Extending the growing season at Windflower Farm

摘要

Windflower Farm is a small cut flower farm situated on 38 acres in southern Washington County. We currently retail our flowers at the farmers' market in Saratoga Springs and to CSA (community supported agriculture) shareholders at several sites in NewYork City. We also sell our flowers to area farm stands at wholesale prices. Most of the flowers we grow are annuals, although we also grow small quantities of spring bulbs and perennial flowers. All of our flowers are bunched and sleeved. About two thirds of our sales volume is in straight bunches, and the balance is in bouquets. We market our flowers from the end of May through mid-October. In our cold corner of the state (zone 4-5) we must use several season-extending strategies to have flowers continuously throughout our marketing period. The strategies we use at Windflower Farm consists of the selection of early blooming cultivars and early sites on the farm, use of cultural practices that warm the soil and plant environment, and use of a variety of structures that extend favorable growing conditions.