Flower Growing @ Home and the Farm
When I decided last fall that I wanted to grow flowers and start a business, the first place I looked was our backyard. I have always been a perennial flower gardener, so we already had lots of gardens at our house. However, they weren’t set up for growing flower-farm style and there was a lot of unused space. When I first mentioned to my husband that we could “just terrace this back slope”, his response was “that’s a lot of work!” followed by “of course we can do that”. Thanks to my contractor husband and enthusiastic 4-year-old, all it took was several weekends, lots of trench digging, and 300 feet of cedar to get three flat beds ready for planting!
While we are fortunate to have a big lot by city standards, it is by no means big enough for what I had in mind for flower growing. Last fall, I started asking friends with property about growing space for flowers. My expectations were set pretty low - I was hoping to find an unused area (likely a lawn or hay field) where I could till a few beds and get some spring bulbs planted before winter arrived. I was very fortunate to connect with Josh & Britt who own a farm in Asphodel-Norwood. Josh, of Carrot Top Organics, has been growing vegetables in the area for over a decade and is now setting up for a fall vegetable share - visit his website to learn more! www.carrottoporganics.ca
On my first visit to Josh and Britt’s farm, Josh told me about his process for turning the former pasture/hay fields into growing beds for his vegetables. He had already prepared about an acre worth of beds for this year. Then he took me over to a prepared garden next to the farmhouse - from old aerial photos he had seen that this was the old vegetable garden. The beds were already formed and planted in cover crops. This would be my new flower growing area!
I’ve been working hard this spring to get these beds all ready and planted. I’m using a drip-irrigation system and pre-burned landscape fabric to control the weeds. Even with those systems, there is still lots of weeding, watering, and tending to be done so I’ve been spending 2-3 days a week at the farm. I come home from farm work days covered in dirt and happy as can be.
Come out and see the farm in July - we will be hosting a farm tour soon!