A Giving Garden Fall

 Celebrate the season’s bounty…

Have you ever played that get-to-know you game where you are given a choice between two things and you have to pick the one you like better? (Ex: chocolate or vanilla…obviously it’s chocolate, but I digress.) Well, whenever people ask me which season I like better, Spring or Fall, I am stuck and find myself fumbling through an explanation as to why I can’t really choose one over the other.

I simply ADORE Fall! In the gardens, while some blooms are fading, others are cranking out some of their best blooms and seem to playfully call out, “Pick me! Pick me!” Our bouquets, filled with vibrant colored dahlias, hydrangeas in ever changing hues, and pods, grasses and broom corn, usher in the beloved fall-ish feel that welcomes all things flannel. And though we work hard to harvest as many blooms as possible for fresh bouquets, much effort goes into keeping up with the tasks that make for a great coming Winter and Spring.

This is the season of drying blooms that will be used on our ‘Dressed Up’ pumpkins, boxwood trees and Christmas wreaths. We’re also planting all the incredible tulips, narcissus and hyacinths that feed our souls in early Spring, and carefully digging, dividing and storing all the tubers that produce those coveted dahlia blooms. We find that, after the killing frosts, our shortening days are spent putting the gardens to bed while simultaneously prepping them for future planting. Probably one of the busiest times for a flower farmer, Fall can bring a sense of relief when all the tasks are done while inducing dreams of the bounty of next year’s gardens.