Nichole’s Garden, Oregon, IL (2024)

08/12/2023

Come see Robbie one last time this season at the Byron Farmers Market at . He’s had a fantastic summer but soccer starts next weekend, so this will be our last farmers market of the year.

08/09/2023

It’s a cool, foggy, slightly magical morning in the garden and autumn is clearly on its way. I rarely cut flowers for myself but this moody Wednesday just sort of demanded that I take a stroll through the dew-covered flowers and cut myself an armful of beauty.

08/05/2023

Rain or shine, we’re here at the Byron Farmers Market at with some gorgeous flowers. Grab your umbrella and come visit!

07/29/2023

It cooled down just in time for a lovely morning at the Byron Farmers Market at . Come visit Robbie and me today from 8-12!

07/28/2023

Finally some dahlia blooms! Aren’t these guys amazing?! Still a couple weeks away from a full dahlia explosion in the garden, but it’s soooooo so close. I bet these beauties are the first to go at the Byron farmers market at tomorrow. You better get there early if you want to be the one taking them home!

07/22/2023

I’m in love with the newest sun catcher design — it combines all the cool colors and design work from my parents and my pressed flowers. Can’t wait to make a bunch more of these!

07/15/2023

My very first attempt at drying flowers. I’ve got yarrow, strawflowers, gomphrena, and celosia. I also still need to grab some statice and scabiosa seed pods. I don’t have a ton of volume, but my goal is 10 stems per week of each variety that’s good for drying. I’m hoping the fan will offset any dampness in the basement and that the darkness will keep the colors vibrant. By time the growing season is over, I should have enough for a couple wreaths.

07/15/2023

Pulled some gorgeous blooms out of the garden yesterday. The dahlias are so close to being in full bloom and I have loads of celosia, strawflowers, gomphrena, and statice. Come check them out at the farmers market at

07/10/2023

I try to start every morning with a walk through the garden. It’s a gorgeous, peaceful way to start my day before all the chaos of work and parenting takes hold. And it’s so satisfying to see the garden growing so tall—it’s just starting to hit its stride and, in a few more weeks, it’s going to be cranking out dahlias and sunflowers and lots of other amazing stuff.

07/08/2023

Robbie and I will be at the Byron Farmer’s Market at from 8-12 with some gorgeous flowers and sun catchers. Come on out to see us!

07/01/2023

It might be rainy but it’s still a great day for flowers! Check out this special green and white order I made for today—and all the other gorgeous blooms at the Byron Farmer’s Market at ! We’ll be here from 8-12.

06/30/2023

This morning’s harvest is pretty spectacular. You can find all these gorgeous flowers in bouquets tomorrow at the Byron Farmers Market at !

06/24/2023

At the Byron Farmer’s Market at this morning from 8 to noon. The garden is slowly picking up steam and I have some gorgeous bouquets this morning!

05/29/2023

Look what’s finally blooming in the garden! Ranunculus, anemones, and poppies are looking gorgeous.

05/28/2023

Whew! What a day! Wedding number two is finally finished and my cousin and her wedding looked amazing. I did a terrible job getting pictures, so I can’t wait for the professional pictures to come back—but I was really happy with how the flowers turned out and learned some good lessons along the way.

For example, ranunculus stems are super fragile, so don’t put them on the outside edges of the bouquet because they benefit from the support of the other flowers. Either provide centerpieces or pass on table decorations altogether—adding baby’s breath to the venue’s candle centerpieces was a lot of work that couldn’t be done ahead of time. Better to over order than come up short. And listen to your instincts when something doesn’t sound quite right—I’m so grateful I went to the venue earlier than originally planned with the bride and packed myself a kit of backup supplies and all the extra flowers that I thought I had over ordered. I was able to accommodate a last minute request for an extra boutonnière on the fly and put baby’s breath around eight extra tables that were added after I finalized everything with the bride (maybe not the best business practice, but you make things work for family). If I hadn’t gone early and brought extras, I never would have finished.

04/24/2023

Freshly pulled tulips are gorgeous but several day old tulips are absolutely spectacular. It’s so cool to see them open up and put on a show. Throw in some fancy daffodils and the whole arrangement smells amazing, too.

04/16/2023

Gave my mom the first tulip bouquet of the season and her Exotic Emperor tulips are opening up beautifully.

04/12/2023

I have flowers!!! This is my first tiny little harvest of the year. Some of these daffodils are a little battered from that hailstorm last week but they’re still gorgeous and it’s so cool to see the garden coming alive.

04/08/2023

It was a good day in the garden! Got a bunch of yarrow, feverfew, salvia, and Iceland poppies planted in the perennial bed. I also pricked out a couple trays of celosia and got the greenhouse put back up and most of the seedlings moved into it from the basement. It’s pretty cool to see everything coming together :)

03/30/2023

Now it really feels like spring. It got into the 50s today, so I planted out some lisianthus and snapdragons. There are at least two days in next week’s forecast when I’ll be running outside with some frost cloth at night, but hopefully we’re past the worst of the freezes. I did hold back most of a tray of snapdragons, though, in case I lose some to the weather. Anyone else in northern Illinois planting out yet?

03/23/2023

We’re getting so close to planting time! I’m taking advantage of this overcast but above freezing day to pull all the plant babies out of the greenhouse and work on hardening them off. The feverfew and yarrow look amazing and some of the snapdragons are actually budding up—not exactly ideal for planting out but still pretty cool to see. I even managed to keep some lisianthus alive! I’m hoping to start planting out next week—anyone else in zone 5 getting close?

03/19/2023

Spending a little time this morning planning for my first 2023 wedding. Bouquets, boutonnières, corsages, centerpieces, and flowers for the cake table. There will be a lot to do for this end-of-May wedding, so I better be organized!

03/18/2023

The best kind of delivery—garden soil! braved the freezing cold to come early this morning and drop the compost as close to my garden as he could while the ground was frozen so that he wouldn’t tear up the yard. It was the best kind of customer service and very appreciated! And this compost/soil mix looks amazing.

03/15/2023

Good news and bad news. The anemone corms I found survived the 15 degree weather under leaves and frost cloth! But . . . I didn’t find very many of them. I think the squirrels got most of them prior to me covering them. I noticed a couple spots dug up right after planting but, since I planted about 75 of them, I didn’t think it would make a big difference. Turns out I was wrong. 😂

Living in town in a rural area is pretty different from living in town in a suburb. There’s a whole lot more pest pressure here and I’ll have to up my planting game next year—maybe invest in some bird netting to cover my bulbs.

Here’s hoping there are actually some ranunculus left under my row cover and the squirrels didn’t get all of them, too!

03/07/2023

Who else is so ready for summer?! I’m getting so pumped up for the 2023 growing season and all the gorgeous flowers to come. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be spending my summer Saturday mornings at Byron's Hairy Cow Farmer's Market selling bouquets stuffed full of beautiful flowers. I’m also planning to offer a DIY flower bar for anyone who would like to design their own arrangement.

What are your plans for the upcoming growing season?

03/05/2023

Spending this morning finalizing my garden plans! And running to Home Depot later to get lots and lots of soil. I have 72 more square feet of raised garden beds to build and fill and another two smaller in-ground beds to make in the next couple weeks. And, somehow, there’s just never enough room for all the things I want to grow!

Life is funny sometimes. When I was growing up here in my little, fairly rural hometown, I was absolutely determined to be an attorney and figured I’d end up living in a big city to find work—and had zero interest in all the agriculture going on around me. And I did just that—law school, firm life, living in DC, Baltimore, and Chicago. But now I’m back in my hometown, lawyer-ing remotely, and there’s no place I’d rather be. In fact, my ideal life/retirement plan is spending all day on my own hobby/flower farm and someday getting out from in front of the computer screen. Weird how things work out, huh?

03/04/2023

Good morning! I’m excited to show off the next step in our mini kitchen makeover. With lots of help from my parents, we cut, beveled, drilled, stained, sealed, and hung these custom wooden shelves. The new shelves, alone with the table, curtains, and fresh paint, make a world of difference in our tiny kitchen! And definitely feeing proud of my kitchen design skills :) Swipe to see the before.

02/14/2023

Happy Valentine’s Day!

02/12/2023

I have a new greenhouse! Every year I buy a little cheapie one and every year it collapses on me. This year I splurged a bit more and got something a bit sturdier and then added actual wire rack shelving. Fingers crossed it holds up this year!

02/05/2023

Time for another before and after—or, rather, a before and in-progress. Our kitchen is tiny, old, and beat up and we have some amazing plans to renovate if from . However, with prices as high as they are right now, we just haven’t found the guts to pull the trigger on a full, expensive kitchen renovation.

So, until we do, I’m doing a mini makeover and it started with some cabinet TLC and a fresh coat of white paint. I didn’t hate the previous grey paint but it just wasn’t doing the old cabinets any favors—and I really did hate the old backsplash behind the stove. I hired a sitter to play with Robbie for the day and did a 10 hour painting marathon and I’m in love with the change. It makes the cabinets look a million times better, even if they are still old and beat up.

Up next will be some prettier kitchen counters, floor to ceiling open shelving where our little shelf unit is now, and a backsplash.

01/23/2023

Just got done speed planting a few hundred tulip bulbs along with some daffodils, iris, peonies, and allium. Pretty impressed with myself for getting it done in 45 minutes and squeezing it in between school pick up and Robbie’s martial arts class.

Is it pretty? No, and I’ll probably end up moving a few of them next year—but it’s done! As I’ve gotten older, started a career, and had a kid while also picking up some fairly labor intensive hobbies, I’ve discovered that perfect is the enemy of done and that good enough works just fine for me.

01/21/2023

Robbie did awesome in his first ever wrestling match!

01/15/2023

Who doesn’t love a good before and after post?

I know it’s not exactly pretty, but I’m so happy with my after! This part of the basement was jam packed and disorganized (swipe a bit to see the mess) and I didn’t have a good workspace. Now with some new shelves and a free day courtesy of my husband’s aunt, who has kept Robbie entertained, I finally have space for seed starting, vase storing, and my new quilting hobby (btw, can’t wait to start the Beginner’s Quilting Academy from ).

The perfectionist in me would love to make this space pretty someday, but right now functional is more than good enough!

01/09/2023

Look at these gorgeous little baby plants! These little guys were ready to come out from underneath the humidity dome, so I moved them up a rack. There are a few varieties of feverfew, snapdragons, and eucalyptus in the first picture and itty bitty lisianthus in the second. Now comes the hard part—keeping them alive inside until I can plant them out!

01/02/2023

Ready for Lesson 1 of Muddy Business! Let’s see how far Robbie will let me get.

12/26/2022

Started my first seeds for 2023 flowers on Christmas Day! My seed starting space has a ways to go and I’m waiting for more storage shelves to arrive to really get organized—but it felt so good to get started. Who else has seeds ready to go?

12/12/2022

Finally got a free afternoon yesterday to finish some much-delayed gardening tasks!

I had peony and iris roots that still weren’t in the ground and finally got them planted (I guess climate change, as awful as it is, has a few perks—the ground wasn’t anywhere close to frozen yet.). I also scattered some larkspur, poppy, and milkweed seeds because they need cold stratification and, theoretically, can be fall (or, in this case, winter sown). Fingers crossed they actually grow!

And I FINALLY got around to building myself a little low tunnel with rebar and PVC. It was shockingly easy and I have no idea why I put it off so long. Just waiting on the agribon and plastic to arrive to finish it off. I’m going to try one out this year and use it to plant out much earlier in the spring. Hopefully it works and I can build more and use them all to plant ranunculus in the fall next year.

Anyone else still scrambling to get work done in the garden?

12/10/2022

Isn’t this Labyrinth dahlia gorgeous? I’d love to grow a whole lot more just like it but I’m running short of growing space and simply can’t fit in all the flowers I’d like to grow. So, if anyone near Oregon, IL has a lead on some land with access to water (for irrigation) to buy or lease, I’d love to hear about it. I’m starting small—even just a large, sunny backyard that someone is tired of mowing and wouldn’t mind filling up with flowers would work great. Long term, of course, I’d love an acre or two and would certainly be interested in purchasing it if the right land became available. Let me know if you have any ideas, please!

11/17/2022

The garden may be done for the season but the hard work is just beginning. I’m finally feeling reenergized and excited for the future of Nichole’s Garden. I planted hundreds of bulbs and perennials, ordered way too many seeds and dahlia tubers, and invested in both the Floret Workshop and Muddy Business. This winter is going to be a busy one and I’m so excited to get this garden growing again!

.taulbey

09/21/2022

It’s always a pretty good feeling when you can pull a birthday gift straight from your garden. This arrangement is for my mom, the hardest working, most giving, and all-around-best grandma ever.

08/12/2023

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