Facing Up

... to Reality?  I'm getting better, much better. 

... to People?  I'm working on it, trust me.

This last week or two has seen a number more upheavals in my little world. The Universe's way of saying, step out of your bubble and look at the big picture? Probably!
The short story is, I'm moving out of my house.
But it's gorgeous! But you love it there! But you've done all that work! But you planted things in the ground! And you've got big plans for those things! etc. etc.
It's hard letting go, it really is but the frustrations of renting and holding together a share house have taken their toll and it's time for a little break.
Besides, I'd be a pretty silly little business lady if I didn't have an escape plan for my garden at my rental property, wouldn't I? It just means that moving house for me also means moving a garden. Totally do-able ... right?

I'm not even going to brief y'all on the new plan because the way this year is turning out, I bet you it's changed 3 times by next week. 2012 really is a lesson on taking a deep breath, trying to stay centered and keeping your eye on the big picture and when all else fails throw your hands in the air and laugh hysterically.

What I do know is that I want to do this, I want to grow stuff, I want to share it with people. I am going to do this. So in the face of all the recent upheaval, I went to Facebook :-) That is, I launched "The Urban Flower Farm" on the book of faces, here and you may have noticed, added a page here. It's happening people, it's really happening.

Guerrilla Florista #1

Guerrilla floristry: it's just a word for something that many of us do without thinking, but I kinda like it. So here you go, a nice little example of what you can do - without buying a thing. Glorious parrot tulips are the show stopper, granted, they were a gift, a mother's day bonus; if you like :-) 

The rest? Lavender from the garden, olive branches from the footpath where someone had been pruning, privet berry and abutilon (or chinese lanterns) from a lane-way somewhere near me.

The first clods are turned

Wow, I took this picture less than a week ago and already the bed has expanded and the first batch of bulbs is down! Oh, and the sweet-peas. The whole right hand fence is bordered by them and I'm looking at ways to move those giant planter boxes so that I can plant more. I've gone with two varieties from Eden Seeds, an early flowerer and one that makes super big blooms :-) They're tucked in with some mulch for a blanket and wire netting as a "mosquito net" or in this case rat net. Yep, that's right, the mice and rats love the taste of little sweet pea seeds and shoots. I learning a lot through others' experience - in this case Mel, she lost nearly all her sweet-peas to the little mites last year.

I've also been propagating and transplanting - proper big gardener me! I've got some helleborus babies from Mum's place - she's got fields of them the lucky thing. But I am also waiting to receive a few pretties from Diggers at the end of the month.

Gosh, here I am babbling plants at you and I haven't given you the other update. What did I say about life changing at super high speed??? Two weeks ago, I was talking two urban plots - mine and the boyfriend's. That's changed, we're down to one now - ours. That is, he's probably going to move in here. Which is awesome, but I had already kinda ordered a bucket load of seeds and baby plants.

So this has pushed me to try out an idea that I have had many times before. Create a network of people locally, who have space in their yards to "foster" plants. I provide the plants, the organic fertilizer and any other practical support and in return, I have "picking rights" to the plants when they flower. The idea is not to demolish these plants but to harvest sustainably and teach others how to do the same. I haven't approached anybody just yet but I am hoping it just might work. My brain is bursting with many more possibilities but I'll hold back until after Mother's Day to look into any of it.

I keep getting way ahead of myself and I just keep having to remind myself, it's one step at a time. Right now, the next step is head down, bum up - get through Mother's Day.

New leaves

Has anyone else noticed that 2012 is a year of rapid and epic change? I can't speak for the global situation, in fact I try not to get caught up in that crap (!) but my little world just keeps rocking itself and that's not necessarily a bad thing. I almost can't keep up with all the new ideas and epiphanies! I am also not going to try and detail them all here but I better get you up to speed.

Remember back here, when I started to realise that, just maybe, my dream of running a bio-dynamic flower farm wasn't so kooky after all? Well that kinda snow-balled. A & I have decided that we can totally do it ... just not quite yet. That's the medium - long term plan and the short term plan has kinda just filled itself in. While we can't really go anywhere for at least a year and a half, we do in the meantime have access to two urban plots (backyards that is). So the bulb and seed delivery is on it's way! Of course, this means I've just created a whole pile of work for myself, and Mother's Day is coming up (i.e. florists' peak time) but I couldn't be happier.

The aim for now, is to practice, to try things out, to get a name happening and start to educate people about what it is we're trying to do. With this set up, we are probably not ready to start selling cut flowers on a regular basis, we can't produce the volumes. But the garden will be able to supply my events work and most excitingly, I can run workshops! People can come and learn a sustainable approach to cut flowers. We can cut from the garden and practise arranging!

So that's my news.
Now who's ready to get their hands dirty?

ME

From the garden

Behind the scenes

The Autumn sun was shining, the leaves were swirling and I made flowers out amongst it all on Mum's porch. Now that's a studio!

A guest and a florist

That was me, last week. There is nothing nicer than getting to be the florist for the wedding of one of your oldest friends :-) It is twice as stressful being both guest and florist but totally worth every minute! The BF was a gem. He progressed through the floristry ranks at lightening speed; from lackey, to apprentice, to initiate, to master florist in the space of about an hour. He did pass comment in the last moments of the set up, as he swept floors, emptied buckets and lugged stuff, that perhaps he had been demoted again? Nope, that's just being a florist, my dear. Anyway, the bride looked gorgeous, naturally; and an Autumn wedding in the Macedon Ranges is always a good idea, I say. The band was great and we had a ball. Thank you to all those who boosted my confidence with their generous praise; maybe me & the side-kick will do it again sometime soon?

This week's dream

Well, it's not a new dream and I don't think it's going to go away once Sunday passes .... but imagine starting a flower farm. Crazy, I know; many challenges. BUT the reward, oh it would be so fantastic. I've dreamt so often about what I would grow and how I would do it (bio-dynamic of course). There are so many beautiful things, often very traditional and understated that you just don't see grown here in Australia.

But it's not just that, why not grow a beautiful flowering garden (ok, a pretty big one) and cut the blooms as they are needed (and at their best) to supply you're small floral business? I can't think of anything better.

And today, I found (via the magic of the interwebs) a gorgeous young lady who does exactly that near Seattle, in the U.S.

Erin Benzakein, I want to be you.

You've got to check it out, her blog is here and surprise, surprise the gorgeous Charlotte at Lotte and Bloom has already grabbed the low-down, here.

Maybe, just maybe, these things are possible?

In the meantime, I've been learning lots about propagating all sorts of things. I am completely absorbed by  my new A Modern Herbal (found a second hand one on the Ebay) and A Druids Herbal of Sacred Tree Medicine. Now don't freak out at the hippy, neo-pagan title of the latter. True, it's got a section about the author, a Druid priestess, co-chief of the Order of the White Oak, professor at the Grey School of Wizardry etc. etc.  in the front. Essentially, the rest is just about the history, folklore and uses of each of the native British trees. I love that shit!

Pilfered Mum's garden - which of course, made no dint at all - for all manner of cuttings. They're now all happily lined up in pots, some under plastic bags, in my urban back yard. The peppermint geranium's doing particularly well. Yay :-)

This afternoon I am going to pull up all the acanthus and try and move them to the front yard where they will be much better suited. All the websites say that I am probably biting off more than I can chew, but I'm going to give it a try anyway. I'll show 'em.

Oh, and my bike is finally all finished and she is super dooper perty; I'll have to take some pics for you.

The picture above is from a job I did with Mel a month or so back.

And that reminds me, there's more news ... but that will have to wait for another day.