FIRST YEAR FLOWER FARM - What I’m Growing, The Field Plan, Dreams for the Future
We bought our farm last summer and we have big plans for our acreage. 2025 will be the first full year that we own the farm. It has been so fun and exciting to see what is popping up during each new season that we are here. Just last week we saw the first sign of spring in patch of ephemeral Snow Drops in the woods behind our house!
I have spent the majority of the late winter planning out what our first year flower farm will look like. I am very excited and have been doing alot of research. I’ve had to put the brakes on just how much I want to accomplish the first year, and realizing that slow steady growth over the first couple of years will fit better into our life. My husband and I both work full time and currently our house is gutted to the studs…. I don’t want to bite off more than I can chew. After careful planning this is the first year farm plan I have come up with!
Field Plan
I’ll be growing only 11 different types of annuals plus dahlias this year. I really want to keep it simple. I have grown flowers before, but not to this capacity. This plan includes some of my favorite flowers and I think they will make abundant and beautiful bouquets throughout the season.
There are going to be 18 beds total. Each bed will be 4 feet x 40 feet with around 2 feet for a walking path between the beds to keep things organized and make it easier to reach the flowers for weeding and cutting. I placed the tallest flowers in the back of the beds (Sunflowers) so they don’t shade out the shorter flowers like Basil and Cress.
You will notice I only have a ½ bed of dahlias. Dahlia bulbs are an investment so I didn’t want to get carried away buying dahlias, but they are one of my favorites to grow in my personal garden over the years so I wanted to start building my collection. I plan to invest more into dahlia bulbs in the next couple of years.
I also bought 30 peony plants in this first year. Peonies take about 3 years to reach full maturity for cutting but the plants can last up to 100 years if they’re properly cared for. In our growing zone (6a-b) they stay in the ground all year round. After this first season I plan to add to my peony field in the years to come as well!