Grow Your Beautiful Dream! How to Start a Backyard Flower Farm
Flower farmingHave you ever wanted to create your own bouquets with sustainably grown, pesticide-free flowers? Now is the time to start growing! With heirloom seeds, you can grow a beautiful flower garden in your own backyard. Once you get started, you'll have enough blooms to fuel your creative passion. Use these helpful tips to get started with heirloom flower seeds.
What is a Cutting Garden?
A flowerbed is designed to be enjoyed where it is, outdoors. However, a cutting garden is different in design and purpose. A cutting garden is grown with the intention of cutting flowers to make bouquets and other flower projects to enjoy indoors.
Since a cutting garden isn’t designed for curb appeal, it has more flexibility and also some serious work to do. There’s a wide range of flowers that can be grown for cutting. Knowing what you enjoy and what works well for various floral projects will help you plan what to grow.
Backyard Cut Flower Garden Tips
- Use long, narrow beds. Narrow planting beds make it easier to reach and cut flowers as needed.
- Sunshine. Most flowers appreciate full sun. Plan your garden location so the flowers get at least 6 hours of full sun.
- Always something blooming. Use succession planting to always have something blooming for a continual harvest.
- Know blooming seasons. Make note of when different flowers bloom. Some are spring bloomers, others are summer, and some are early fall. For example, Poppies bloom in spring, zinnias in summer, and sunflowers in fall.
- Plan out the spacing. Just like you plan your vegetable garden, plan your flower garden for spacing. Give your flowers room to grow so they will reach their full size.
- Put supports in early. Some flowers will appreciate a mesh grid or stakes to keep them growing straight. If supports are in place from the beginning, it is much easier than trying to put them in when things are already getting out of control.
- Think ahead to flower projects. Plan for arrangements you want to make and grow the 3 essentials. Focal flowers, filler flowers, and greenery.
- Plan your colors. When you think about putting together an arrangement of flowers, consider what colors will go well together. This will help you know what to plant, giving you the right ingredients for what you want to create.
- Enjoy sharing. Whether you’re selling flowers or giving them away, it’s rewarding to see what joy the beautiful blooms can give.
Flowers to Grow in Your Flower Farm
If you’re just getting started with flower farming, you can focus on just one or two varieties of flowers or grow a whole range of blooms. Perennials and annuals both make lovely arrangements.
Starting from seed will give you a wide range of flowers to choose from and also keep your startup costs low.
Perennial Flowers for Cutting Garden
Perennial flowers can make flower gardening much easier. Each spring, you can count on these flowers coming back without any extra effort. Some of our favorite perennials include cosmos, Black-Eyed Susans, coneflowers, lupine, daisies, and more.
Annual Flowers for Cutting Garden
Annual flowers are one you need to replant each season. Some of our favorite heirloom flowers for a cutting garden are dahlias, zinnias, and sunflowers. They are easy to grow and so prolific.
No matter what you choose, you can’t go wrong with a variety of flowers.
Making the Most of Your Backyard Flower Farm
Once you grow a cut flower garden, you will want to make the most of the blooms. From cutting to arranging, there are tips and tricks to create successful results.
How to Cut Flowers
The purpose of a cut flower garden is to bring the flowers indoors. Therefore, it is important to know how and when to cut. Each flower will be ready at a different time.
How to Keep Cut Flowers Fresh
Vase life is an important concern with cut flowers. Each flower has its own timeline for how long it stays fresh. But, this can be maximized by knowing some simple principles of keeping flowers fresh, such as knowing bloom time, temperature, and other requirements.
Drying Flowers
Cut flowers can last a week or more. But what if you want to extend the beauty of your blooms beyond that? Try drying your flowers. Dried flowers can be used in arrangements, wreaths, and other things to preserve the beauty of a flower garden.
The Right Tools for the Job
Just like vegetable gardening, flower gardening is made easier when you have a few basic tools. Garden scissors, weed barriers, and other things can make even a novice feel like a professional. So when you get into flowers, a few standard tools will help.
How to Make Flower Arrangements
Bouquets and flower arrangements from a cut flower garden are what it’s all about. They can be shared in the entry hall, a dining table, or delivered to friends and neighbors. With some basic knowledge, anyone can make an arrangement that brings a smile to the recipient.
How to Make Flower Wreaths
When you have a whole garden of flowers, there are a variety of wreaths you can make. Wreath-making has been around for centuries with simple daisy chains. It’s easy to create a crown of flowers to wear or a circle to place around a candle.
There are so many ways to enjoy flowers. A backyard flower farm gives you a ready supply of blooms to spark your imagination. And when you create your own flower garden, whether as a business or a hobby, you’ll be able to reap a beautiful investment.
Written by Beverly Laudie
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