As a follow up to my last post, No-Till Flowers Farming: The First Step to Regenerative Flower Farming, here are some practical lessons on no-till farming, be it flowers or other crops. Important to note is that we use the “deep mulch system” here at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers, which is a scaled-up version of lasagna gardening. […]
No-Till Farming: Lessons Learned with Deep Mulch System Read More »
Recently I was remembering back to 2009 as I was going into my second growing season as a flower farmer. I just had a tiny community garden plot that year that totaled a grand 1,682 square feet. But from that garden, I managed to grow enough flowers to go to two farmers markets a week
Perennial Bulbs: Five Favorites for Cut Flower Production Read More »
I was recently asked to chat “on the record” about my use of living walkways at the farm over on No-Till Growers podcast. In preparation for that, I jotted down some notes on a discarded brown-paper bouquet sleeve while I ate my (always hurried) lunch and then realized this would make a good blog post.
5 Reasons to Have Living Pathways on a Small Farm Read More »
The soil in hoop houses typically gets very depleted over many years of crop production and revitalizing hoop house soils becomes a necessary focus as a farm matures. There are two unheated hoop houses at Love ‘n Fresh Flowers, both Gothic-style and measuring 24’ x 48’, giving us a little over 2,300 square feet under
Naturally Revitalizing Tired Hoop House Soils Read More »
Since the launch of the No-Till Flowers podcast, I keep hearing from listeners about how the show is helping them feel less intimidated by regenerative farming concepts. Each new episode seems to be explaining another piece of the puzzle by breaking down a big scary system into digestible bites. I remember feeling pretty overwhelmed by all
Leaf Mold Tea or JADAM Microbial Solution (JMS) Read More »
>UPDATES< This article was first written/posted January 2021. I’ve learned a lot about natural inputs since then. I became certified in JADAM in 2022 and have done a fair amount of analysis on WCA in particular, with the help of soil scientist Bryant Mason. With that in mind, here are some important updates to
Eggshell Extract or WCA Read More »
This is the third in a short series of blog posts on easy homemade regenerative inputs for your farm and garden. If you missed the previous two posts, be sure to check out how to make Leaf Mold Tea and Eggshell Extract. Once you’ve caught up with those, it’s time to talk about my favorite of all
Weed Juice or JADAM Liquid Fertilizer (JLF) Read More »
I’ve been getting a lot of messages about no-till flower farming bed preparation. For ease of quick reference, I’m outlining below the cardboard/compost mulch system for no-till flower farming bed preparation that I used in the 2020 growing season. I will continue to tweak the no-till flower farming bed preparation and other systems at
No-Till Flower Bed Preparation Using Cardboard and Mulch Read More »
I have had this long-standing dream for my farm that has finally come to fruition this season: an all-native bouquet, including fillers, foliages and focal flowers. It took several seasons of curating a diverse collection of perennials and shrubs – culling some and adding others – to be able to make bouquets of only-native ingredients that
15 Tried-and-True Native Plants for North American Flower Farmers Read More »
Rule #1: Keep the Soil Covered at ALL Times Rarely in the diverse world of agriculture is there one golden rule and one silver bullet for every single farm. But when it comes to soil health and long-term farm sustainability, there is: never leave the ground bare and exposed. Without something covering it, soil is
Cover Crops for Flower Farming Read More »
