Flower Farm Life-Lessons.

A few weeks ago, I found myself in a little bit of a flower farming conundrum.

The plan was to plant perennials this first year (you plant once, and they come back year after year) as they are establishing, they don’t need too much attention for the first few years. Luckily, my favourite flowers are peonies, roses, and hydrangeas; they are all perennials and suit the Mt Macedon climate.

I managed to plant twelve peonies of the eighteen I ordered and eight hydrangeas at the farm before this lockdown, so all was going to plan.

But the roses! Twenty-five roses had been ordered months ago, and I was excited to create the first rose garden at the farm, but we are not at the farm; we are in lockdown in the city.

Friends and family generously listened for a month or so as I asked, “What about the roses? They are going to arrive soon, but I can’t get to the farm!”

I contacted the two nurseries where I had ordered the roses, and they held the order for a few weeks, and then again for another few weeks, but of course, they would have to send them at some stage.

And then they arrived.

I rehydrated the roses in buckets and knew they could stay in the buckets for seven days, but I needed to act. I decided to order some pots and planned to plant the roses in pots, transfer them to the farm, and plant them in the ground next winter/spring.

But with lockdown not going anywhere soon, I had to face reality; there would not be a rose garden planted at the farm in 2021.

So, I decided to birth Brunswick Flower Patch, a micro-flower farm in the city. The focus of this season is to learn, play and gift flowers to my neighbours and favourite two cafes.

A few of the twenty-five roses went into pots, but most are in the ground. I pulled out veggies that were about to give a harvest; peas, kale, broccoli, etc., to make room for the flowers. I planted sixteen delphinium plants and there are hundreds of dahlia tubers soon to arrive.

I had to let go of how I thought it would look and face a new reality and create a new plan.

Holding onto the old plan was only causing stress, and no one needs more stress right now.

I am very blessed that one of my problems in lockdown has been, “Where do I plant the roses?’’, my privilege does not escape me.

And yet, no matter our circumstances, if we continue to hold onto old plans, we will add more stress to our lives.

With the new plan, I now get to create beauty exactly where I am, not waiting to create it somewhere else, at another time which is completely out of my control.

How can you let go of some of your stressors and create beauty exactly where you are?

Wishing you a weekend of (you guessed it) beauty.

Kemi xxx