Where it all began
May 2021. A year after Covid hit. A year after I tapped out of corporate life after reprioritising…that thing you do after a pandemic, right? A few months after I spent the autumn harvesting grapes for a local vineyard and desperately started to yearn to work outdoors. To feel the sun play on my skin, and have the crisp, clear air surround me. A complete and utter re-route (re-root?).
I’d begun to dabble a bit more in the garden, and listen to a few gardening podcasts when lo and behold I discovered that flower farming was an actual thing. Who knew! And so what else was there to do but join in the fray.
So, proudly leaning on my pitch fork, and making a slight life adjustment, I began my little cut flower patch by converting 100 square metres of our residential section into productive flower growing areas. The focus from day one was to follow the seasons and celebrate the blooms that flourish through each...nurturing these natural wonders from my backyard. In doing this, the flowers and plants have given me so much more. They nurture my soul, fill my (tulip) cup, and centre me. A day in the garden is a day of nature, fresh air and physical reward. Encouraging seeds to germinate, singing to seedlings to grow strong, and revelling in the sights of those long awaited blooms.
Back then, the growing areas in our backyard were maximised to accommodate my proliferation of bulbs, corms, seeds and seedlings that were either planted, re-homed or sprouted into existence. The path this journey has wandered has been full of learning and making mistakes. Failing and doing better. I remember spending every evening disappearing down rabbit holes full of botanical information, squeezing advice into my head about hardy annuals, perennials, hoop houses, rhizomes and mulch. I was absolutely and utterly absorbed and I couldn't have been happier. I was a backyard flower farmer in the making!
Since then I've been nurturing the flowers for the land and for the bees. I've been following the seasons and doing it the way flowers would want it to be done...at their pace, in their light, and in their own time so we can be blessed with natural, local blooms, full of lusciousness and vibrance. Just as nature intended.
