A Season of Flowers

Every year for the past few years, at the end of the growing season I told myself that I was going to grow more flowers the next year.  Then spring would come around and I'd try to plan all of the veggies to plant and throw flowers in here and there and forget about it until the season was over.  So this past spring I decided that this year would be the year I'd grow more flowers.  And then I started planning.

Do you have a garden?  If you do, you know how it goes.  You make a list of things you "need" in your garden, but then you order seeds and get a few extra for fun and you find plants here and there and suddenly, the garden is a lot more full than your original "plan."  I looked at my maps of where things would go and started to figure out where I could add extra growing space and realized just how many flowers I'd actually be growing and I had an idea: What if I asked around to see if anyone wanted some of my flowers?  I wasn't sure how it would all play out, so I started with a Facebook post asking if anyone would be interested in a subscription to a flower CSA for the summer.  And I got way more response than I expected.  I had 14 people sign up for the season for either weekly or bi-weekly flower shares from June-September.

Honestly, I was terrified.  I was looking at a big patch of grass in my backyard and crossing all of my fingers and toes that I could turn it into a patch of land that would grow enough flowers for my subscriptions for the summer.

The learning curve was crazy (to say the least) but I did it.  I made at least a million mistakes that will help me to plan better for next year, but here's the thing: I loved it even more than I thought I would.

I had no idea how it would all turn out when I started in the spring, I just knew that I wanted to grow a whole lot of flowers this year, and I wanted to be able to share them, and that really did happen.  Everything you see above was either grown in my garden or foraged nearby from the roadside or generous neighbors.    It didn't seem like so much at the time, but now that I look at those photos, I'm blown away by how much actually grew.  And I can't wait to get planning and growing for next season!

For now, I need to get some of dying plants out and get some fall crops and cover crops in there to keep the soil healthy and hopefully make it even better for next year.