Big Girl Pants
Growing flowers in open fields is challenging and will beat the crap out of you sometimes.
To start a seed and nurture it into a beautiful flower brings me great joy and satisfaction. Some take a matter of months and others need a year or more of attention. Bottom line- it requires patience. And to accomplish this in open fields in a sustainable way- there are only so many variables in my control. Mother Nature has her own agenda.
Foxgloves are one of my favorite flowers and are typically considered a biennial meaning they take two years to bloom. There are stunning examples including, “Alba’, “Apricot Beauty’ and ‘Excelsior’. Recently, there is a new variety that will bloom in the 1st year- the Camelot series- and I have enjoyed it’s beauty for the past few seasons. Customers love it, and I appreciate the architectural interest it contributes to bouquets and arrangements. But I have been craving the special biennial varieties and dedicated a portion of my field to these gems last season. They summered magnificently, and we headed into winter ready for a beautiful presentation next season.
Interestingly, foxglove are poisonous to many things. Although not to voles, apparently.
At Eleven Mile Farm, I have learned that we have a significant vole problem. I lost a crop of tender ranunculus and anemones last year and finally was able to identify what was clobbering me. For those of you who don’t know- a vole is different from a mole. Voles are more hamster-like and are actually quite cute. Unlike moles, which eat grubs and other gross things, voles are herbivores and eat primarily grass in the summer months.
Voles frustrate the hell out of me because there is no way way to manage them. After the losses last year, I moved my spring crop of ranunculus to another field- some in raised beds- and thought I’d figured it out. I assumed they primarily went after corms and bulbs underground. I was wrong.
We had warmer weather today, and with the melting snow, I discovered familiar squirrely tunnels in the grass next to my foxglove beds. With dread, I ripped back the landscape cloth and discovered my beautiful crop of biennial foxgloves eaten. All of the green foliage scattered and showed an empty core. And then I saw them- two fat voles running for their lives. Now, here’s the twisted piece…
I recently learned that voles mate for life. And scientific studies have shown that they demonstrate empathy. If they are separated and their partner is stressed or tortured, the other vole shows a similar stress response and upon reunion, will comfort the stressed vole. WHAT???? When I ripped off that cloth and saw two voles quivering at me….I COULDN‘T KILL THEM! I should have stomped them to death, but all I could think about was life partners and stress and consolation….so, I yelled and tried my best to chase them off. And then cried over my lost biennial foxgloves.
These are the failures that destroy and frustrate me. If voles will eat even a poisonous foxglove, how am I going to battle them in every field I am growing in? Everything is vulnerable to them!
Enter Big Girl Pants.
My daughter recently called my mom with some complaint about pressures of school (or something along those lines). I was told that my Mom calmly said to her, “It’s time to put on your Big Girl Pants, get out there and figure it out.” Flower farming calls for this. It’s about taking the hits, digging deep and not giving up. So I will put on my Big Girl Pants, figure out how to manage voles in the fields, and start another batch of biennial foxgloves this week.
Oh, I intend to ROCK those Big Girl Pants!!!
