an aside, this is the first time I’ve ever seen a blue butterfly bush- and the pink hydrangea bushes we have are gorgeous!