Tour of our Flower and Vegetable Farm in Summer| Phaedra Gardeness

[@karengemmill6205]

Garden is progressing well. Happy New Year. ❤❤❤

[@Serendipity_Strawberry_Farm]

Phaedra this has been by far the hardest year for us. Last year I was covering garden beds with rain jackets and could water with the hose to keep everything going, but this year the hot NW winds have just made our beds dry out like crazy. The water tanks are all now at 1/2 full and as we still have weeks of heat coming there has to come a time when water preservation for bushfire has to take president over watering the beds. We’ve had to put a piece of shade cloth across the centre of our high tunnel to save out strawberry plants that grow in there, and the temp even with the walls and ends open has been reaching over 50c. Today Ive finally had to admit defeat just slightly and all of the high tunnel strawberries are being placed into large plastic vats so that when we water there will still be water under them to drink, the field strawberries due to lack of water seem to have hit the skids a little too. I stand back and watch everything being hit by the wind and it truly makes me sad. I have one last tray of floret zinnias to put out which thankfully once established don’t need as much water. No markets have responded for me to take our flowers and no one is buying them from the new flower stand I have made, even the one store that we had our flowers in doesnt use air conditioning on these hot days so i found our flowers all dead in their vases and still on display, one would think that she would take them off show but alas no. I ran my lolly shop for 15 years and can honestly say i never felt this exhausted or deflated. There just doesnt seem to be any rain coming anytime soon. With lupus I know I am pushing all of my physical boundaries, maybe its time to just open the field to you pick and let people come in and cut their own flowers. I suspect soon its going to get to a stage where i am going to have to get real with myself and decide whether this has been a dream to follow but has begun 20 years too late.

[@phaedragardeness]

It's heartbreaking to hear how tough this season has been for you. And the journey for you has been rough. Right now it really is a difficult time to sell flowers so that’s not just you which might help to know! If you are ok with U pick and you’ve got the insurance etc that could be worth trying?. People are still looking for nice things to do. We had 2 in our area which closed down but one was due to not being able to obtain permits to continue in not sure why the other closed. I know everyone says flower farming is tough but right now in Australia it’s very very tough. We have a lot going on with the economy, unpredictable weather and the change with that (it used to be predictable), and a lot of us are suffering from health issues. Look after your health! Put that one first. Especially with Lupus.

[@Serendipity_Strawberry_Farm]

@@phaedragardeness at the drop of a hat yesterday morning I bit the bullet and opened our first flower bouquet bar. Plans to hold it in the field under our marquee all flew away with the wind when it looked like people would be holding the marquee down due to the strong winds that picked up at about 1pm. I quickly transformed our tiny house kitchen into a makeshift viewing and picking room so that people could come inside out of the wind in the air conditioning and choose their flowers. It was a successful event but i learned many things yesterday….one being to bring up the wind app and check that before deciding to do it. We have 30,000 litres of water coming on Thursday and I am crossing my fingers that we get the 20ml of rain on Thursday as well. Today is our 5th anniversary of the black summer bushfires but thankfully today there is cloud cover and we have dropped in temp by about 12-15 degrees. I have trays of zinnia to get into the field today but have chosen to take it at a much slower pace today. Without sunshine today the farm stand is closed as there isn’t enough solar being produced to cool the esky for the strawberries. It might even be a nice afternoon to go and check how the yabbies are going in our dam. Have a wonderful day Cheers Theresa

[@alittleheavenonearth]

Sunflowers 🌻 🌻 🌻 🌻 MY FAVORITE Cut up the green unions and just freeze!

[@phaedragardeness]

Oh that’s a great idea Thankyou!!!

[@alittleheavenonearth]

@phaedragardeness your welcome

[@njoymygarden]

Great watching this video. Thankyou for sharing Phaedra ❤

[@phaedragardeness]

Thankyou!

[@sueandersen1123]

I love watching your honest video's Phaedra. I don't have a garden now so watching your videos helps me cope with my dreary life in Adelaide. I'm 72 and the chances of having a garden are zero. I look forward to your updates.

[@phaedragardeness]

Oh Sue!! Years ago I went through a rough time and all I could manage was some pots of flowers at my door and verandah and some indoor plants. You can still have a little garden!!! I didn’t even have it in me to grow anything from seed I just got trays of seedlings from Bunnings and replaced when the flowers died. It’s still lovely and therapeutic to water them and enjoy them! Could you do that?

[@njoymygarden]

❤

[@semiretiredflowerfarming]

You are doing an amazing job. Despite the burnout and the wallabies some plants are still growing. Keep on focusing on the wins when the going gets tough. Thank you for sharing with us 💚

[@phaedragardeness]

Thankyou!! That is sweet of you to say 🤍

[@margarethatton2965]

Thank you for always being so inspiring and honest, it's so refreshing and helpful. I'm struggling with the weeds this year, and sales are way down and theft from my stand is up. I'm debating stopping growing flowers and growing veggies instead next year. Onwards and upwards!

[@phaedragardeness]

It’s become tough hasn’t it :( if you love growing flowers you could keep growing them amongst your veggies. If you close your farm stand you could pop a sign on it with your number so locals could pre order and pick up?

[@slavicadimcevski9585]

Awe, sorry to hear about the theft.

[@melissah79]

Everything is looking amazing ❤

[@alittleheavenonearth]

Agree ❤

[@phaedragardeness]

Thankyou!

[@benjaminchapman9317]

I’m pretty sure that’s a spaghetti squash, it looks like it to me and also it rang a bell when you said it, I think you told us in another video. The Nispero tree is a called a Loquat in Australia. They grow really well in Kalgoorlie and Perth and we picked loquats in Albury so I think they grow well there too. It has fruits about the size of a lychee with soft fuzzy yellow skin, translucent flesh and big glossy dark brown pits in the centre. They’re very juicy and sweet. They don’t sell them in the shop because they bruise too easily. Great video. Love seeing how much the garden bed in front of the shed has grown and all your hydrangea cuttings. Looks great 😊 ((Heidi))

[@susanhamilton4389]

Thanks for sharing amd doing a garden tour. With such slow growth on the dahlias, could you have mites, which are rampant everywhere this year? I actually finally visited Beechworth when I was down to visit family. Thanks for the reminder/inspiration recently :)

[@susanhamilton4389]

Question for next video.... Are you considering experience, wellness/ therapy or photography sessions for the plot redesigns? All the plans of late seem to make me think it might be something you are considering, even if subconsciously.

[@phaedragardeness]

Eek I will check for mites. They look like healthy plants otherwise though but I will double check that. Thanks for your question too ill answer that!

[@susanhamilton4389]

@phaedragardeness Sorry to scare you. It's hard to see mites themselves. They will show in poorly formed flowers and deformed growth if severe, but often just not happy plants, leaves not formed quite right, a bit curled up.

[@MsWhoeverthisis]

I'm with you with the carnation chabaud mix. I've lost count of how many stems I've snapped because of the nodes 😢 and i thought they're supposed to be giant as well? I got teeny tiny flowers with mainly singles 😅 the only consolation is how amazing they smell. Do you get fragrant ones too from the wholesaler? Also, can I tempt you to sell the seeeds of that particular variety of feverfew on your website? 😁

[@phaedragardeness]

Hello!!! They never had a scent at the wholesaler but not many commercially grown cut flowers do have a scent! Not like in nature. That’s a great idea to sell the seed.. I’ll most likely need to do that next year though. I need to spend this year building up stock but we can see how it goes this season you never know!

[@MarieOhlsen]

Hi Phaedra, I got the unicorn zinnias from Floret and they germinated well but a seed so expensive I wasn’t taking any chances with and planted them in a huge pot. They are flowering well and I like the colours but I really prefer the Floret celosia it is absolutely gorgeous (Spun Sugar) I’ll be very interested in your view on the floret zinnias and is it worth the hype.

[@Mr.Binks.]

AIR BNB FARMSTAY HOBBIT HOUSES FTW 🤣🤣🤣🤣

[@phaedragardeness]

Oh my gosh YESSSSssssss

[@Mr.Binks.]

@@phaedragardeness always with the business ideas, me 🤣

[@alittleheavenonearth]

NEW SUBSCRIBER ❤❤❤ LOVE TO HAVE YOU ALSO JOIN US AS WELL CENTRAL PORTUGAL 🇵🇹

[@phaedragardeness]

Hello!! I’ll check out your channel!!