Emily Westall takes us behind the scenes of a busy spring week on her flower farm – everything there is to juggle and organize, but equally the many things there are to be thankful for. And tulips. Lots of tulips!
Monday
Mondays are the days I am most grateful to be a flower farmer. After a busy end to the previous week, I enjoy arriving on-site and gathering my thoughts for the week ahead without the pressures of a long commute or expectations of being awesome at 9 am in a bustling office. Often I will take a wander around the site with Tiff, my business partner, jotting down the tasks that need attention; sometimes, we just make a cup of mint tea and sit down for a moment; but generally, we take care of the predictable jobs such as watering, weeding, slug hunting, etc., and natter about what’s been going on both at home and work. After an hour or so, we get on with the real work!
Last week, we had a bumper tulip crop in our polytunnel – and I love tulips. But what I currently love even more is the feeling of satisfaction I get when the tulip bed is empty, and I can immediately fill it back up again with the next crop rotation of annual plants that have been waiting in the wings. It’s a nerve-wracking business growing young plants from seed, and you can only really relax once they are in the ground, happily enjoying a full-sized bed with reliable watering. So I patted myself on the back today as I planted healthy plug plants where only moments before there were tulips.
Read more at flowersfromthefarm.co.uk