April Newsletter
Hi, everyone! I am so excited to write this first newsletter for you. I hope you are all doing well and staying calm through this life we are living right now. Before I talk about what my flowers and I have been up to this month, I want to share where I’m taking my business this summer.
My flower dream is to grow my own flowers on a farm. Some of you know I have been taking the Floret Flower Farm Online Workshop. The class began in January and has taken me through a self-evaluation, how to prepare to grow, supplies you need, how to grow certain specialty cut flower varieties, and how to sell/ market yourself. The class usually runs for 6 weeks, but since I have life time access, I decided to take my time and really take it all in. So, I am still in the process of finishing the class. It’s been nice to have it since I’ve been stuck at home. This class has been the most informative class I’ve ever taken. It has really motivated me and taught me everything I’ve been wanting to learn about flower farming.
This class has taught me to go for your dream because, why wait? Sometimes waiting for the exact timing like having enough finances or the right piece of property to grow on does not always line up perfectly. Floret taught me to start small and start by growing something with what you have. And, that is what I decided to do! I ordered a bunch of seeds from Floret and Johnny’s Selected Seeds, transformed our guest room into my mini greenhouse and began growing!
This coming summer, I have been given the opportunity to grow on three locations for my flowers: my backyard, part of my mom’s garden, and a small plot at a family friend’s farm! Thankfully, they are all within 15 minutes of my house and I’m so blessed and thankful for the opportunity they are allowing me to have. This is my first year growing flowers by myself and building my business. I’m mainly making this a “trial run” year, but hoping to design small arrangements for my family and friends and have some for sale. A lot of the flowers I will be growing can be dried. I will be experimenting with drying flowers and hope to have some dried arrangements to sell for holidays.
I had thought about doing a CSA or some sort of flower subscription, but I decided I’m going to hold off on that for this year. If you want flowers, keep an eye out because I will be doing updates when flowers are ready to be sold.
Last fall, I planted three different varieties of spring bulbs to trial. Two types of tulips and one type of Narcissus. They are all beautiful and once they fully bloom, I will be blogging about how my experiments went.
So far this spring, I have sowed, watered, fertilized, and, of course, provided my flowers with love every single day. Sowing started in February with sweet peas, Iceland poppies, lavender, eucalyptus, dusty miller, and black-eyed Susan. Then, March and April with larkspur, celosia, queen ann’s lace, gomphrena, statice, pincushion flower, snapdragons, amaranth, strawflower, cosmos, phlox, zinnias, and sunflowers.
A few week ago, my husband and I added a second raised bed to our backyard and dug out my dahlia beds. We got some top soil brought in here (thanks to my stepdad) and spread mushroom compost on top.
Out of my flower group, sweet peas are the only cold hardy flower, which means they can tolerate cold temperatures. Iceland poppies can tolerate some as well, but should be covered if there is a last-minute frost.
On Saturday, this past weekend, the weather was perfect for being outside, so I planted my sweet peas. I planned for them to be planted in my mom’s garden, which is exactly what I did. My stepdad, Rick, helped me put up my little trellising. Then, I laid out all the plants about 8 inches apart, tied them up, and gave them some water. I also wanted to try putting landscape fabric in the two pathways on either side. Hopefully, to keep the weeds down throughout the season.
I can’t wait to show you my progress throughout the season and I hope you will continue this journey with me. Thank you to all of those who have subscribed to my blog/emails. If you know someone who would be interested, feel free to share!
Also, if you need a Mother’s Day gift, I’m selling e-gift cards for 1 fresh flower bouquet that will be delivered in the summer time when my flowers are in bloom. You can find details here:
Talk to you soon,
Amanda