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Exploring a New Season and a Fork in the Road

Writer's picture: Stephanie MouselStephanie Mousel



January and February are two of my most favorite month in the garden. It may be the middle of a long cold winter, but as I plan for the year ahead, there are parts of my brain that if I were doing a brain scan would be lit up like it was the Fourth of July!

 

I'm actually a little bit late in planning and ordering seeds this year. I struggle with chronic illness and so sometimes my body is on it's own schedule. The flowers that I want to grow really need to be started about now so they are ready for transplant in March … and this year it's probably going to be April. But one of the great things about gardening is that it keeps me motivated to maintain strength and fitness through my illness.

 

The dreaming stage is always about the wins from last year and the journey going forward, in the garden ... and really in life. This year, I feel like I am at a fork in the road. I began gardening in 2019 with an 8 foot by 20 foot plot. I'd done a little bit of container gardening and landscaping before but that was my first foray into actual gardening and it has only grown from there … pun intended! I now have at least tripled that area twice over.

 

The reason I say I'm at a fork in the road is because gardening for pleasure and gardening for profit are two very different things. And when I began writing this article, I wasn't sure I was ready for the latter.


There's something magical and motivating about growing phlox and petunias just for the sake of watching them grow into their beauty. The plans I make and the flowers I grow is pleasing to my eye and for me alone. Flower farming is different in that you're trying to plan and predict what other people will find alluring and the big sellers of the season. I also found it fraught with frustrations, because I thought that I knew enough. Okay ... I'll be honest. I thought I knew everything that there was to know about growing flowers. And I have never been so wrong. Who knew that there were cool season flowers that needed a two month early jumpstart? Now I know!

 

And that is the second reason I am on the precipice of where my garden journey is going to take me. Starting the garden season in March. Yeah, in Nebraska, two months earlier than you normally would. It’s a little bit daunting. I enjoy the break over the winter and planting flowers while it's 35° isn’t exactly on my jam. But the beauty that comes from the flowers … well, that is my jam.

 

As I’ve been contemplating this during the winter, and as though there is a force larger than myself knowing I needed this information, I’ve learned from the Hidden Brain podcast there is psychology validating that turning a hobby into a profitable venture can absolutely affect the enjoyment. And as I set finishing this article aside to tend to other aspects of life, I also learned from my podcast line-up that finding purpose in what you’re doing can make all the difference. And I now believe that’s where I need to focus my attention.


Plans for this year include beginning seedlings in early February to hopefully have 10 bouquets available for sale every week from late-April to mid-October and rehabilitating some of the original garden.


In the original garden area, I will be working on more repetition and more flowers that bloom in every month. I find that I need to include some annuals out in the perennial garden to provide enough cover color throughout the season. And if that's what I need to do to get some color, I suppose that's fine. But I enjoy the challenge of finding the right plant for the right month. So, with that, let the gardening season begin …


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