I thought id do a little update of what is happening here at Bee & Bloom now that our main growing season has finished. Its always hard to make the call to stop but it is important to remember that nothing blooms all year round and that incudes us! So whats been happening? SEED SOWING Its been a (very enjoyable) seed-sowing marathon in the greenhouse, as mentioned in my previous posts, autumn is when I sow all of my hardy annuals for example, scabious, strawflower and statice. They all love a nice cool start off in life and will produce lovely long stems for me in spring.
SPRING FLOWERS
I pre-sprouted all of my anemone corms in the greenhouse in trays and planted them out about a month later. They're happily outside soaking up the sun and occasional rain shower. These will be making a much anticipated appearance in late August, I sometimes get stems flowering as soon as mid-august.
(Pic from last season)
TULIPS UPDATE Still chilling in my fridge currently! Ill be planting them out in about 2 weeks as we are currently doing a huge retaining project but more on that later...
MOTHERS DAY
As Mothers day fell outside of our main growing season this year we teamed up with Pohangina Proteas in the Manawatu and Cottage and Cow Shed Flowers in Otaki.
I was absolutely blown away by the support and sold out by Wednesday afternoon! I did also open the garden gate stand which also sold out - we are so incredibly appreciative of everyone who ordered and stopped by.
(Pic - Mothers Day Joy Jar)
THOUGHTS ABOUT THE OFF-SEASON
My growing season runs from the end of August to May. When I have flowers i'm working most days harvesting, watering and looking after them, succession planting plus running the business side of things; Doing deliveries, stocking the garden gate stand, marketing and keeping up with socials. Working with a perishable product means I have to act fast!
In winter things do slow a little, so I use this time to rest and also take stock of the last growing season and plan what I will do better next season. Its a great time to take short courses, do research, look at my numbers and crop viability and how I can work more efficiently when the season is in full swing. I am a one-woman show so preparation is absolutely key to success! RETAINING CENTAL We embarked on a huge retaining project in April! We have a large 13m long wall which is slowly starting to fail so we waited until the season was over and started to carve up my growing space installing 13 huge house piles deep into the sandy ground to hold up the higher part of the garden.
The main wall is complete and the next tier down (which will hold all the tulips) is almost complete just in time for planting. Whilst its been a huge undertaking its absolutely necessary that we get this done now. My growing space will be mostly at ground level with some long straight rows with no crumbling retaining and many trip hazards. I almost cant believe that its happening!
That's you updated for now, next stop is planting out all of the tulip bulbs and more anemone (plus finishing the wall of course!) Hope you're keeping warm out there and happy gardening x
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