2022 was a tough old year. It had its ups but it had a lot of downs. A lot. Probably more downs than ups.

2023 is a much better year. Good things have come out of bad things. Even on the barest and most inhospitable of soils something always grows.

For as long as I can remember I’ve been looking for a side-hustle. Something small and manageable. Something I’ve got complete control over. A small part of the world where I’m my own boss. I’ve had all sorts of mad ideas over the years. Most of them never made it past the paper stage. Two years ago I had this idea of making window boxes and filling them with plants. I turned the dining table into a woodworking area with vices screwed to the table edge and a mat of sawdust on the floor. I made 3 boxes, decorated them and filled them with bulbs and annual flowers. They looked fantastic. But I knew it was a hopeless project. Too labour intensive and far too expensive. So I gave it up or saw sense. Or both.

And then I had another idea. A better idea. At least I think it’s a better idea.

I decided to grow flowers and sell them. The only problem was I didnt’ want to be a traditional flower farmer with a traditional flower farm. Which was just as well because I didn’t have enough land anyway. Tunnel houses and acres of plastic matting are not for me. I want my flowers to grow in a proper garden with lots of different sorts of plants, side by side and, most importantly, I want my garden to be a garden of eden for wildlife. I hunted around for someone who was growing cut flowers in a slightly different way.

It all fell into place when I read about Stokesay Flowers in Gardens Illustrated. A couple called Victoria and Barney Martin rent a walled garden in Shropshire, Uk and grow flowers for florists. Their garden looks more like a cottage garden than a flower farm. And while I don’t have a huge walled garden I do have something else going for me.

I’m in the fortunate position of looking after two gardens. One in Karori, Wellington and one in Paekakariki on the Kapiti Coast. One on clay and one on sand. One is near the sea with a warm climate and one is surrounded by hills and gets good frosts in winter. One gets a lot more sun than the other. They both get the wind.

My plan: grow cottage garden flowers, put them into bunches and sell them at a farmers market. Hopefully people will buy them. Only one way to find out. I like the idea of following the seasons and growing and selling local. I want to grow a wide variety of plants. I want to grow some of the flowers that flowers farms don’t bother with because they’re not profitable. I don’t want to mollycoddle plants. I want to grow the right plants in the right garden: roses and dahlias in Karori, lavender and achillea in Paekakariki.

So, I have to turn both gardens into flower producing Edens. The Karori garden hasn't ‘t been weeded or pruned for over a year. It’s completely overgrown and needs a total overhaul. The Paekakariki garden is newish and needs new beds built and existing beds converted from veggies to flowers.

It’s autumn. It’s the time to plant hardy annuals and spring bulbs. There’s so much to do at the moment that every day I’m thinking about flowers and every night I’m dreaming about them. And yet this is meant to be a side-hustle. I still have my teaching work to be getting on with. Luckily it’s been the school holidays and I got a lot of seed, bulb and corm sowing done. And a bit of weeding and tree chopping.

I’m going to write a short blog most weeks about my two gardens and my crazy quest to grow imperfect cut flowers. There will be ups and downs but there’ll always be beauty.

Here are some of the things that happened this week.

All my sweet peas have grown. I worry I planted them too soon. Some gardeners say sow the seeds in autumn and some say sow them in winter. My seedlings are looking too long and leggy, even though I pinched them. I’ve decided to plant them out in the garden in Paekakariki, once I’ve worked out where to plant them.
I’ve applied to 3 local markets to sell my flowers and got told there wasn’t room. Some have rules about the number of stalls selling the same product. I’ve gone on 3 waiting lists. I have one more market to check out and then I have to come up with ‘Plan B’.
I’ve tried to grow nicotiana many times over the years and failed. This time my seeds sprouted.
Most of the flower growing area at Paekakariki is in the back garden. This is because it’s sheltered from the salty northerly and gets great sun. I’ve assembled and filled 3 new raised beds. The big dog and the little dog jump on to these beds to eat the sheep pellets and mulch. I’m going to have to fence off these raised beds. Bloody dogs.
My tomatoes are still growing in the remaining raised beds. I had hoped to chuck them out of their homes by now, so I could plant the hardy annuals. But, given the price of tomatoes at the moment and the fact they’re heirloom ones I grew from seed, I can’t.
Is cosmos a hardy annual? According to Kings Seed they are. I planted some white ones and i’m deciding whether I should plant them into the garden or keep them in pots in the greenhouse.
I discovered that most of my rose bushes in Karori are still alive after being smothered by weeds and vigorous neighbours for a year. So are my dahlias.
One of my favourite nurseries is closing down. Marshwood Gardens. I bought one of each of their achilleas so I had something to remember them by. And lots of other plants too.
I’m looking at flowers that grow into winter so I can extend the growing season. Chrysanthemums. The new dahlias. What wonderful old fashioned flowers. I love their acrid scent too. And while I’m on the theme of old fashioned I have to share a secret new obsession. flower arranging books from the 1970s and earlier. The photos! All the wonderful photos of a bygone pastime. sure people arrange flowers now but not like they did way back then.
My son’s gorgeous girlfriend got me into dried flowers. She and he gave me some for my birthday (but I know it was her idea). I remember awful dried flowers in the 70s and 80s but things have moved on and dried flowers are now very pretty in a Miss Haversham sort of way. I’m going to have a go at drying flowers and seed-heads.
A dear friend wondered if people would buy cut flowers in a ‘cost-of-living-crisis’. And it’s a fair question. My plan is to make beautiful flowers affordable. And hopefully by selling freshly picked (and conditioned) flowers they’ll last longer too.
I love flowers.