It's finally starting to look like a flower farm around here at our new East Jordan Michigan location. This past January, my husband Max and I moved into our new home 3 hours north of Caro. Since then, I have been plotting and planning how to turn part of our 1.8 acre property, full of trees, sandy soil and buildings, into a small scale flower farm while helping my mom, Cathy, run the farm in Caro. It's been interesting to sum up the last 4 months!
After getting to know our new property, we decided the front yard was the best place for the flowers. The front yard is visible from the road which will hopefully be good advertising. It also receives the most sun and is the largest area without trees or other obsticales. The downfall of the front yard? It's sandy, very sandy. Even after adding over a ton of topsoil to the flower rows, its still very sandy! However, I remind myself constantly, it's not clay, it could be worse, it could be clay or gravel or just bare rock!
As always, we are doing our best with what we have and are staying optimistic about the first season up north. Life is all about having the right mindset, especially if your life includes any kind of farming. The plot to the above will have irrigation and landscape fabric covering it soon. And by months end, full of all the plants currently taking over our house and the chicks we're raising for pest control this year.
Our Caro location is booming with blooms! Last year when we found out we would be moving north for Max's job, my mom and I had a few conversations about what that would mean for the flowers. I had spent the last three years building a business that was finally established and getting close to being profitable. Visions of having to completely uproot the farm to a new location, where I knew no one and nothing about the land, made me sick and overwhelmed at the thought of starting over. My mom however suggested having two locations and offered to help full time. I agreed to her proposition before she could change her mind, and we have been growing into two locations since.
My mom has been doing an amazing job taking care of all the spring chores, bouquet arranging, and delivering our monthly flower bouquets to our 2021 subscribers. Working with my mom is a delight. We have a simliar thought process, making it easier to push through the challenges farming can present. Cathy's getting really good at taking flower photos on and off the farm to promote our Mother's Day special and fill our subscription orders.
Our last update, which has had a huge impact on what's getting done on the northern farm, is that Max and I are expecting our first child! We are due late August and very excited to be parents. Baby Evans has definitely impacted how much phyical work I can get done in a day on the farm but I don't mind and Max has been helping me with many farm chores I can't currently complete. I often find myself daydreaming of our little babe one day walking through the flowers with us as we teach them all about the beauty of growing things.
Stay tuned for more farm updates as we move through this 2021 growing season!