I'm way behind the eight ball with this blog thing so I'm trying to get up to date with what I'm doing. I have a love /hate relationship with technology and social media, I'd sooner be outside doing it than writing about it, but I'm learning to embrace....aaaahhhhhh
Growing my own flowers sustainably for my floral business has been running around in my head for years ....so after returning from overseas I decided to approach my neighbor who had the adjacent empty section beside me. I asked him if he wouldn't mind me doing a bit of clearing, growing a few flowers and having a home for my honey bees. In return I would plant natives that were self seeding on my land into his section further over that was being taken over by broom. No problem…done deal!!!
The digger arrived in November 2020...
let the metamorphosis begin…
It's not a huge area of land but I thought I have to start somewhere, I have decided to give it a go...why not.
To begin I have 6 garden beds measuring about 6m x 2m, these will be for my some of my annuals.
The area doesn't get much morning sun and it’s primarily clay soil. The soil was ladened with blackberry, convolvulus, aluminium weed, gorse and broom...oooh yay.
If anyone wants any of these specimens, come help yourself, they are free!!!
I have had the land tiered as it is sloping, I thought this would be easier to work with.
I have added gypsum to the clay to break it down some, then I added a farm compost/mulch, pea straw, and some sheep manure. Pea Straw is an excellent mulch it keeps the moisture in the soil and combats weeds and breaks down nicely over time.
Sooo...over Winter I have been primarily clearing, trimming trees to let in more light, and getting the soil to some kind of growing standard. It's been bloody hard yakka and I'm not finished yet.
I planted Anemones and Ranunculus over the winter. I was behind the 8 ball entirely ( I seem to do that a lot) and planted them way too late but I thought I'll just plant them anyway. Big mistake!!!
After planting them it rained and rained, the bulbs just rotted and I lost about 350 bulbs...ouch $$
Oh well you live and you learn and that's farming for ya, and you can't predict the seasons. The experts predicted a dry winter and we got the complete opposite, it has been so wet.
But next time I'll be more organized and get them in the ground in Autumn not half way through Winter!!!
Keep calm and carry on.....
wow that's a lot of work you keen thing, well done :)