The sun is out, and so are we.
Welcome back to Outdoorsy, your guide to all things nature in the Philadelphia area and beyond.
There are flowers all over this edition. Here’s the lineup:
Pick ‘em: We’re headed for the floral fields.
Crops damaged: Spring’s heat-freeze seriously hurt farms in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
Your experience: A reader raves about a wildflower preserve in New Hope.
📫 Let’s talk. What’s your favorite trail? Did you discover a spot we should know about? Send me an email.
⛅ Our weekend weather is looking pretty splendid.
— Paola Pérez (outdoorsy@inquirer.com)
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Our proximity to the Garden State and the agriculturally rich Delaware Valley means we can have our pick when it comes to having fun with florals.
Here’s where you can find some of our favorites at pick-your-own flower farms near Philly:
🌷 Tulips have a short blooming season, but Brown Hill Farms is one of the largest tulip farms in Pennsylvania, with more than 500,000 of them sprawling five acres. If you love daffodils, they have about 25,000 of those, too.
🪻 Lavender is a mainstay at several farms including Hope Hill Lavender Farm and Peace Valley Lavender Farms, offering you the chance to cut your own bundles of the relaxing plant.
🌸 Peonies are the star of the show at Long Valley Peonies, where you can find more than 60 varieties of rare and standard-cut flowers. (Psst: Their season usually starts during the last week of May and lasts until the first or second week of June.)
Get the full list to find beautiful blooms just a few tolls away.
News worth knowing
Philadelphia is planning to use new flood monitoring technology in Eastwick and other neighborhoods.
South Jersey is heading into another summer already parched under the worst rainfall deficit in 20 years.
From new boardwalks and playgrounds, resurfaced tennis courts, rebuilt bridges, and water towers, the Shore may look different to you this summer.
Love Your Park Week is underway! Volunteers are needed to help tend to parks across Philadelphia. A handful of free events are also being hosted to celebrate, including bird walks at John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge and community paddleboarding at FDR Park. Get more information here.
🌳 Your outdoorsy experience
Before it was nice enough to spend much time outside, Outdoorsy reader Clare C. expressed high hopes for the coming season:
“I’m patiently waiting for enough warmth to again experience yoga in the moss garden at Bowman’s Hill Wildflower Preserve. The birds serenading us with their songs and the majestic tree canopies overhead, what better therapy can you imagine?”
I was happy to hear from Clare again recently. Her blissful wish came true: “We practiced yoga outside today in the moss garden. The weather was lovely and the bluets blooming in the moss were magnificent. So peaceful!"
Thanks for recommending the preserve.
📫 Want to share a story? In 200 words, tell me about your favorite moments outdoors. We love pictures if you have them. You might see it featured here.
🎤 Now we’re passing the microphone to weather expert Tony Wood.
The peach, apple, and other pickings may be slimmer this summer — and the prices heftier — as the result of what by any measure was a heat-freeze ambush of rare intensity in April that likely has resulted in hundreds of millions of dollars in crop losses.
“I’m not going to be a complete prophet of doom,” said Lisa Specca, owner of the popular Specca Farms in Burlington County, “but farmers are pretty upset right now.”
Farmers have been warning that the surviving local peaches and apples are going to cost more when they appear later in the summer.
It’s not just Specca’s.
Officials in both New Jersey and Pennsylvania say they are seeking federal disaster aid. The damage was “unparalleled,” said Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro, who toured a freeze-decimated orchard in Lancaster County on Friday. His secretary of agriculture, Russell Redding, said state growers suffered $150 million to $200 million in losses. New Jersey officials still were working on estimates, a state spokesperson said. — Tony Wood
Read on to learn what the freeze could mean for pickings and prices this summer.
Paola’s picks
💿 An album: Superbloom by Jessie Ware.
📖 A good read: Savoring books by the lake with Tom Pluck.
📍 A game: See if you can pinpoint where I’m kayaking.
🌕 An activity: A moonlit hike in West Fairmount Park ($15) and a guided herb walk at the PHS Community Farm at Norristown Farm Park (free).
🧠 Food for thought: May is Mental Health Awareness Month. More therapists are exploring the benefits of outdoor sessions.
A calming view
Can you feel the breeze? It seems like it was just yesterday that every tree and sidewalk looked like this...
👋🏽 Until next time. Nature calls!
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