Remember that dreamer post I made a long while back? Well, I decided to move forward with one of those little day dreams of mine Spring of 2019.
Flower farming. And wearing a straw hat.
Oh it looks just dreamy doesn't it?!
That's what I thought.
As with most things. It's not as dreamy or easy as it looks!
It's SO much work and even more of a learning curve!! There is so much to learn, so, so much.
But as I always do, I dove in head first and started reading every flower farming book I could get my hands on, I started ordering seeds and supplies, I turned a corner of the basement into a germination/growing area. Started tilling up fields. The whole shebang.
Murphy's Law was there as my trusted friend to make sure anything that could go wrong did. OK maybe it really hasn't been that bad. Most of my seeds did germinate! I am proud of myself for that. Some didn't but most did.
The biggest problem I ran into was the results of my soil test. Everyone told me that's the #1 priority. I wasn't going to listen and just plant away. But I decided not to be a total dummy and test my soil. And I am sure glad I did. I would have been very sad to have a field full of nothing but weeds with no flowers to show (still a chance that happens...can't rule it out just yet!).
The to-be flower field is a plot of land that was used for corn and soybeans at one point. I don't know why I expected it to be good to go but I did...and it was not.
It is acidic and lacking in nutrients. Two strikes.
The problem this caused is that I had to get some of my cool season flowers in the ground in April but the field was not ready. And it's still not ready! So I had to realllllly pump my breaks and slow down starting seeds as I had no where to go with them. I have 8 raised beds but they filled up fast!
So far I have snapdragons, stock, iceland poppies, ammi, and dara planted. Plus just a handful of peonies.
And now I'm stuck! Thankfully my farmer friend plowed it recently after liming and fertilizing with chicken manure. But it needs to dry out a bit (stop raining!!) so it can be tilled again and then planted.
I just cannot wait for my very first bloom! My snapdragons were seeded in February and they are soo close! I'm very impatient with their long maturation time! I still have about 1-2 weeks to wait for them to flower. It's killing me.
To add to the pressure, I have a wall full of warm season flowers: asters, zinnias, amaranth, and celosia sprouted and growing under the lights. They'll soon be ready for the field!
My plan is to make this a small side business. However, it is hard to determine who to sell to when you have zero product and aren't completely sure when you will have anything at all!
I'm trying to relieve myself from the pressure and just take it one day at a time and go with the flow. I'm usually good at that. Not so much right now.
I just keep learning and experimenting. Hopeful to have some beautiful flowers to show for my hard work!