Planning A Cut Flower Garden

Over the past year, Gavin and I have been brainstorming a number of ideas to incorporate into our small farm business. Many are simply not feasible if we want to live a slower stress-free life on the farm. One thing I’ve always wanted is a cut flower garden. And after watching a number of YouTube videos, planting one of our own seems like a great idea. If worst comes to worst, I will have beautiful flowers this season!

Why Grow a Cut Flower Garden

Sadly, you cannot live on flowers alone for nutrition, so one might ask what the exact use of a cut flower garden is. Especially if you are not growing them to sell. There are a number of reasons why we’ve decided to add a cut flower garden to our small farm business.

Gavin being able to work outside all day is one reason. He loves being outside and creating things with his hands. He’s never had the opportunity to do this before. So it’s a wonderful thing for him to do that will also make the farmhouse look more aesthetically pleasing.

A cut flower garden is quick to establish. We could be selling flowers this summer, providing we get them planted and everything goes to plan.

Cut flowers are beautiful. They add colour and seasonal touches to your home. I love nothing more than a vase of flowers in the living area to brighten up the space. Flowers make everyone happy. So if you have to opportunity to plant some seedlings, even in pots on your balcony, you should give it a go.

A cut flower garden can save you money. I’m not sure about where you live but a bunch of flowers here is a special occasion kind of thing. It’s hard to justify getting even a cheap bunch from the supermarket. At $20 a pop for four or five stems of stocks, it is not cheap at all!

How we are Creating the Garden

Our cut flower garden is being created using the same system we used to for the kitchen garden: the no dig method.

Layers of carboard are placed over the grass and a good quality compost put over the top. We will use the compost we’ve been making and have some trucked in. We need a lot! The plants are then grown in the compost which helps reduce the need for weeding.

Gavin designed the garden to receive the maiximum amount of sunlight possible. Its planted on the north (sunny) side of the house. The beds are in straight rows, running horizontally across the hill so we get maximum use of the run off and protection from the wind. We have also tried to place hardier plants near the top of the hill to protect the more delicate varieties.

The fence between the house and the paddock has been removed, leaving only the hedge. Gavin plans to create a walk through arbor like the ones into the farm garden, so visitors can essentially do a complete loop of the house and garden now.

Of course, this is all an experiment. A process of trial and error. After our first season, we should be able to see what works and what modifications we need to make to our plan.

What are we Planting

Our cut flower garden is going to be a mix of annuals and perrenials. There are some popular Australian natives, such as Waratah and Kangaroo paw to create rustic bouquets. The more traditional flower garden annuals will also be planted. You can see our ideas in the graphic above. We’ve chosen the plants based on what we like as cut flowers, what we think will grow in our area and what is popular in a bouquet or posy.

Here’s the progress of the garden so far. . .