Hi there and thanks for taking interest in our little world!
We are Heidi and Em and we're so excited to put our love and effort into Prairie Rose Farm and Floral. After spending a few years casually talking about finding a place of our own but not really knowing if it would happen, we came across a property better than our imaginations could have ever created. An old farmhouse/cabin just south of Duluth, albeit further than we would have planned but turns out perfectly far enough away to feel like we are out there. We were lucky enough to be chosen to continue on the care of this property by the previous owners. They are some amazingly sweet folks who took a lot of time to show us around the place. Its an honor to be living in the home that was owned by such caring people and it inspires us to carry on that energy going forward.
Our property here in Mahtowa is heavily wooded acreage, home to mature pine, graceful birch, and cedar groves that hug. There is a wetland on the property line where sandhill cranes commune and we have a small but healthy prairie that consists of some of the herbal world's sweethearts: goldenrod, yarrow, and rudbeckia. Black bear pass through in the summer, coyote yip and play in the dark, and bluejays catch your eye through the window. Deer timidly feed in the prairie until spooked to their next spot of grazing. The sky is slit open by the milky way and out spills a night sky so clear it reminds you you're human.
The house is both old and new. There were many projects worked on at the end of summer and into fall. A bathroom demo and renovation, installing a new window, redoing siding, resurrecting a woodshed (with the help of em's parents), fixing the wood-stove, stacking firewood, and prepping the entire area for the future farm plot.
Our field area for the farm is about a 1/4 acre. To prep it we used a flail mower to knock back the tall grasses and then came through with a simple 8-tine tiller to initially break up the sod. We prepped as many rows as we could before the freeze came in. Rows are formed by a few passes of broad-forking and laying down rich manure-based compost. The area is tarped off for the winter and the rest of the beds wait to be made until Spring.
In the dark half of October we were able to sneak some peony roots in the ground. Even if it was only a few, it felt very worthwhile as those lovely garden heart-stealers take a few years before it is wise to use them for cut flowers. In addition to our little plot, we built some quick raised beds to hold tulip and daffodil bulbs in their dormancy all winter. It's our first year with tulips and daffs, so Spring will be welcomed with an earlier flush of flowers for cutting.
We didn't finish everything we set out to do, as it tends to go, but a lot was accomplished in a few shorts months before Winter. Although many projects still get chipped away at as we have yet to see a true layer of snow settle on the ground here in the Northland. It's easy to feel like we are in a perpetual fall and there is a sense of rush to get things done while weather still permits, but winter is here in our bodies regardless if the snow is here. So for now we work on resting, planning, and enjoying time with our new pup + sweet kitty cat and wait for the snow that all of us here up North know and love.
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