Getting prepared.
Once the notion of beginning to flower farm came about, it was time to determine if this is even a possibility. We have five children, after all, as well as the rest of the farm! Do we have time for this? Will this be profitable? Will this be a huge waste of effort? These were the glaringly obvious questions that jumped out. I wanted to grow flowers, and I wanted to make bouquets and arrangements with those flowers- and I wanted to make others happy with those flowers as well! But how? When I approached my husband with this, initially my intention was to be quite small. I wanted to “dip my toe” in to flower farming and see what traction I could get. Admittedly, this was the approach of someone that was afraid to take the plunge. My husband very lovingly encouraged me to view this from the lens of an actual business, and to treat it accordingly. This was just the push I needed to turn things official!
And thus began the research… reading books and articles, scrolling Facebook groups, venturing down any avenue that was relevant to flower farming. This has become QUITE the endeavor- and certainly not the extent to which I set out when looking around our property for where best to put a couple small rows of cut flowers. I am now elbow deep in educating myself in everything flower farming- the business and accounting, marketing, selling, and don’t forget the actual farming! Growing flowers in your vegetable garden is one thing, and flower farming is another ball game. A game I am intent to learn and win! My goal is to grow the most gorgeous flowers with the best soil, and to do so with as much of our own farm’s compost as possible, to ensure clean organically grown flowers.
Soil is the key to healthy plants. Period. My own experience has taught me that, and the research points the same way for flower farming. I knew that in order to get the flowers I wanted I needed to prep the beds and soil as soon as possible. So beginning in fall of 2024 I started gathering all of the horse and sheep manure that I could around the barn, as well as the hay and straw scraps, and made a giant compost pile down near our creek- about halfway between the barn and the flower beds. This will feed the plants come spring. I then chose our bed spaces, an area that has great soil and sun, and drew up a layout. I tilled the entire area- we may be a no till one day, but not today. I took soil samples, then added in amendments by hand. I covered the beds in straw, and then put a tarp over the entire area for the winter. Now, there are about a million ways to prep flower beds- trust me, I did the research (and again, a bit of experience). What it came down to for us, is what we had available in the time that we needed it. For example, I would have loved leaves on the beds over winter but the timing just didn’t allow for me to collect the leaves I needed. We did, on the other hand, have tons of left over straw from reseeding our yard. In this case, I made do with the straw and it’s a great second choice. Next fall when we prep the beds for winter I will make lots of different choices based on timing and what’s available to us then.
Now I cross my fingers and hope that come early spring when I pull back the tarp I’ll find no weeds and healthy beds that are ready for compost and seedling transplants!
