What is your first memory of flowers?

When you crack open a book on growing flowers or listen to the intro of a flower show the question is always the same - what is your first memory of flowers?

For me, it is this - The row of greenhouses in my grandparents backyard. I remember opening the wooden door to any one in the row and seeing the wooden tables filled with flats of geraniums and petunias. The huge fans would be running and we would use grandmas 1 point deer antler as a seed dibber.

I've been on a mission recently to track down pictures of Bear Creek Nursery and the row of greenhouses that is so alive in my mind but no longer sitting full of life on the family farm. 

Decades before the internet started making electro culture "cool" Grandma was placing copper coils around the farm and experimenting with plants electrical signals.

Maybe this is why I hate to give planting advice. I'm also an experimental gardener. I rarely stick to one method. Each season trying different techniques, growing methods, and fertilizers. If there are odd or obscure seeds mentioned in a seed catalog I'm first in line to try them out.

Grow your own bath sponge? Heck yes. Succession plant garlic a few months in a row to see which produces the biggest bulbs? On it. Completely throw plant spacing rules out the window? Every time. Hang faux cabbage moths above the brassicas to deter the real ones? Worth a try. I rarely do anything the same season to season..

My plant labels are detailed and I love wandering the garden that is full of life and information. What is this plant? When is it best to harvest? History of the plant? I've got you covered.

There is a stack of seed catalogs that live on a shelf in our kitchen. Each kept for this reason. Different varieties of seeds, different information in the descriptions, planting tips, seed sowing calendars... they each hold different information than the last.

As I stare at the 20 acres of land we purchased a few years ago all I can think about is bringing it to life. It was farmed for years and there aren't any trees or bushes in sight. I've planted a dozen small fruit trees and have the raised bed vegetable garden. But I want to really give some of it back to nature. Big shade trees, rows of flowers and large bushes.

I've got Poplars rooting in pots from $3 starts on Facebook marketplace. I've got so many flower seeds started and charts with notes of perennial vs annual, height, width and main color. 

It's going to be a busy season. But the days are getting longer and the seedlings are growing.