It’s Winter here in New Zealand; a time to hunker down, stoke up the fire and make plans. I’ve been doing a bit of all three but I have to say I’ve never had a busier winter. I’ve been mulching like crazy to keep those pesky weeds under control, and to feed the soil and protect the biennials that are bravely soldiering on in the cut flower garden. My mulch of choice? Mushroom compost at the moment. Brilliant stuff!
I’ve been planting up sweet peas, making supports, planting bulbs in the Nuttery and transplanting hundreds (and I mean hundreds) of self sown cerinthe major seedlings to other parts of the garden ready to bloom their magnificent purply bracts in Spring.
I’ve also moved many narcissi bulbs, bluebells, snow drops and Belladonnas into the Nuttery because we are turning a very unsuccessful island bed back to grass. I can’t bear to waste a single bulb so I’ve been loading up the wheel barrow and moving each and every one to a new home.
All this activity has had a purpose. Not only to create a beautiful environment for my family and an enriching one for insects and birds but also to provide a firm foundation for my new, embryonic business. I’ve always known that growing things made sense. That assisting seeds to full their potential had meaning. That creating beauty meant creating a legacy. What I hadn’t realised was that, perhaps, I may be able to make a living from it…… So, I’m going to unveil my new business called myflowercart…da daaaaaaah!
Back in the summer I talked to my friend’s hubbie (an amazing builder with a very good eye for up-cycling – something close to my heart). I told him about my idea of a flower cart. I described it as rustic, vintage, tongue and groove wooden sides, a tin roof and all made from up cycled materials. Wow did he deliver!
Firstly we started with an old trailer base that my friend’s brother used to drag her around the paddock in when they were kids! Then the base was built and a cladding applied (old boards from an old house).
There are windows at the side to let light in and three shelves for optimal display. There was much discussion about the shelves and the windows and I’m so glad there was. I’m not very good at expressing the contents of my mind so it really helped to have practical advice from my friend and Mr Fig and Mr Builder.
The lower shelf just begs to be full of seedlings and Sunflowers will go in huge buckets down here.
I’ll fill these galvanised buckets full of blooms….
…..and use these blackboard tags for clear pricing.
I love the knot in the wood here.
My wooden cart won’t stop here either. Everyone who knows me will expect there to be bunting (and there will!).
It will also have vintage blackboards
I made them myself from an old mirror with a lovely frame
and an old photo frame from the op shop.
I’m also thinking rose hip heart decorations and willow wreaths. I’ll be operating an Honesty Box system so will have to trust people to be honest. I’ll also operate a Pay By The Bank App on your Mobile Phone system.
By the way, Eldest Figlet was responsible for this pricing! Note that the flowers are worth thousands and her baby Figlet brother 10 cents!
In full growing season there will be galvanised buckets full to bursting with Sweet peas, Larkspur, Foxgloves, anemone, ranunculus, icelandic poppies and mixed posies and bouquets…and that’s just early Spring! Summer will bring peonies, sunflowers, snapdragons, zinnia, clary sage, bells of Ireland, cosmos double click, kiss me over the garden gate, lemon balm, malope and nigella…. It will be a feast for the senses! I just love it and am eternally grateful to know someone who was able to make my dreams a reality (thanks Johnny aka Mr Builder and thanks Soph aka Mrs Builder for sowing the seed in my mind for actually selling my flowers).
I’ve been busy drawing on my IT skills from a previous life and creating spreadsheets for planting timetables, successional sowing, forecasts, actuals and budgets with the help of Mr Fig and his Financial Mind. We’ve had a happy time trying to outdo each other in the Nerd Stakes! I’ve been researching pricing, irrigation techniques, marketing and sales. It’s pretty thrilling and daunting but the underlying emotion is complete fulfilment and satisfaction. I’m pretty realistic; from my research it’s obvious that flower farming is best learnt from experience. I’m also not likely to be a millionaire next year (or the one after that). I’m starting small; just a cart, roadside sales and a couple of florists who liked my flowers last year. But I have plans to expand into the local community and social media and with inspiration from Common Farm Flowers in the UK and Floret Flowers in the US I’m hoping to be a fully fledged Flower Farmer before very long (and a Fig Farmer of course – I’ve been busy propagating and pruning those little trees too).
So it’s a busy and exciting time here at The Fig Tree. I’ll soon have a new website and blog focussing on the flowers which I’ll blog about as soon as it’s up and running. For now, if you’re interested in the Life of a Flower Farmer then pop over to my new Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/myflowercart. Until then…follow your dreams if you can 🙂
the fig tree 