Right, that's it. Everything STOP. I am doing this. Right. Now.
I'm supposed to be planting, weeding and mulching but if I don't sit down and revive this blog asap, I fear the poor dear is going to slide into oblivion once and for all!
The last arrangement of the season: cosmos, rudbeckia, dahlias, scabiosa caucasica and atropurpurea, gaillardia, chocolate cosmos, bergamot, marigolds, agastache, salvia, persian carpet zinnias, echinacea, hydrangea and foraged autumnal foliages.
So what happened? Where did I go?
I didn't go anywhere, I've been here all along; farming like crazy. I got a bit swamped and a little overwhelmed by the enormously challenging year that has been my first season flying solo as a real small scale flower grower.
I am only just now, coming up for air and this is what I realise: nothing went the way I had planned, it was a gazillion times harder than I thought it would be and I didn't make a cent but I did it, I'm still standing!!!
And do you know what? There was so much beauty along the way. True, mostly I was moving so fast, it all just looked like a blur but it was there - and I grew it. It is the most fulfilling and heart bursting feeling to watch someone walk into a shop, walk up to your flowers and comment on how wonderful they are. I am the proudest of mums, with the glowing-est of cheeks when I say "thank you, I grew them".
I hardly have a photo to show for it {unless you jump on Instagram folks, that I can do whilst still moving at speed} ... but trust me, it happened.
I can't possibly catch you upon all that has happened since my last post - back at the start of Spring!!! But in summary: there were flowers, buckets and buckets of flowers, nearly all of these were sold direct to other florists who are also keen do see some diversification in the local market. There was lots of weeding, serious irrigation troubles during the driest Summer on record (or something to that effect, I've stopped listening to the news), I moved house a couple of times, took on a small pile of wedding work and then, just as I was hitting my stride, I decided to completely redesign the layout of the patch! As the Summer flowers peaked, I decided to scale back the annual Autumn planting to a bare minimum so that I could dig up 80% of the patch and turn all the beds 90 degrees, put in semi-permanent pathways and permanent irrigation lines. All I can say is thank god for Dahlias, those 3 beds just kept on giving :-)
I am please to report that the patch renovation is now almost complete, just a few more beds to shape and paths to lay. Half of it is already full with the Spring flowerers: bulbs, digitalis, cerinthe, lupins, poppies (what a hit those paeoniflorum were this year!), nigella, cornflower, larkspur, some heirloom gypsophila and sweet peas. I had to quickly build a few more raised beds at our rental because I bought too many bulbs - it's easy to do - and then jam even more in between the roses!
So folks, that's where we are at as Winter takes to the stage. I am dearly looking forward to a bit of a rest and reassessment over Winter, maybe a chance to get some new ideas and projects off the ground?! One thing that will be happening, is more of this, this blog is important to me and I have missed it. Writing posts to imaginary people in your head whilst digging, is just not quite the same.