24 September 2021

Flower Forecast: Winding Down

As we approach October, our season on the farm is starting to wind down. There are still a few flowers left to fully bloom, but the slightly quieter field also gives us time to prepare for next spring when it all kicks off again.

Our bronze and burgundy sunflowers are almost over but what a show they gave us. We’ve absolutely loved these and the colours were everything we’d dreamed of.

The chrysanthemums are imminent – they’re in bud but we’re patiently waiting to see how long it takes to go from bud to bloom.

We’ve experimented with some late-sown zinnias in the polytunnel to see how far we can extend their season to help bridge the gap in between the late blooming chrysants. It’s a slow trickle, but they’ve started blooming so we’re excited to welcome a smaller, second wave of these bright and cheerful flowers.

Our apricot lemonade cosmos are going down a storm and these are still going strong for now. We still have mint and geranium smelling amazing and going in to Petalon bouquets whenever possible (we have geranium in both bouquets this week).

Aside from that, it’s now full steam ahead on prep for spring before the weather gets too bad to work outside – flipping beds, planting bulbs and getting our hardy annuals in to the ground. We’ve also taken on the 11 acre field next to ours and have been busy prepping that for spring. This land has been contract farmed for almost a decade, with farmers planting a crop, harvesting it and then moving on after 6 months. This pattern and chemical treatment has been brutal on the condition of the soil, leading to low levels of nitrogen and organic matter. We want to combat this and have started with seed drilling – planting a few hundred kilograms of a 26-seed blend using a method that causes minimal soil disturbance. We’ll leave this to grow over autumn, winter and early spring to add some life back in to the soil and then our next step will be to add some four-legged friends who will help graze the land and add their own special brand of nitrogen. Check out James’s post on Instagram to see some footage of the land being drilled.

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