Introducing: The 400 Square Foot Cutting Garden
Whether on social media, in print, or at the local garden center, it seems that we can’t escape the idea of flower farming and growing a cutting garden.
This past week as we were shopping at our favorite local gardening center, we saw a seed rack that proudly displayed “Cutting Garden Seeds!” with various cut flower species available. While it was fully stocked last Saturday morning, when we went back to the nursery today it was completely picked over.
It’s not hard to understand why people want to grow flowers - there is something absolutely magical about flowers that we as a collective group of humans have seemed to reconnect with recently.
Now, if you’ve been following us you know thatwe’ve been growing flowers for about four years now, having run a very successful urban flower farm and wedding and floral design business.
We’ve noticed that there are a lot of people out there that want to grow flowers - and we totally understand and validate that passion! - but are not able to start a flower farm for one reason or another.
After talking with some people, there are a lot of obstacles in the way of starting growing flowers as a business.
You may in fact have some of these obstacles in your way.
And after talking with multiple individuals, we realized that we wanted to come up with something that wasn’t so intimidating or demanding.
And thus the idea of the 400 Square Foot Cutting Garden was born.
One of the major hold-ups was fear. Fear of the unknown, fear of a commitment to a large farm, fear of not succeeding and being successful.
Maybe you’re not sure if this is something you can commit to. You’ve got a full time job, kids, and a dog that needs anti-nausea medication - but you still are determined to grow flowers. As opposed to moving out of the city to go live on a farm, you can bring the farm to you - in your own backyard.
Maybe you’re not sure if you’re going to be good at growing flowers - you’ve never gardened in your life, but you want to grow gorgeous blooms. What better way to start off and learn how to do things the correct way than with a small, simple, manageable cut flower garden?
Maybe you’ve gardened before and are very excited about the idea of turning this into a business - but you’re not sure how to run your business. Maybe you are undecided as far as your market and customers and what direction you want to head - do you want to sell to florists? Do your own design work? With a small garden, there is less pressure, less stress, and allows you to test the waters for your flower farm before you go all in.
The idea of a 400 square foot cutting garden is to ensure that you’re able to work with a few set flower varieties, grow them well, learn how to farm and harvest and market your flowers well and be successful before you decide to expand your production.
We’ve carefully selected a variety of flowers to provide you with easy, beautiful materials to make bouquets and arrangements all season long.
These flowers could be for the bouquets of a CSA subscription service.
Or maybe enough to create bouquets for a roadside or farm stand.
Or maybe to supply a local coffeeshop or small business with arrangements on consignment.
Or maybe being able to supply florals for a very small and intimate wedding.
However you choose to use these flowers, they are very straightforward to grow, massively productive, look great together, and are a surefire way to succeed as a beginner flower grower.
That’s why we decided to write a book on growing a small cutting garden or flower farm. Click below to check out our eBook on the 400 Square Foot Flower Farm
In our next post, we’re going to go over our strategy in planning out our 400 square foot cutting garden - and how that is going to ensure our success!