. I feel like Laura Ingalls in “Little House On The Prairie”! This past summer and fall our kitchen was in canning mode.
Tomatoes were made into paste, salsa, juice and spaghetti sauce. Peppers were canned as candied jalapeños, used in salsas, roasted bell peppers in olive oil, fermented serranos are in the back of the fridge and my favorite sweet snack peppers cut up and frozen and also made into an awesome mustard. Eggplants were used in a wonderful spread recipe “Zucasca” suggested by a friend. Cherries from Cloudcroft were put up in a syrup and are sitting in the back of the pantry waiting for a special Sunday dinner of “Milch Mousse” a German cold soup. Dill pickles from the freshest cucumbers picked in the morning from our gardens. Onions dried and put into storage along with the spaghetti squash and yes the pumpkins! Pumpkins do not can well so they are either made to purée and frozen or used fresh in soups. below is a recipe for Whole Pumpkin Soup https://www.botanicalinterests.com/product/Baked-Whole-Pumpkin-Soup-Blog Many of our seeds come from this Merchant below which we are an affiliate of. We receive a percentage of the sale if you use our webpage to get to this merchant. Thanks for supporting us. 
 Dahlias are a favorite of many.
Every year I have customers asking for them. We have finally found a good source for ordering them and would like to share that information. If you click on the above photo it will take you to an affiliate of ours. Affiliate to Blumenflor means that this merchant has approved us of selling their products online. I am new at this and am finally understanding how it all works. In this time of computers, social media and technology you can go online and order just about anything and have it delivered to your front door within days. Convenient, practical and sometimes at a great discount than a local store. As a small business in a rural setting we also rely on the online stores to order sometimes. Shop local first is our goal. If we don’t have a certain product... such as Dahlias we can now refer you to an online store. That referral doesn’t cost you anything but to us it means a lot if you would go through our links that we provide for you on this webpage or the Blumenflor website. We receive a percentage of each sale which again as mentioned does not cost you extra. It is in a sense shopping local and supporting your local businesses. So when you are shopping online drive over (with your mouse!) to a local merchant’s webpage, see if they are affiliates with maybe one of your favorite online stores and go through their website to place an order. I bet y’all will feel good about that. Blumenflor is in the process of being approved by more merchants and will display them on our website soon. In the mean time check out the wonderful assortment of dahlias... they even had some good sales of 69% off plus free shipping if you buy over $75. Thanks for supporting Blumenflor!  January 4, 2020
In looking forward it is sometimes good to reflect on the past. This past year at Blumenflor has been a year of blessings! This little garden center has grown. The metal building was finally enclosed from the front after 3 years of waiting. We now can have our Farmers Markets inside when the wind is howling outside. A routine is falling into place... January and February we are closed for general maintenance, March - October Farmers Market the 3rd Saturday of the month, CSA pickups Saturday mornings May-October, tree orders come in Spring and Fall , rose bushes for May and in between we seed,grow, propagate, transplant, weed, garden and of course serve our customers with a very knowledgeable staff. Our blessings this past year: finishing the Metal building. Providing vegetables to our CSA members for 25 weeks, we missed one Saturday because our Manager was getting married. We now have a 4 lane highway in front of our business! No more watching our customers wrangle the traffic to try to turn into our driveway praying for their safety! Spring Sales up especially the Mother’s Day roses which are special ordered from Tyler Texas each year. We are extra blessed with employees who have a high standard work ethic! Re doing the plastic on our greenhouse was a challenge but it turned out better than expected. Building the vendor stalls in the Metal building using pallets. Reuse, redo, recycle, use what we have is our motto. Laying all the drip irrigation in the gardens and rolling them back up and organizing them for the winter. Seeding, seeding, seeding. Transplanting, transplanting and transplanting! Love our team members, they are the best! So very thankful for God’s protective hand in all our work. We look forward to a year filled with joy and pride in our work. Hopefully more blogs will be made and time found to inform our customers of the happenings here at Blumenflor. Go onto our website at www.blumenflor.com or look us up on Facebook and instagram under Blumenflor. Or just come by and talk gardening! 
Once a beautiful warm day blesses us in February, all the gardeners get out their pruning shears, rakes , hoes and what else they can find and head out to the yard or their gardens. After that warm day the wind picks up and we are again reminded we are in west Texas where the wind is relentless! We here at Blumenflor seek refuge in the greenhouse and start seeding at the beginning of February. We are trying to plant by the moon phases this year. The Farmers Almanac gave us all the necessary information. Just google The Old Farmer’s Almanac and under Moon Phase search for Seminole, Tx. The Greenhouse is a must if you want to start any vegetables like tomatos or peppers. We even trialed lettuce and cabbage this winter in the greenhouse. This year we have the CSA/ Farm Share and have our garden beds ready for planting. First the onion sets were planted in January. Next our seeding of veggies in the greenhouse and later on this month the direct seeding of the root veggies into the gardens. We want to get the potatoes in this month too. With the help of companion planting, crop rotation... beans-roots-greens-fruits... beneficial insects, compost, manure , good seed , good water... all this which only makes up 5% of how a crop grows, we will leave the rest of the 95% in the Creator’s hands. God will bless and we are excited for this journey ahead of us.
We are using a wonderful seed company out of Colorado and hope to have their seed available at Blumenflor for the spring season. We are affiliates with them and appreciate your support. 
 Looking back at this last year 2018 has brought back many thoughts. We have gone through all the seasons of seeding , planting, growing and harvesting.
Here at Blumenflor we always are a step ahead of the next season. Our seeds are ordered, plugs purchased , more ordering of hardware in the next few weeks and keeping our current inventory alive keeps us busy with anticipation for 2019. Our newest adventure is the CSA/Farm Share. We set a goal and are very close to achieving it. We all are “planted” in different places even situations. Let us take into the new year a decisive decision to make a difference for the better wherever we have been “planted”! We here at the Garden Center wish y’all a fantastic New Year. See you at the next Farmers Market or at the weekly Saturday CSA pickup! Bloom...!  When the Christmas season comes closer as a business owner you sometimes get overwhelmed! Did we order enough material and supplies to make it through December or.... did we order too much? The boxes come by courier and excitement is in the air. Trying to get all our Grinch trees made by a deadline, where are those purple ornaments ?
We had a wonderful surprise delivered to us by our Floral Wholesaler out of Lubbock. They always have the best fresh greens that we use for our planters and Grinch trees. In the box of supplies was a package of fresh red roses with a note “Merry Christmas” on it. We have not been able to keep the Flower shop open this past year so we were not seeing our regular deliveries of flowers like in past years. Someone took the time to remind us that we are still in their thoughts. The little things like this sweet smelling gesture are appreciated and hopefully we can pay it forward! It’s the Little things that sometimes keep us going. Wishing everyone a blessed Christmas with a reminder that our best “Little Thing” was baby Jesus who came for all of us!
It is time to think of fall planted bulbs like tulips, daffodils etc. Here in our area of Texas, zone 7b, we like to chill our bulbs for a minimum of 8 weeks. The reason being that these bulbs need a soil temperature of 40 degrees F. or under for an uninterrupted period of time to bloom for the spring. We all know how erratic our winters can be so many have resorted to this chilling method. The bottom of your fridge is the best place to store them for the homeowner. You then plant them anytime in November or December.
Blumenflor is an affiliate with the above company and you are supporting us by shopping with them. The many different kinds of bulbs are unique and interesting to try in your flower gardens. Thinking spring in the fall is planning ahead for a beautiful spring flowerbed. 
September is upon us. Here in west Texas you can feel the temperatures cooling down. From 95 F to 85 F is a big difference. We have had a hot summer with not too much rain. Our Texas Sage bush has been very true this summer and it bloomed usually 3 days before it rained. Last year it couldn’t keep up because it rained so much more than this year.
We finally quit procrastinating about putting a drip irrigation system into the vegetable garden. Best investment we have made. Less weeds, water right to the roots making for a good harvest of the best tasting veggies! We used a drip hose with regulated emitters every 12”. The lines are on top of the ground making for easy removal or just switching positions to accommodate for the garden tiller. Every row has an on and off valve to control the water needs of each row of different vegetables. Our local irrigation store was very helpful in assisting us with the right material. Sometimes we overthink a project, which was the case here. “Just do it” has become a motto around Blumenflor. We are reaping our rewards of the garden with a no stress watering plan and a bountiful harvest. So far the watermelons are the best we ever tasted! Also the carrots, beets, black eyed peas, tomatoes , cucumbers etc. We are now planning the fall garden. We love our seed supplier. They have so much valuable information. We are an affiliate with them. Happy gardening this coming fall! 
It is now officially summer. We have had a very busy spring season at Blumenflor. Time has passed so fast , even the tomatoes from my last blog have fruit and are ripening. The Garden is doing well, we have potatoes, carrots, cabbage, cucumbers, corn, okra, black eyed peas, peppers, watermelon, melon, pumpkins all planted seeded and needing constant watering and weeding. As I was pondering what to write I heard our Rooster crowing. Since it was the afternoon and not his 6:30 AM wake up crow, I knew he needed something. Either attention or just letting me know that fresh water was needed on such a hot day. He is quite the character and a really handsome fellow! We think of him as Blumenflor’s mascot. He was acquired through a customer who traded me the rooster for 2 planters of flowers. He was bought at an auction in Oklahoma. Yes we barter here at the Garden Center. One customer gets her yearly flats of petunias in exchange for the best baked goods ever tasted. Needing some cement work done and seeing all the necessary equipment on a customers work truck, we quickly bartered his work for some trees that he was wanting to buy. Back to our Rooster... he now looks after 20 little chickens and is mighty proud of them. Soon they will be laying eggs and again I might barter eggs for something we need. I just realized he has no name, well I guess it’s a no brainer to call him “BART”! Enjoy your summer, be it in the garden, with you chickens or even trying the art of bartering at your local Garden Center/Farmers Market.   We seed our tomatoes about 4 weeks before the last frost in the greenhouse. Many of our customers watch the growing process on their weekly visits. It is very tempting to get them outside too early, especially when the temps are 90 F. one day and then down to 40F. the next morning.
The frost now past (according to the blooming mesquite bushes) we can now safely plant them outside. The wind is our next contender and sometimes dries the plants out. Many have tried wrapping plastic around them on a wire frame or put pvc pipes around the plant for protection. We love talking gardening at Blumenflor and learn a lot about growing tomatoes from the locals here. At one of our upcoming Markets we will have a Tomato "Grow off" . Let's see what kind of tomatoes we can grow this year and show them off! |
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