I had always entertained thoughts of having an herb farm, or maybe a farm with veggies and animals, or something. We did have animals (and still do), some chickens and pigs and cows (and other animals over the years), and we have had a big vegetable garden in the past. I’d sold a few vegetable starts from my driveway a couple of times, and that was fun, but it didn’t excite me. But FLOWERS did! And still do!

I was reading a book about flower farming in the winter of 2021, and I realized that I could make bouquets with what I already had growing on our property, and add flowers I could grow from seed in our short growing. I could provide local, seasonal flowers to my own community! I already had red osier dogwood, pussy willow, crabapples, lilacs, hydrangeas, daffodils, sweet fern, and lots of perennials. So the brainstorming started!

Everything in our bouquets is grown on our property. I start seedlings in the house under lights. Each week the bouquets are different, and I think that is the beauty of seasonal arrangements. Providing seasonal flowers in my own community has become an incredibly satisfying adventure for me!

I stock the flower cart the whole growing season (end of April through the first part of October) with bouquets that include whatever is blooming in any particular week. I also try to add beautiful fragrance if I can, like basil, mint, fennel, or scented flowers.

That first season in 2021 was an experiment year, and I only used the old vegetable plot, plants already growing on the property, and the perennials in the gardens around the house. The second year, 2022, we expanded the gardens by adding twelve 50’ beds in the field near the vegetable garden. The third year, we added four more 50’ beds, and four raised beds that I used first for tulips, and then annual flowers after the tulips were harvested. We have continued to add more perennials each year: roses, more and more peonies, lilies, flowering shrubs, and last year we added a hillside full of lavender plants!

I couldn’t do any of this without my husband Zach. He has been the brawn here doing most of the heavy lifting and digging! I hope you enjoy the flowers as much as I do!

Martha