We’re in the middle of our Garden Planning for Success series, and I’ll dive right in where we left off yesterday. (???? If you’re just joining now, scroll down for links to all of the posts in the series.)
We’re using a very specific example to talk about breaking down goals: working from big-to-small. Yesterday, we started “big” with 15 weekly bouquets in mind, now we’re working backwards to “small” by asking, “What ingredients will I use in my bouquets?”
I used to grow hundreds of varieties, and I learned the hard way that many of them either fell off my radar because it was too much to keep up with, or they didn’t really work with the palettes that I ended up using. Too much went to waste, and now we grow fewer varieties.
Over the years I’ve learned which varieties I can’t live without. Today we posted our very own must-have list of what’s actually going into our fields here at TWF in 2022, if you’d like to see, and my bottom-line advice is – especially if you’re a new gardener – don’t fall into the trap of trying to grow everything. You’ll be happier growing small quantities of a few staples—not every color available—until you know how they perform for you, in your microclimate.
My bottom-line advice is -especially if you’re a new gardener-don’t fall into the trap of trying to grow everything. You’ll be happier growing small quantities of a few staples—not every color available—until you know how they perform for you, in your microclimate.
Sarah Pabody
Here are 2 other tips (+ a bonus tip!) to consider as you decide which bouquet ingredients to grow:
1. Recognize that perennials take time to mature and invest in them slowly. There is a huge diversity of annuals and bulbs that you can grow in one season from beginning to maturity. And as you take time to build up a perennial collection, you can rely heavily on less expensive and quicker producing annuals. In the long run, investing in perennials is great and essential for giving yourself a balanced flower garden to choose from. But don’t be consumed with FOMO if you don’t have them your first few seasons.
2. Forage from your own landscaping (or your mom’s, or your friend’s, with permission!) for foliage.
Bonus Tip: Have your supplies on hand at the beginning of the season (seed trays/labels, bouquet sleeves, stickers, twine, etc.). I’ve learned the hard way, that whether you’re making bouquets, selling plant starts, or building weddings, you need to be sure you have your supplies on hand ahead of time. For our current bouquet-making example, you will want to have your kraft paper stocked up. If you like to buy pre-made sleeves, I love recommending people to the A-Roo Company. They produce all kinds of amazing premade sleeves, even kraft paper ones that are glued, so all you have to do is open them up and pop your flowers in instead of mastering the technique of wrapping, and they will ship them right to you. (This is not a paid advertisement, but A-Roo if you want to talk about it, I’m here. ????)
For bouquet projects, you’ll want to pre-print or pre-order any stickers, tags, or stamps that you’re going to use. You’ll want some ribbon or twine or rubber bands already in hand before your flowers even start blooming. (Because, seriously, who knows when a pandemic will hit and our supply chains will be disrupted. I couldn’t get rubber bands for a whole month in 2020. I was going to all the Dollar Trees— that were mostly not even open— and trying to buy them in tiny packets so that we could keep going here at the farm!) For rubber bands, we prefer #16’s (2 1/2″ x 1/16″) because 2x around most bunches = DONE, and they fit nicely on our wrists.
Tomorrow I’ll break down how I plan to have enough focal flowers for 15 bouquets/week, and hope you’ll join me back here!
