Grateful For Weeds

So here we are in august, WHERE has the year gone? It hasn’t been the best year weather wise to start flower farming......a cold April and a wet May meant that plants were slow to grow. Thank goodness for the few days of sun in July that got the plants growing and the flowers beginning to bloom.  

 

The Saturday just gone was spent weeding, as after the rain last week the horsetail had gone mad! Often called mare’s tail, it is an invasive weed, with deep roots and it spreads QUICKLY! I do not like horsetail!! But I do enjoy weeding, I find it incredibly therapeutic. So i am grateful for the horsetail…..i think!

 

I also tied in my beautiful cosmos as much as possible because of storm Evert. I really didn’t want to lose any of my gorgeous 4 and a half foot beauties!(pic below) I gifted my neighbour a few cosmos plants and one of hers broke straight off in the wind. She has done such an amazing job looking after them, and managed to get rid of an aphid manifestation(unlike me!), but the wind can be cruel. 

 

Dead heading was another job I did at the weekend, another therapeutic job done. By cutting those spent heads off, the plant gets a new lease of life. I try as much as possible to save petals to dry out for confetti....I'm experimenting with different ways, but I'll save that for another blog. 

So as I write this at 8am after having a 2 hour working session, I'm off to the garden to cut some flowers for a couple of bunches today. I finally have Cosmos, Dahlia and Zinnia in flower and some gorgeous Amaranthus and Dill happily growing. 

 

Have a beautiful day, until next time- remember Joy Blooms In The Garden 

Louise 💐

 

Great British Weather!! 🌧

Us Brits love to moan about the weather BUT we have to remember it's the one thing we have no control of.

Nothing upsets me more than when I go out to my cutting patch and see the rain has caused my gorgeous Ammi Major to flop, and the wind has broken the tallest sunflower.😢 Still these are battles a flower farmer faces. Another battle is that many of my plants are still small because of the weather we had in April and May. 

See everything I have said there is weather orientated?!

 'If you want to see the sun shine, you have to weather the storm'.(Frank Lane)

I know that once the sun shines and the days stay warmer, everything will flourish. Then I will have more flowers than I know what to do with! Surely I won't moan about that?💦🌻🌼🌷🌸

I am using a British wholesaler to top up what I do have, to fulfill an order of 12 weekly bouquets to a local village store. I will not compromise on British blooms 🇬🇧

The photo above are some of the bouquets I delivered on Thursday.

In this business planning ahead is important so I have sowed Sweet Williams and Sweet Rocket ready for next year. They are all beginning to shoot through the mud. I love seeing them. 

My aim is to blog weekly with updates and behind the scenes, so see you next time 💐

If you haven't liked my Facebook Page please pop along and hit the thumbs up 👍https://www.facebook.com/Grown-Gathered-109385864658504/

Or follow me on Instagram.com/louise.mcgough_growngathered

Excited to share...

 You know when you have a passion and it burns in you constantly? That's me.....my passion is flowers.

I'm a florist by trade, and also love spending time in the garden...so I'm combining both. 

I love British grown flowers, and I also love the world we live in, so anything I can do to help the environment is a must. 

My philosophy is simple, but elegant. Colourful, but classy. Wild, but wonderful! 

And so Grown & Gathered™️ has been born. Flowers grown in my garden, with no nasties, just letting nature take its course. My flowers attract bees, butterflies, ladybirds plus much more. I talk to them all (the bugs and my flowers!) 

It amazes me that from a teeny tiny seed I can have an abundance of flowers to share with my customers.  

It's British Flower Week next week and I will be doing lots of 'behind the scenes' videos and posts on Facebook and Instagram. Do follow me....my links are below.(Instagram to follow)

I don't have a huge amount ready for cutting yet but I want to show you what is happening because it is all super exciting!!

https://www.facebook.com/Grown-Gathered-109385864658504/

First blog

I've decided to write a blog to track my progress of growing my own cut flowers, I hope in return you will find it interesting, informative and inspiring 😊

A little bit about myself....
I qualified as a florist 3 years ago at the age of 33. It's the best job I've ever had (apart from being a mum!), but I have always wanted to work for myself.  I don't feel that that will happen in the near future, so I figured while working for an employer I'll give growing my own flowers a go to see if anything can come of that.
I also love the idea of being an Eco-friendly florist, so figured my own back garden would be the place to start. Well I say my own back garden...I actually mean my parents back garden! I don't have the space in my garden, plus we rent so I didn't want to make too many changes to our garden. My parents garden is a blank canvas, so a little bit of life breathed into it will be a huge improvement!

So im currently reading lots of books, and googling to find out as much as possible.
I'm also trying to source materials to recycle. Finding materials that are free to make raised beds was a big bonus! I have sweet peas and stocks already growing in my garden, so the seed pods from them are being picked and put away ready to sow.

Looking forward to getting started!!!!