My journey in learning to grow flowers should be documented, I thought. So here I am sharing a few of my experiences.
Our Little Kentucky House
In 2022, we bought a little house in Kentucky in the little town of Fordsville. Our first move without children in over 40 years. I expected our lives would become slower-paced. With so much time on our hands, I imagined finally working on my photos, finishing my book, and growing flowers.
Life has not become any slower-paced. Though I have made a start, I have turned the photos over to the kids to scan and make digital files, I have not finished my book. However, I have been on a journey learning to grow flowers. I have always wanted to grow flowers and other things. Growing herbs is about as far as I have gone in the past.
Flower Growing School
My knowledge about soil preparation, compost, or mulch is very little. Seed starting, watering, and plant schedules are a mystery. I am l truly a student. This year I am going to a flower-growing school in my yard.
Gifts of Flowers
Since moving to Fordsville, several friends have shared plants and flowers with me. Every year, my friend Pam gives me a plant from her garden. Day lilies, irises, and strawberries have survived so far. My friend Francis has blessed me with snippets of sweet peas, phlox, chives, onions, etc. She even took me on a four-wheeler around her property, teaching me about wild edible plants with which I have a fascination. She is a wealth of knowledge.
On our recent visit to West Virginia, I dug up a hibiscus root to bring home from my in-laws’ house. Last year, I was permitted to dig up some daffodils from the lot next door to the church building. It is covered every spring. I planted them along my backyard fence. They all came back this year.
Planting Bulbs for the First Time
In the fall, I built three planter boxes with a little help from my sons, who helped me build the largest one and fill it with soil. I had ordered bulbs, but didn’t get them planted before our trip. When we came back in November from our two months in Malawi, I had not planted any bulbs. I thought I had missed my opportunity to plant them.
My friend Lisa at Red Barn Blooms in Beaver Dam, Kentucky, who has taught me so much about growing flowers, encouraged me to go ahead and plant them. I am so glad I did.
(We also buy our beef from her farm. It’s the best!) https://www.facebook.com/redbarnblooms.lp
Most of my bulbs came up! Spring is so exciting!
My first experience with starting seeds indoors didn’t go too well. I am not sure if the potting soil was bad, I overwatered, or what the problem was. One tray of flowers did germinate, and I have started planting them. I did build a grow station, and I hope I will do better next time.
Spring is here, and I have been digging up my yard and planting flowers, herbs, and even a tomato plant. Several of my grandchildren have come to visit, and we planted flowers!
What amazing gifts I see daily in the spring! As Phillip Keller said, “Whenever I am afield or outdoors, there steals over me the acute consciousness that I am confronted on every hand by the superb workmanship of my Father. It is as if every tree, rock, river, flower, mountain, bird, or blade of grass had stamped upon it the indelible label, Made by God.” I agree!
