Vol. 1: From Seed to Stem: Weekly Garden Tales from Kara’s Farm

Week of March 23rd, 2025

Welcome to the first instillation of From Seed to Stem: Weekly Garden Tales from Kara’s Farm. Each week, I’ll be sharing a glimpse into the growth of my flower fields and vegetable rows here in middle Tennessee (Zone 7, avg. last frost date 4/21, avg. first frost date 10/15) —from what’s blooming and ready to harvest, to the seeds just getting their start. This journal is my way of capturing the beauty, challenges, and small victories of the season as they unfold. Whether you're a fellow grower, a backyard gardener, or just someone who loves a peek behind the petals, I’m so glad you're here.

*This post contains affiliate links to products that I love at no additional cost to you and I may make a small commission when you purchase through them. Thank you for supporting my garden and flower farm!

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Spring is officially here!

The song birds are singing with joy each morning, the soil is warming, and the garden is waking up in the most beautiful way. Perennial Spring bulbs are pushing through the earth and tiny leaves are just starting to show on perennial bushes. Early blooms are dancing in the breeze, and the promise of a new season is all around. There’s something magical about these first few weeks—when the planning turns into planting, and hope is quite literally growing in every row. Come take a walk through the farm with me this week as I share what’s blooming, what I’m sowing, and the little joys popping up all over the garden.

The Barnyard Garden

The early blooming Spring bulbs are really starting to shine in the Barnyard Garden. Over the past few years, I've planted about 1,000 daffodil bulbs in this garden. Since Daffodils love my Tennessee soil, they multiply easily and I can really see more flowers this year compared to previous years. 

 The one things I've found tricky with this Barnyard Garden space is the placement of the daffodil. Specifically, making sure there is a nice variety of daffodils in bloom evenly throughout the garden over the daffodil blooming period. There are early, mid and late blooming daffodils and I typically have a solid 6 to 8 weeks of daffodils in bloom due to my large collection of differently flowering period bulbs. 

To help me fill in the areas where I would like more blooms at certain periods, I've been digging up daffodils from other areas on my farm and replanting them back into The Barnyard Garden. I find it much easier to move a daffodil when I can see it blooming verse after they go dormant. This can effect next years blooms but I am ok with that. They will be back in schedule the year after! BTW, I love planting daffodils with this tool found in 10 Tools I'd Never Garden Without blog post. 

The Cut Flower & Vegetable Garden

The rows are slowly starting to green up out in the cut flower field! I've been working on adding fresh compost to beds for the plants to be nourished all year. I've also been adding a fresh later of woodchips to my pathways to help keep the weeds down and nourish the soil even more. 

We have also been adding a new wooden fence to my cut flower and vegetable field. It will be black just like the fence that mirrors it. We are adding this new fence for a few different reasons: One, my cut flower and vegetable area is getting expanded. There is not enough space for flower farming and vegetable gardening in this space...as much as I try to incorporate the two, it is full! Two, the old metal fence around my cut flower area was getting worn down and it was time to be replaced. More on this expansion later...

Cut Flower Seed Starting Schedule E-book

What's in Bloom

Daffodils rule the garden this week with new varieties opening daily. Over the past few years, I've planted 10,000 daffodil bulbs at my farm that I've collected through a variety of ways. Since Daffodils multiply and could have easily made 3 new bulbs by now, it is a very real possibility I have 30,000 daffodil at my farm currently. I can't highlight every variety in bloom as I have over 100 cultivars but here are a few:

One of the daffodils I'm currently moving into The Barnyard Garden to fill in the center space is 'Martinette' Daffodil. It is beautiful clusters of buttery yellow mini daffodil blooms that are fragrant. I would classify it as a "mid-season" bloomer. My one complaint that I've noticed over the years is the foliage browns very quickly, as shown by the photo. I currently have this patch in bloom near my home but I am moving the bulbs to The Barnyard Garden where I think they will fit in better and I won't notice the foliage. 

The early blooming daffodil are still putting on a show but are just beginning to fade. Some of my very favorites that sparked my interest into collecting daffodils are prolific early bloomers. Favorite early blooming peach and orange varieties are 'Apricot Whirl' and 'Sunny Girlfriend' while a fav buttery yellow is 'Ice King'. 

Stock in Crates in Bloom

My experimental greenhouse grown through the winter Stock is in full bloom. What a glorious sight she is! Every time I walk into the greenhouse, her clove like fragrance fills the air and brings the biggest smile to my face! Since this worked so successfully, I'll definitely be doing it again next winter! Already plotting my stock seed list! This particular variety is "Iron Pastel Mix". 

Cut Flower Seeds I'm Planting This Week:

There isn't a lot of seeds on my schedule to start this week (for me!). Since I fall or winter plant all of my Spring flowers, Spring flower seed sowing is done! I am just waiting on the explosion of blooms in April and May at this point. My main mission is to get any transplants still hanging out, in the ground. That would be any of these plants in this blog post left to transplant! 

I am currently about 4 weeks from my "average last frost date". I am not in a rush to plant summer, heat loving seeds. Many of them do so well directly sowing in the warm around.  Since I sow so many plants in the fall and winter, it is almost like my seed starting "break" for just a few weeks while I catch up transplanting. For a detailed list of what cut flowers I sow by month, I have written an E-book outlining how I start seeds 12 months out of the year.

I really never completely stop starting seeds though because I love it too much. I just go easy. LOL I am experimenting with sowing a few seeds in my hot greenhouse to transplant around Mother's Day, when the ground is warm.  A few tender flower seeds I'm sowing in pots in the greenhouse are Cosmos, Black Eyed Susan Vine and Zinnias from Botanical Interests. I am only sowing a handful of seeds though. I'll really get to rocking and rolling of planting these seeds in a few weeks!

Vegetable Seeds I'm Sowing This Week: 

Like my cut flowers, many of my Spring vegetable seeds have been sowed long ago. My focus this week is to get any remaining vegetable transplants in the ground like my Broccoli, Onions (home saved seed!) and Swiss  Chard. 

I am sowing another round of lettuce outside in the garden. I already have a few grounds growing and I like to succession plant lettuce so it's not all ready at once. I can only eat so many salads in a day! My favorite lettuce blend to sow for a few years now has been the Farmer's Market Blend. 

My Di Cicco Broccoli transplants are huge and ready to be transplanted! I've already gotten about 20 plants in the ground. I am excited to be growing these plants for both food and the pollinators. I'll let a few broccoli plants flower and go to seed for the birds and bees. They really are a beautiful addition to the garden!

In the greenhouse, in pots, I started seeds of Blue Lake Pole Beans. This is an experiment!  I am hoping to have a large plant to transplant by May so it can fill a trellis rapidly. Normally pole beans are direct sown in the ground and they do so well this way! I'll be doing that too when we get into May but I can't help by experiment! We can't ever have enough green beans in my house. With a family of 7, we go through a lot of beans!

Planting Potatoes

I also worked on getting the potatoes I've been sprouting planted. This year I am trying something different- a no dig approach that will help be build soil and reuse feed bags that we accumulate quickly. Would you like to hear more about this topic and how I am planting them?

It has been a beautiful start to Spring and I look forward to taking you through the weeks of what's happening at the garden and farm! Are you starting any seeds this week? I'd love to know what!

Don't forget if you are seed shopping to use my Botanical Interests discount code (BLOOMINGJOY) to save you some money at checkout! 

Happy Planting, Flower Friend! 

- Kara Jamison

P.S.! Are you coming to hear me speak at Cheekwood Botanical Garden for the Nashville Rose Society on April 7, 2025?! It is open to the public to attend! Read more about it here!