Planning for 2023

Autumn greetings!

We would like to thank everyone for a busy fall season of mum and pumpkin sales. September and October 2022 were certainly two months for the record books and we could not have done this without everyone’s support and business.

Before the hustle and bustle of poinsettia season, we are taking a bit of a break to catch up on outdoor tasks on the farm before winter sets in and to plan ahead for 2023. Regarding the upcoming growing season, after reflecting on 2022, we have decided to make the following changes to our offerings.

• All special or custom plug and transplant orders MUST be full trays ONLY. Seeding half or partial trays does not work with our seed sowing and germination set up.
• All vegetable and herb “starters” i.e. plants that are “re-sale” ready will be in 4.5″ pots/18 pots per tray. Price on these will remain the same as 2022.
• Our “summer program” will consist of pots of zinnias, dwarf sunflowers, and basil until the 4th of July – or weekend after, depending on sales. We are trying to reduce the amount of water required to maintain plant material, especially if summer 2023 is as hot and dry as summer 2022.
• We will no longer be doing fall herb and vegetable “starters”. We will only be doing plugs and transplants of lettuce and brassica for succession plantings August through early October.
• Although fall pansy sales were good in 2022 and we appreciate everyone’s business, we have decided to no longer raise a fall pansy crop in market packs (804s). We will continue to offer fall pansy plugs for the few customers who order them – you know who you are 🙂 – and the 6″ pots for our landscape customers for November. We have had numerous situations 2020-2022 with insects, diseases, and environmental stressors, such as heat, on our September pansy crop in the flats. We would rather put our time and efforts into plugs (both vegetable and pansy) during the late summer as that works best with our production space.
• Finally, we will be transitioning to check and cash only during 2023. This is because 90 percent of our customers pay that way and we would rather take the money from the credit card fees and put it towards other business operations and investments.

2022 was a season of unprecedented growth and saw us navigating several projects to fruition. This is an accomplishment indeed but as we head into 2023 we would like to focus more on plug production in our local geographic area and refine the business to make it simplier on the growers.

Thank you again for a great 2022. For our plug customers, our lister should be coming out soon – check your inboxes! Finished product listers (herbs, vegetables, and annuals) will follow mid-November. Here’s to 2023 and a greenhouse filled with plant babies galore!