Valentines is nearly upon us

After a few glorious, if decidedly chilly, days of sun the weather is slightly warmer, and my mind is turning to the spring and seed sowing. It is still a little early for most of my flowers, but I need to scratch that itch and will be starting sweet peas, larkspur, colibra poppies and snapdragons. There are still many other tasks that need to be undertaken before the season starts in earnest. The field has been ignored since the end of the 2024 season so there is preparation for planting to do there, planning, research, selling of dried and marketing (which I really need to up my game on). So, to the field. Whilst I have known about forest gardening and permaculture for many years and have always aspired to have a go, I have recently come across Joshua Sparks who uses these methods combined with Natural Koreen farming methods amongst other things he has found during research. He doesn’t weed and I love that idea!! This year I am going to have a weedy flower farm, farming beetles and other wee beasties to help me combat the plethora of pests and bugs.  Watch this space to see how I get on!!!

However, until the fresh flower season starts, I am busy creating arrangements with my dried flowers for Valentine’s day, and for restaurants to provide a more sustainable flowery offering to adorn tables.  There are so many advantages of using dried flowers in a commercial setting and they don’t need the constant maintenance required by fresh flowers, and there is no stinky water to deal with. One restaurant told me it would save an hour a day. Dried flowers to not have the same short shelf life of fresh providing potential savings. If seasonality is required, this can be achieved by changing the look of the flowers using the colour pallet.