To place farm orders by himself.  Two weeks ago he ordered the landscape cloth we needed for our upcoming lavender planting and for next years juneberries.  The plan was to buy all we needed now.  We have to lay the cloth down this year to help kill the weeds.  Buying it all now made sense as we would save on the shipping and have it on site for when we actually needed it.   All very logical.

So he ordered it and soon it all arrived.  Four huge boxes and two massively large rolls.  That caught him by surprise as he was expecting only one.  So he checked order and discovered that he chosen the two roll pack.  Bit of a costly mistake.  But the upside is that we can actually use the stuff.  Just have to find a place it store it until then.

And then there was the lavender order.  He placed this in January to make sure we got what we needed.  He figured it all out and decided that 190 was the magic number.   This based on the width and length of the cloth and best spacing between plants.  Of course he had to order in blocks of 25 so we would end up with10 left over.  We would try to sell them at the CCE Herb & Flower Festival in June.  The goal was to sell our shiitakes, but  the lavender would make sure we fit with the herb part.   They were due to arrive the first week of May, giving us enough time to get organized for planting after May 15.

Then last Thursday we came home to a message on the machine.  Our order was to be shipping soon but would be cut by one third.  Needless to say, Ron did not take that well.  He had already planned to take the day off so he could get some work done on the Transit.   His phone got a serious workout.  When I got home from work he was talking with the president of the company.   The end result was that we would get the majority of the order from the company we placed the order with and the rest would come from a subcontractor in Rochester, NY.   We got a call from the owner, Jeff on Saturday to confirm delivery on Monday.

And when we got home from work on Monday, we had lavender.  One box in the garage and five trays from Jeff.  They smelled fabulous.  Grabbed a quick dinner and then Ron went out to open the box.  And got another, more unwelcome surprise.  We  had 125 bare root lavender plants. Not what he was expecting at all.  He thought we would be getting what he calls plugs.  A quick look at the company website confirmed they only offered bare root plants.  Am not sure what Ron was looking at.

We now had a big problem.  These things had to be planted right now, we could not wait until May 20.  The phone rang and it was Jeff calling from Rochester to make sure we were happy with the plants he delivered.  And he was a great help with advice on how we needed to handle the plants.  Ron was on the phone with him for about 30 minutes and ended the conversation with Jeff agreeing to look into getting the juneberries we need next year.

Now we had to run to the store for potting mix.  Thank goodness we had some large planters in the garage that we could use.   Six bags in the car’s trunk and we were back home trying to decide the best way to get this done.   The plan was to get 25 into each planters, we had gotten really good at using that number to keep track of things.

Ron split open the bags of dirt and dumped it into the planter.  First we tried using our dibble to make holes, but the roots were really too wide to fit in the holes we made.   So I just used my hands to scoop out dirt, shove the plant in and then cover it all up.   It longer than we thought it would, but we got them all planted.  We left them all in the garage for the night.

Wednesday morning we pulled all the planters out on the driveway to get the plants a good drink  of water and some sun.

They don’t look like much right now, but I have high hopes for the future.   The other plants we put in the small green house in backyard.

Before we left for work, we covered them with sheets.  It was only 34 degrees out at 6 am.  Do you see the two big rolls by our birch trees?  That is what we are going to use for our lavender.  I called Jo about 10 am to take the sheets off.  It does come in handy at times to have her working a later shift.

Just before I left work yestserday afternoon, I called Ron to check in.  He informed me that he was confused.  He came home to find 96 more lavender plants in 3 boxes on our front porch.  And he had a voice mail from Jeff explaining it.  In their efforts to cover their bases and make sure we got our full order, the original company contacted two different subcontractors.  And they did not get the second order cancelled in time.  So we now have lots of lavender.  And this last batch was at no charge.

We will now plant lavender at three different stages of growth.  It will be interesting to see how they do and which does the best.   Actually four stages.  I tried my hand a growing from seed and had some success.

Nine of the seeds I planted germinated.  I lost one but now have eight babies that are looking pretty good.  This project will give us the best time line for growing lavender.  I do believe I will try this again.   And Ron has already talked with Jeff about getting more lavender for next year.  But no bare roots.

This might have been a stressful situation, but once again Ron handled it.  And as a result we have bonus plants and have made a solid connection with a grower in our area.  One who just might be able to get the juneberry plants Ron wants.  Things just do have a way of working out when Ron is involved.  I do have to wonder.   We will be using that extra roll of landscape cloth this year for the extra lavender.   Did Ron have a nefarious plot in mind all along or was this just lucky happenstance?  Either way, this is how so many of his plans work out. Not exactly the way they started, but better for us in the long run.  The man does have a knack for coming up roses.  Am I the only one who finds people like that annoying?

But I am still going to check all of his orders before he hits the submit button.  I am the CFO of THF after all.