Iris Fest 2024

In the days before we became farmers, we were gardeners. And if you have difficulty figuring out the distinction between the two, I can help with that.

Gardeners have or make energy and time to nurse and care for individual, weak plants that would otherwise perish without intervention. Farmers realize there are times to terminate whole rows of crops because the return is no longer worth the effort required them.

Gardeners love to get an early start to the season, doing what it takes to protect sensitive plants they’ve rushed to put out. And, gardeners like to play the “superiority card” when they can make the claim to planting earlier with whomever they might be conversing. Farmers, on the other hand, can’t afford to be foolish and plant too early unless they’re willing to take the risk and accept when a cold snap kills that succession.

Of course, there is far more to it than just these two examples. But, it gives you a flavor for some of the things we have observed over time as we moved from gardener to farmer.

In the days before farming, we loved to work with our perennial flower gardens. We would regularly visit our favorite plant nurseries and pick a few new plants for this spot here and the other spot there. And, yes, we would visit the close-out tables and grab plants that just needed a little extra TLC (Tender Loving Care) so they might prosper… or at least not die in the next few hours.

The two of us had a particular affinity for iris and day lilies. I have more connection to the iris, just as Tammy does with the day lilies. But, we both enjoy all of them very much. We would frequently go through specialist catalogs in search of new varieties that we hoped would grace us with their beauty. It’s entirely possible that we had as many as 70 iris varieties and maybe 30+ day lilies at one point in time. I used to know the numbers - but they have since left me. Probably because I don’t want to think about the very real decline over the years.

We liked our perennial plants so much that many of them moved with us not once, not twice… but three times.

No, we didn’t move ALL of them. But, it’s safe to say that we took a couple of pickup loads to each new location.

Hey! Don’t judge us! It was important to us at the time and it actually penciled out from a cost-benefit perspective given where we were in life at those times. And, remember, we were gardeners. Some of our logic was bound to be flawed by our biases.

So, of course, we brought at least one cluster of each variety of iris and day lily we had when we moved to the place that would become the Genuine Faux Farm. And we worked to create a glorious, flowing perennial bed design that would feature those flowers. And, after a couple of years, we were rewarded with a plethora of blooms (just look at the image above this paragraph).

And that was our peak. From there it went down hill.

That’s one of the costs we paid as we moved from gardener to farmer.

Perennial beds like that take a fair amount of effort to keep them looking that good from year to year. And we thought, initially, that we could do it all. The perennials would be a feature we could share with people as they visited our farm during our farm festivals. And, of course, we would be able to raise vegetables and poultry at the same time so our customers could get quality food from us every week during the CSA (farm share) season.

But, as our farm grew from a 20-something farm share subscription list to 120 members, our energy had to go towards fulfilling our commitments. And that commitment wasn’t to the flowers.

At one point in time, we actually tried to hold three yearly festivals at the farm, with the earliest being Iris Fest. And, we kept calling it Iris Fest even when the iris didn’t agree on the timing of our festival with their bloom period. We continued to call it Iris Fest, even as our iris beds declined and it was no longer feasible for people to walk paths to view them. And, we still call it Iris Fest, even if we haven’t actually held that particular event for many years now.

You see, it’s Iris Fest for us because it turns out that iris are able to survive (if not thrive) in neglected perennial beds. So, many of our old friends are still around, even if they’re not as prominent as they once were.

We celebrate Iris Fest each year by harvesting images of their blooms and cutting stems of these beautiful flowers to bring into the house for as long as they are willing to provide them. I have images in my head of what once was, so I apologize for our neglect and then praise them for their resilience and beauty.

Maybe this will be the year that we pull these iris out of the various locations they have walked to and give them that attention we annually promise to do. Or, maybe we’ll have good intentions and then be grateful next year when they grace us, once again, with their presence - despite our inability to do anything for them.

Clearly, they don’t really need us to do terribly much for them if they are still providing us with flowers this many years later. Perhaps we can find a balance and give them just enough of our support that they’ll thrive rather than just survive.

Maybe we’ll even throw a farm gathering called Iris Fest once again. And maybe the iris will actually attend this time?

I am certain there are many other things in our lives that, given a little attention, we might like to encourage to do more than survive. Our own physical and mental health, the environment around us, our relationships and the special skills we have all could use some of our attention. And if we could find a way to give it, might they also bloom into something special? Thrive rather than survive?

I suspect they could. But there is always only as much of ourselves as there is. When you give what you can give, you either have to learn how to nurture more of yourself to expand your giving or nurture your gratitude for what you have been able to give.

Which means, sometimes, we just have to recognize the blooms as they come. And enjoy them for what they are.

I hope you have a fine day. Now, I’m going to go outside and enjoy the iris while they are taking the time to show off this year.