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To be honest, I don't know where I left off. Ha ha ha ha
I think I posted pictures of this years market that included pictures of me behind the desk. Some of the posts had pictures of all the plants I sold this year starting "Mothers Day" weekend. If not, I can always post them again.
Later I hired 3 people to plant vegetable seeds. That didn't work out very well. I had to hire someone else to come and pull out all the seedlings and re-plant them. There were spots that had between 15 and 30 seedlings grouped together. Sort of the same thing happened with the glad bulbs. A lot of them were put in upside down. I forged on. Next came the cucumbers, all mixed up, not knowing until it was too late what cucumbers were where. 18" burpless mixed with canning cukes, straight eights mixed in too.
The strawberrys were great this year. I did well with those. What I mean by well is I only had a few quarts left over and so I ate them. :o)
Peas and carrots I couldn't keep enough around. I love peas and never got any for myself.
I never heard of pickling beans until I moved up here. People like to pickle beans when they do their yearly pickling of cukes & beets. I ran out of cukes and beets and wasn't able to do any for myself. That doesn't mean I had a lot to sell, it only means I didn't have enough to go around to everyone.
People told me last year they had a hard time seeing where I was from the road. So, this year, while the snow was still on the frozen ground, I found someone who wanted the acre of woods that started from the ditch all the way back about 380 feet. (lot is 380 x 400) give or take. I made a bigger sign with red letters. People still had a hard time finding me they said. Most of them told me they didn't know I was here untill someone told them I was out here and that went on right up untill closing day.
I found out that advertising in the news paper was a good thing even though it was a bit expensive. All the flyers I made and advertising in a small free paper weren't doing a thing. A small add that cost about 30.00 for 3 days, (weekend, thursday, friday, saturday), did the most for the business. I placed the ad twice and then it was time to close for the year. Next year I'll start earlier with the advertising.
Now that the tree's are down, I needed someone to come in an pull out all the stumps. I hired my neighbor, who's father started the business around 1898. They let me pay them a little at a time during the sales of bedding plants. It cost $1,000.00 to do 1/3 of the acre. Under the stumps was, they figured, 10-12 feet of organic peat. So I had them pull some of it out and put it on my vegetable garden.
Now that the stumps are out, I needed someone to come in and fill it all in. I knew that it would cost more than I would ever see in this life, so I looked around for sources. There was a huge void in the ground now, mostly because it was a bog/swamp. (this whole lot is a bog) Water was everywhere and not going to the ditch. The fella that came out about the water and the ditch said the water was always there, you just didn't see it because of all the trees. He scheduled the city to come out and dig out the ditches in front since they hadn't been touched in over 24 years. They were true to their word too. They came out and re-did the ditches and now the water drains.
I called swimming pool places who dig big holes to put there pools in. I got some of there dirt. I knew there were a few new streets and high-ways going in so I called those folks. Low and behold, one of the contractors was able to fit the bill and was hauling fill dirt for 37 days. They had a guy here with a bull dozer who spread out every load and when they were finished for this year, because they will be coming back for the next 2 years to finish up the other 2/3 at 1/3 each year, they moved the earth around so it can be used for what I need it for.
The huge trucks crushed one of the drive-ways down into the ditch and really made a mess of the circular drive way. They fixed the entrance with a new pipe in the ditch and they put in a new graveled drive way when they were finished. I asked the guy if he would push some of the gravel over to form a parking lot for me, and he did. Now I have a parking lot for next year. This was all free. I wouldn't have been able to pay for this kind of work. One tandum load of fill is $50.00 and they were bringing it in with those double tandum load trailers, every day for 5 1/2 weeks.
The base was laid first with huge cement/concrete chunks that had been broken up from a building. Then they started with the dirt from a huge hill that they have to dig through to put the new high-way. Then they topped it all off with the dirt from peoples front yards where they had to dig in order to widen the street and put in new water lines and sewer lines.
My other neighbor has horses and they teach riding at their stables. They asked me if I wanted the manure and I of course said yes. I got 12 tandum loads of manure. Next year when they come to pull up another 1/3 acre of roots, i'll have them put some of the peat with the manure and then have it spread out for the garden. I'm going to ask the fella's that are doing the grubbing, (pulling out the roots), to make a huge pile of that organic peat for me off to the side. I should be able to sell some of it next year or the year after once it's settled and matured. That stuff is expensive.
Anyway, next on the list is the market. I lost money this year because I didn't have "Inner Act", where they swipe your credit or debit card. You have to remember, I was outside in those gazebo's and I didn't want to put it out there for fear that someone would come along and do something they shouldn't.
The shed was on my list now to become next years market. I tore out the old floor and put in a new one. I called an electrician who put in the necessary stuff for me to get electricity seperate from the house. New foundation under the shed walls and I'm still, today, working on finishing up the inside with outlets, insulation, lighting, and then finishing up the walls with pine tounge and groove boards. The front door is on as well as the back door.
Next on the list is a greenhouse. I bought a lot of lumber, 2x6 mostly and built a frame for a greenhouse that measures on the inside, 26 x 80. I've still got to dig a ditch 4 feet deep from the well to the greenhouse and time is running short. The ground will be frozen here shortly and I've got to get a move on with that. I have a 104,000 BTU furnace to put in the greenhouse once it's up and ready to accept the electrical part and what not.
I still need to landscape all this and I'm broke. Ha ha ha ha ha
I work hard, I plan ahead, I know what's going to go where before it's there and make plans accordingly, but I have to tell you, I'm scared. I still don't know very much about all these plants and what not. I'm still in the dark on a lot of things and although I keep moving forward, sometimes not very much, I think or I feel I've reached my limit.
I don't know if you recall posts a couple years ago or not where I said I could grow vegetables, but I wasn't real sure about plants. Well, I still feel that way. Yes I can take care of plants, but where, when, how do you start them is still something I need to learn. I can do a few things, but I'm very limited. I can do Petunia's, Pansi, all the vegetable plants, glad bulbs, but that's about it.
I'd like to learn how to do Geraniums, Mums, Spikes, Sweet Potatoe Vines, Poinsetias, to name of few.
All in all, I ended up in the hole. Not from plant sales, but from vegetable sales. The cost of hired help on top of more hired helped, put me in the hole about $1,300.00
I'm going to invest in a planter that you walk behind and it drops the seed and burries it all in one step and has plates for different vegetables. The cost is about $120.00 and that's a far cry from what I spent on paychecks.
There is more. There's always more, ha ha ha, but that's it for now.
Darrell
This message was edited Nov 23, 2006 11:19 AM
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