Kicking Off the Autumn Season

Hello!

One of our Farming friends is Mums the Word. A local Mum farm.

Taking a trip to check out the Fall harvest is something we look forward to every year.

Seeing the fields with beautiful mums it such a treat! Every color you can imagine a mum coming in, they are grown here!

We like to have some of these beauties for our customers and this is the only farm we would ever think to buy from! Carol has us go out in the field and pick the ones we want to be potted up.

Just like our herbs and produce, nothing but the freshest, best quality and locally grown will do!

We don’t just buy for our customers, all of the mums that are around our home come from Carol at Mums the Word. I have had the best results with Carol’s mums. Every year they come back beautifully!

This is such a fun place to visit. We definitely recommend taking a trip out to New Boston, MI and enjoy all the Autumn splendor!

How to Make a Fairy Garden

Hi everyone!

Earlier this month at our Garden Club Meeting, we had a woman in to teach us how to make a tabletop fairy garden. This was so much fun!

She brought all kinds of fairy accessories that she either collected of made for us to use. I am going to just start at the beginning and work my way through the tutorial!

The first step was to pick out a basket to make our garden in. She had two tables filled with different baskets to choose from.

We chose our accessories.

You can use and upcycle a lot of things you may already have around your home.

You can make shepherds hooks out of old wire hangers. Using a golf tee and a round marble you can make a gazing ball. Popsicle sticks can turn into garden gates. Small Christmas ornaments can also be added as gazing balls. Painted metal mesh or plastic mesh can be cut to use as a trellis. So many ideas!!

Next we chose our plants. Herbs like lemon thyme work great in fairy gardens. You want small plants that grow close to the ground with a couple of spiky plants for height.

Each table also had bags of pebbles/gravel, scissors, a small knife, soil and floral foil.

Okay, we have all our stuff, let’s make a fairy garden!

Line the inside of the basket with the floral foil. Roll down the edges to match the height of your basket. Use the small knife and poke some holes in the bottom of the foil for drainage.

Now fill with soil.

Now plant your plants. this is where your creative side kicks in. There is no right or wrong way to build your fairy garden. You just want to keep in mind your accessories and creating little pathways with the pebbles.

Once you have your plants in, make little pathways with your pebbles and start adding your accessories!

Everyone working on their fairy gardens.

I love that everyone’s fairy garden was different. Each added their own touches.

This was our fairy garden.

I honestly am hooked on making these! I just love them. We ended up making this for my mom for Mother’s Day and she loved it!

Once you have your garden made, gently water it. These are meant to be outside however, if you have the right space they can be inside as well.

So, are you ready to make your own fairy garden? I hope this inspired you to get creative and have some fun!

Thank you for stopping by!

Also being posted at The Thrifty Groove

Mums The Word

Hi everyone!

A few weeks ago we had the pleasure of visiting Mums the Word. This is a local chrysanthemum farm.

When we visited, most of the mums had already been harvested for sale.

Not only did we have a wonderful mini class hosted by Carol the owner of the farm, we got to shop!

Carol has a wonderful  gift shop on the farm! Oh, there was so many adorable treasures!

Wonderful Fall decorations made and ready to buy!

Lots of pumpkins and gourds.

And of course, gorgeous mums! I walked out with 5 new mums to add to my yard! Her prices are amazing and the quality is perfect!

And Carol is a wealth of information regarding mums! I learned so much from her!

This little guy attached himself to Troy and vice versa. I thought for sure he was coming home with us!

On the way home from the farm, we spotted a wheelbarrow at the curb. Well, we can’t pass up a wheelbarrow! So, it came home with us!

If you live in the area, you really need to stop by Mums the Word and check it out! You will want to return time and time again. I can’t wait to go back and check out all the Christmas treasures the shop will have to offer this year!

Here is some info:

Mums the Word

Carol & Walt
23665 Otter Rd
New Boston, Mi
48164

(734) 516-1352
(734) 753-4121
Email: carolmumstheword@charter.net

Hours: 9 A.M. till 6 P.M. seven days a week. Except during the Christmas season call for hours.
We are open around the end of August for Fall Decorations,
Halloween, Thanksgiving, Wreaths,  Grave Blankets and Christmas Decorations.  We do special orders decorations. Center Pieces, Weddings, Showers and parties all year long.

Thank you Carol for a wonderful visit to your farm!

Business & Lifestyle Expo

Hi everyone!

Last night we attended the Black Tie Gala for the opening night of the Business and Lifestyle Expo. We were happy to be a sponsor and to be involved with some of the vignettes and décor for the event.

We had a “Farm to Fork” display set up.

The main theme in the foyer was to show that Urban Farming is a viable business. DTL Herbs is classified with the State of Michigan as an Urban Farming business. So, naturally we were thrilled to be part of this.

Urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around a village, town, or city. Urban agriculture can also involve animal husbandry, aquaculture, agroforestry, and horticulture. These activities also occur in peri-urban areas as well.

Urban farming is generally practiced for income-earning or food-producing activities, though in some communities the main impetus is recreation and relaxation. Urban agriculture contributes to food security and food safety in two ways: first, it increases the amount of food available to people living in cities, and second, it allows fresh vegetables, fruits, and meat products to be made available to urban consumers. It decreases food deserts. A common and efficient form of urban agriculture is the biointensive method. Because urban agriculture promotes energy-saving local food production, urban and peri-urban agriculture are generally seen as sustainable agriculture. 

Source: Wikipedia

Anyone can create a full garden in a small place.

This produce bed was created from scratch on site. It is very easy to take a small part of your yard and grow a decent amount of fresh produce.

Another area create was a Aquaponic lettuce garden.

Aquaponics  or pisciponics, is a sustainable food production system that combines a traditional aquaculture (raising aquatic animals such as snails, fish, crayfish or prawns in tanks) with hydroponics (cultivating plants in water) in a symbiotic environment. In aquaculture, effluents accumulate in the water, increasing toxicity for the fish. This water is led to a hydroponic system where the by-products from the aquaculture are broken down by nitrogen fixing bacteria, then filtered out by the plants as nutrients, after which the cleansed water is recirculated back to the animals.

As existing hydroponic and aquaculture farming techniques form the basis for all aquaponics systems, the size, complexity, and types of foods grown in an aquaponics system can vary as much as any system found in either distinct farming discipline.

^{Source: Wikipedia}

And of course a fresh flower bed.

Here are some pictures of other vignettes using live plants. These are displays created by the students of the Roosevelt High School Agriculture program. Items were donated or loaned.

We had a fun evening and heard lots of wonderful feedback on the foyer displays. Everyone involved did a fantastic job!

Spring Sprang Early

Hi everyone!

I know that most of the country has experienced very unusual weather for this time of the year. We here in Michigan had great Springtime weather the past couple of weeks. So, the flowering trees and plants naturally did their thing and bloomed.

I took a couple of pictures with my phone while checking my mom’s house. They are in Florida for a month so, I stop by just to check things out. (Sorry about the watermarks from my other blog on these pictures. I am still trying to figure out my new phone camera)

The early spring is causing some serious problems. Here in Michigan, we are one of the largest apple and other fruit producers. And guess what, the fruit trees are starting to bloom! This is way too early for that to happen.

In Michigan, like in many other fruit growing regions, tree fruit and small fruit varieties have been selected over the years to fit the ranges of temperatures suitable to maximize productivity and fruit quality. However, record temperatures like the ones observed on March 21 in west Michigan are turned upside down in the fruit grower’s production calendar.

Blueberries are another huge Michigan crop.

Blueberry growers need to prepare their contingency plans to deal with possible freezing temperatures during the bloom period.

This unusual phenomenon brings a series of challenges for the fruit industry and for all the technical personnel directly associated with fruit production (i.e., agronomists, entomologists, crop consultants, agrochemical suppliers, etc.). Major challenges that we will be dealing with include spring freeze and frost events, lack of pollinators, and early arrival of insect and disease problems.

A big problem with the fruit blooming now is that there are no bees and other pollinators around yet.

All major fruit crops in Michigan rely on honey bees for good pollination and fruit quality. But according to Michael G. Hansen, MDARD state apiarist, with such unusual spring, most commercial beekeepers that provide pollination services for Michigan growers are not ready to move their colonies from their overwintering site, Florida and California. This may create problems for all fruit industry. But it may affect most drastically small growers because most of the time beekeepers give priority to large fruit farms over small production units

So, although it sure is pretty so see all these beautiful blooms so early, this weird weather may have some serious economic consequences to a lot of people. Including us in the price we pay for fruit over the next year.

All the data I quoted here came from MSU extension article. This is the same place that we are getting our Master Gardeners Certification.

If you would like to read more about it, check it out here.

Since Mother Nature is out of our control, we need to just enjoy the beauty we are seeing around us now.