We are a lavender and honey farm. We are nestled in the Cumberland gap area right in the Powell Valley of Eastern Tennessee. 324 Pierce Rd Speedwell, TN 37870 providing fresh raw honey and wonderful natural skincare products.
Thursday, April 17, 2014
Interesting lavender research
Spring survival update
Just an update to my last post concerning winter survival. We lost all of our Spanish Otto Quast. We don't plan to replace them at this point. The whole field averaged 10-12% loss. Pretty tough to take. We checked with some of the other producers/growers and they have also experienced large losses. They said it was due to the extremely wet spring and summer on top of the very cold winter.
We have been advised to continue to prune hard where we see signs of growth and replace what has not survived.
Our Munstead did pretty good. We found some growth to propogate from on the base of some of the plants and may purchase more but our plan to double our fields has been put on hold for now.
We found some interesting high tunnel research that may help our survival rate in the future. The link is posted in the next blog if you would like to read it.
Sunday, April 28, 2013
April 2013
28Th
Nice steady rain falling this morning. Really good for the fruit tees and crops. If it lets up we may go morel hunting later. Really niece to see with the lavender holes dug that the field really doesn't collect water. We have to really think about grading the back away from the house better as we are seeding quite a bit of mineral seepage in the basement. No more water though.
Week of 20th
420 holes to prepare for planting. we have laid down landscape cloth, now we are cutting holes, digging holes and mixing a compost in with the soil. we are trying to prepare for our helpers to plant on the fifth of May. it is very very hard work but we work well together and get it done. it's hard enough for me but I don't know how Sterling makes it. he really is my hero.
we just have the lower field to dig now but now the rain has started. the forecast is not looking good for the fifth of May. hopefully we won't have to plant this field alone. our son Joshua has suggested we check out the local 48 club Boy Scouts and the high school. have to do that. maybe we can get some help that way during the week.
we pick up our plants on Friday regardless of the weather. we pick them up from a nursery in Roanoke Virginia. we still have to make a platform for the truck for the second layer of plants.
