05/06/2026
So far, 2026 has already been a pretty hard year for me.
Most of you know (but maybe some of you don't)that I had to make the hard decision to really cut back the farm this year. Basically closing for the season. 😢
It's not for any bad reason. As a matter of fact, it's for a good reason! Our other family business is unexpectedly busy this year and I need to focus all of my energy on it right now. A thriving business is a good thing, so "boo-hoo", right?!
I am not complaining. But change is uncomfortable. I have spent the past five years learning to balance our family business with our flower farm and having such a large influx of my energy needed differently and so suddenly has upset my perfectly balanced apple cart! All the spinning plates started crashing. All the juggling balls were falling. It quickly became clear that I had no margin for error or unpredictability in my life. That's not a good thing! Something had to give, and unfortunately, it was the farm, for now.
Add to that, 80% of my peony field was lost to a fire about three weeks ago! Ugh! That means that even the flowers I knew I could count on (perennials for the win 🙌🏼 ) were mostly wiped out. Good golly!
I do think they'll be back just fine next year. I can already see the plants growing new greenery, but I won't see any blooms from those plants this season.
So like I said, 2026 has been pretty hard for the flower farm so far!
That said, it's given me the opportunity to reset the homestead. To reconsider what I was doing and how. To ponder opportunities for ways I can make changes and improvements for 2027. Because I don't think the fat lady has sang her final aria on Sunrise Hill.
So, I'll be planting some small amount of flowers for my own enjoyment, making any extra available to y'all as they come up, as well as running some experiments and growing different things in different places in different ways.
Sometimes taking a step back is the best thing that you can do in a situation and I'm hoping that my decision to push pause for 2026 will bring renewed energy and exciting changes to the 2027 farming year.
Until then, I'm still here! 🩷