Things don't always go as planned

What a summer this has been! When I posted my first blog, I told you things don't always go as planned. Here's an example. Several weeks ago, I was out walking my mum pad as was my daily routine. This particular morning, some plants didn't look just right. We had experienced a very wet spring, so fertilizing had been a challenge. I thought perhaps this might explain the issue. However, something told me to have the plants checked out. I sent an entire pot of mums to the extension office, and they took it to the lab in Princeton, KY. (Shout out to UK Extension!). A few days later, we had a diagnosis. There were actually two disease processes going on in the mums. Neither was treatable. Even worse, I was advised to destroy my entire crop of mums! What a disappointment. We are still digging into what happened- was this entirely weather-related, were the plugs infected when I got them, did I do something wrong??? Either way, my mum crop is a total loss. Not only did that affect my bottom line in a huge way, it also impacted our local FFA since i was growing mums for their annual fundraiser. Letting them know about the loss was not easy, that was a very difficult week. But life goes on, and I had to do something. One cannot have a greenhouse business open in the fall and not have mums! I am relived to announce we did find a source and HEIRLOOM ACRES WILL HAVE MUMS THIS FALL!!!

Life on the farm is never predictable; no two seasons are ever the same. It's the life I've chosen and love even though sometimes I have to remind myself why! As the late Will Rogers once said, "The farmer has to be a optimist or he wouldn't still be a farmer." Truth!