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Ep.19: From Allotment to Backyard Cut Flower Farm: Nicole's Flower Growing Journey
2.3k Plays1 year ago
In this episode of the Backyard Bouquet Podcast, I had the pleasure of chatting with Nicole from Cherry Garden and the Let's Grow Girls podcast. Nicole shares her inspiring journey from starting with a small U.K. allotment to transforming her backyard into a beautiful cut flower haven.
Nicole's passion for sustainable flower farming shines through as she shares her experiences of transitioning from a supermarket flower shopper to a micro flower farmer. Juggling her flower farming endeavors with life with her hens and pugs, Nicole's dedication to creating a floral-filled life is truly admirable.
We delve into Nicole's decision to move her flower farming operation from her allotment to her backyard, a decision that was sparked by a desire for more joy and convenience in her gardening experience. The challenges she faced at the allotment, including weed pressure and brambles, led her to make the switch, which has brought back the joy and excitement of growing flowers.
Nicole shares her favorite flowers, including the beloved Cafè au Lait dahlia and the mesmerizing ball-shaped dahlias. She also discussed her love for sweet peas, roses, and tulips, highlighting the beauty and magic of each flower variety.
Nicole's dedication to sustainable and joyful flower farming is truly inspiring, and her insights and experiences are sure to resonate with flower enthusiasts and aspiring growers alike. Don't miss out on Nicole's inspiring journey and valuable insights! Tune in to the full episode on the Backyard Bouquet Podcast.
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Are You Growing Dahlias This Year? Join Us In The Dahlia Patch: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.mykajabi.com/the-dahlia-patch-membership-growing-dahlias
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Shownotes:
https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2024/04/28/ep-19-from-allotment-to-backyard-cut-flower-farm/
In This Episode You’ll Hear About:
- 00:00:00 - Introduction to Nicole's Flower Growing Journey
- 00:05:30 - Growing Sweet Peas
- 00:08:34 - Nicole's First Year of Flower Growing
- 00:11:46 - The Joy of Growing and Sharing Flowers
- 00:13:06 - The Impact of Gardening During Lockdown
- 00:16:07 - Moving from Allotment to Backyard Gardening
- 00:23:38 - The Beauty of Lilacs and Daffodils
- 00:25:07 - Favorite Sweet Pea Varieties
- 00:28:30 - Sourcing Sweet Peas in the UK
- 00:31:21 - Transitioning Roses from Allotment to Backyard
- 00:36:11 - Favorite Flowers: Dahlias and Sweet Peas
- 00:42:52 - Strengthening Dahlia Stems with Calcium
- 00:44:38 - Decision to Move Flower Growing to Backyard
Learn more about Nicole and Cherry Garden:
- Cherry Garden on IG: www.instagram.com/nicoleatcherrygarden
- Let’s Grow Girls Podcast on IG: www.instagram.com/letsgrowgirlspodcast/
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Transcript
Introduction & Host's Journey
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Backyard Bouquet podcast, where stories bloom from local flower fields and home gardens. I'm your host, Jennifer Galitzia of the Flowering Farmhouse. I'm a backyard gardener turned flower farmer located in Hood River, Oregon. Join us for heartfelt journeys shared by flower farmers and backyard gardeners. Each episode is like a vibrant garden, cultivating wisdom and joy through flowers. From growing your own backyard garden to supporting your local flower farmer,
00:00:32
Speaker
The backyard bouquet is your fertile ground for heartwarming tales and expert cut flower growing advice. All right flower friends, grab your gardening gloves, garden snips, or your favorite vase because it's time to let your backyard bloom.
Guest Introduction: Nicole's Journey
00:00:55
Speaker
Hey flower friends, welcome back to another episode of the Backyard Bouquet podcast. Today's a special treat because we've got Nicole from Cherry Garden and the Let's Grow Girls podcast with us. You know, we're usually hearing Nicole on the other side of the mic chatting it up with other growers, but today we're flipping the script.
00:01:16
Speaker
We're going to chat with Nicole about her own cup flower growing journey. She started with a small UK allotment and is now turning her backyard into this incredible cup flower haven. From a supermarket flower shopper to a micro flower farmer, Nicole's all about creating a sustainable, beautiful flower filled life minus the plastic and foam. And of course, she's doing it all while juggling life with her hens and those cute pugs.
00:01:43
Speaker
So let's get the inside scoop on how Nicole's making it all happen, creating floral magic in her own backyard. Nicole, it's so awesome to have you here, and we can't wait to hear more about your own flower journey. Welcome.
00:01:56
Speaker
Thank you. What a beautiful intro, Jen. I don't think I've ever been described in such a magical way before. Thank you. Oh my gosh, it's my pleasure. I know everyone's going to be so excited to hear from you today because we normally hear you asking other people questions. So I feel lucky that I now get to ask you all the questions. It does feel a little bit odd to be on the other side, but it's great to be back behind the microphone, having a chat.
00:02:23
Speaker
As you know, we've had a bit of a hiatus from the Let's Grow Girl podcast while, well, I suppose life got in the way a little bit, but we're hoping to be back soon. So this is good practice to get me back on the microphone and get chatting again. Awesome. Well, I can't wait to listen again to your podcasts.
Nicole's Allotment Challenges and Pandemic Experience
00:02:40
Speaker
I started this podcast because I would finish all of your episodes and then I needed something else to listen to in the garden. Also, I figured, well,
00:02:48
Speaker
If I spend eight hours a day working on my flower farm, there's plenty of content out there. So while you have been on a little hiatus, tell us about your journey that you've been on. You've been starting your own flower farm. Yeah. So as you mentioned in your intro, I had a little allotment here, which is I guess you've got a lot of American listeners and allotments aren't quite so common over there in America. But
00:03:14
Speaker
Basically, it's like a community garden. So in this country, if there's a plot of land that isn't being used and it's owned by the local council or the local government, residents can petition to
00:03:30
Speaker
to get the allotment taken over or to take over that area to become an allotment and this has been an allotment for quite a few years and so yeah I took that over and it wasn't far from my house but I kind of found that
00:03:48
Speaker
whilst it was a great space to grow in and a great space to learn how to grow in. Unfortunately, it was just not like that convenient with my lifestyle. You know, I think if you have to go somewhere, it becomes more of an effort to do that. And the flower farming is kind of a side hustle for me. I've got a day job that I really love as well. So it kind of start when it got to a point where
00:04:18
Speaker
it was not joyful anymore. I thought, right, we've got to make a change here. What can the change be? And that was moving it home. That is so exciting. And so how big was your allotment that you were growing on? A lot of people ask me that I really should have measured it properly. But I think it was probably about it wasn't even quarter of an acre, it was smaller than that maybe
00:04:45
Speaker
half of a quarter, whatever that is, an eighth of an acre, so quite a small, small space. And I've probably moved back to a similarly small space, except maybe with a bit of a better, a better layout. What I had there, there was some land that wasn't really usable because it was
00:05:06
Speaker
it had a shed on it and things like that. And then my foray into polytunnel growing was not that successful and a big part of that land had a polytunnel on it as well. So it probably even less available land to grow on.
00:05:25
Speaker
That's really amazing that it was that big. I had no idea when you talked about your allotment that it was that much space. About a half a mile from my house, when I take my daughter to soccer, this church has a community garden space and I see everyone working their little plots, but they're maybe about four feet wide each. Oh wow, so quite tiny really.
00:05:48
Speaker
like an individual bed. So it's really amazing that you can have that much space as an allotment where you live. So mine was actually a double allotment. Me and my husband had one each and there were some that were smaller and there were some that were much bigger. It just depended on kind of which plot was available at the time you went for it. And it's quite, when I first took on the allotment, a lot of people laughed at me like,
00:06:15
Speaker
as in, you know, am I an old lady now? Because I already like to knit and sew and bake and things like that. And they were like the allotments, the sort of final straw here, because it tends to be like an older person's thing. Because obviously, if you're retired, or you know, it's, it's, you've got all the time in the world to be out there weeding and digging and what have you. So it does tend to be the kind of
00:06:44
Speaker
thing that an older person doesn't. Yeah, there was some older people there, some retired people. There was a couple of younger ones. It was slowly becoming more popular. I think the pandemic kind of made growing more attractive, didn't it? It became a, I don't know about in America, but gardening just boomed here over the pandemic. Totally.
00:07:05
Speaker
Yes, it has exploded around here. Just the other day I heard that there were three new flower farmers in my area. I think everyone has just had this desire to connect, find something to connect with and get their hands in the ground.
00:07:20
Speaker
and feel rooted somewhere and I think that's what gardening or growing flowers really does for so many of us and so we definitely saw a huge surge in the number of people growing around here as well. Both vegetables and hot flowers. Yeah definitely I think like for me as well having that allotment it was one of the few things we were able to do. I know restrictions in America varied by state but here it was quite sort of blanket across England and you know we were only allowed out
00:07:51
Speaker
to walk for one hour a day. But if you had an allotment, you could go there all day. So it became like a real, you know, like an exciting thing to do as well. And you could see people who weren't in your household. And, you know, it became just like a really, like a lifeline almost during those times when it was all quite depressing and miserable. I had like this haven of
00:08:18
Speaker
of beautiful things growing. It was amazing that I just felt really lucky to have had that space for the time I did, even though I've given it up now.
00:08:31
Speaker
That's amazing. So what did you grow on your allotment? So my first year, I mean, your listeners have probably heard me tell the story about the first time I saw a cafe daily on Instagram and I was like, what is this thing? It's incredible. I must have one rang the florist and they pretty much laughed at me and said, you won't be able to buy one of those really anywhere because of the fragility of the flowers and the transport. Obviously I had no idea about
00:09:00
Speaker
how flowers arrived in florists back then. And all I knew was I wanted to grow one. And if I couldn't have one, I would grow it. So my first year I had a few pots at home and I had a cafe au lait daily that I carved in half with a bread knife and put in two pots and a jowy Winnie that had her own pot as well.
00:09:23
Speaker
saw how incredible they were. And I can remember, I went on holiday to Italy in September and they hadn't bloomed yet. And I was getting my dad to go round every day. I was like, tell me if they find, because they had these big fat buds and they didn't bloom until I got home, which was amazing.
Harvesting Joys and Floral Inspirations
00:09:39
Speaker
Once I'd cut my eyes on them, that was it. Put my name down for an allotment thinking, you know, I could be here years waiting for the allotment. Got it the next month.
00:09:52
Speaker
Next thing I knew, I had this small plot of land. This was half the size of what I originally had. So it was a real small plot. And I just thought, I'm going to grow dahlias. And I just bought a whole load of dahlias, like not really thinking about what they were or how they would
00:10:13
Speaker
you know grow or anything I just got them. I asked some of the people what was like easy things to grow so I think I grew some cosmos as well and and the courgettes I had a lot of courgettes that year because that was everyone was like courgettes are so easy to grow so I thought oh or zucchinis I think is the more American
00:10:33
Speaker
Okay, I was going to ask, what is courgette? I know you've talked about it on your podcast and I was trying to think, what is that? Zucchini. So yeah, I thought, oh, they're easy to grow, we'll grow those. I ended up with a lot, a lot, a lot of them. There's nothing I cannot make out of a zucchini now. Cake, fritters, pasta, you name it, I can make it out of one of those. I had so many. We could be friends.
00:10:58
Speaker
I grew up too many. This year I've definitely done the same thing, but they're handy, aren't they? They're useful. And the troops as well, I think I grew. So I had quite like just a small plot. Oh, and the chap before me who had the plot left me with some raspberry canes as well. So I had a whole load of raspberries, which was nice as well. So then I just got the bug for it really. I mean, is there anything like being able to shop your own garden for flowers?
00:11:30
Speaker
It's the best. Every day I felt like, what is this magic that is happening to me? I can just come out here and snip, snip away and it's just magical, isn't it? How would you describe the feeling?
00:11:46
Speaker
I always struggle to describe it. I mean, people unfortunately can't see me on the podcast talking, but like I get so animated my hands start to move and my body moves as I like think about like harvesting that flower. I'm like, I sowed this little seed or I planted this tuber and this plant grew. I watched it. I nurtured it. I cared for this thing. And then I was rewarded with this thing that's beautiful and incredible.
00:12:12
Speaker
like you, I used to grow a bunch of vegetables before I grew a lot of flowers and I grew a ton of zucchini. And my husband always said, Jen, you can't make flowers or you can't make friends with zucchini. But I've learned you can make friends with flowers. So now I'll like pass off a bouquet of flowers and like
00:12:29
Speaker
I made a few friends with those zucchinis. We've got some vegetarians in my office, so they were always very grateful for the odd one being dropped off. But yeah, what you say about you can make friends with flowers as well. And I would say the only feeling that's kind of better than picking the flowers is seeing somebody else's face, either when you sold flowers to them or whether you gifted them to a friend.
00:12:52
Speaker
Like, you grew this? Yes, I did. That feeling of somebody being amazed at what you could do is a great feeling as well, isn't it?
00:13:05
Speaker
Totally. I always am like, okay, is this selfish because I feel so good when I give this bouquet away and I know I'm doing something nice. But at the same time, I'm like, oh my gosh, it feeds my soul to know that I can grow something and then share this beautiful thing with someone else is just the best. Exactly. It is a great feeling. So yeah, it just made me want to grow more and more. And I think that first year I had
00:13:29
Speaker
Well, obviously, I had three the very first year, then I think I had about 15 ish that first year. And then yeah, and then I had 30. And then I had 50. And then I had 50 for a couple of years. I don't even know how many I've got this year, I just kept ordering them, they just keep arriving.
00:13:54
Speaker
They're a little addicted. Aren't they, aren't they? But I'm growing, but it made me learn, so daily as we were, it kind of all started. But then, like, I don't have one of these stories, like, you know, how lots of people explain how they, you know, they remember growing with their grandma or things like that. And where I grew up was quite an industrial part of the UK. And we just had like,
00:14:18
Speaker
of a four by two concrete yard with a huge hydrangea growing in the corner and just some marigolds that my mum would shove in the raised bed in the summer. But my great-grandmother, she did have a lovely garden, but I only saw her have reached, they lived further away from us, so I didn't see her that often. But I always used to love to see her flowers and
00:14:44
Speaker
she always told me they grew better after I'd been because I talked to them. I don't know whether that's a thing or not. I love it. Totally talks to my flowers. And then when I was older, we lived we lived abroad in Istanbul and in Turkey. And that's like,
00:15:03
Speaker
a massive concrete city. And whilst they do have like dedicated green spaces, we lived in a flat. Like we had the old house plant, but so for me to get into gardening, I remember like my husband was like looking at me when I had these dahlias and I was like, right, we need to have some soil. And he was like,
00:15:24
Speaker
You're buying soil. Who are you? And I've never looked back, really. I think once you get that bug for it, it doesn't go away. And now I grow. Well, I've got all sorts of seeds on the go, you know, scabius and snapdragons and marigolds like my mum as well. But
00:15:45
Speaker
cosmos and I needed to plant my zinnias, but you know, just everything, all the, all the lovely things I can fit in. I'm just, there's nothing I don't want to try. Nothing I don't want to see if I can grow. It's just, it comes down to space really though for me, but I always seem to find a way to wedge something in there.
00:16:07
Speaker
There's always space. You said something that was really interesting to me that kind of was an aha moment for me that I've never thought about in my own personal journey. You mentioned living in Istanbul and all the concrete everywhere. And I grew up with a mom who had an incredible garden and my aunt and uncle had a gorgeous cut flower garden with dahlias and hydrangeas. And I always told myself I was going to have my own. And in college I went abroad and I lived in Barcelona and I lived in Rome.
00:16:37
Speaker
And they were such concrete cities with no flowers.
Gardening Challenges: Allergies and Weather
00:16:41
Speaker
And I noticed that there was a lack of flowers other than like the beautiful container pots that I saw everywhere, but no yards with flowers where I was studying. And when I came home, I craved the flowers. And I think that's why I started my own garden is because I craved that space. And I never thought of that, of how you don't realize you're missing something necessarily until you have it again.
00:17:04
Speaker
or come back to it. I think these big cities, you know, like you say, they do love their containers and they do put on some, you know, great displays, but it's not the same, is it, as something growing in the ground, you know, like properly growing. I mean, I'm lucky where we are now is a little bit more sort of countryside and there's a lot more spaces, there's a lot more people with gardens, even, you know, the sort of newer smaller houses have got some garden space. So
00:17:33
Speaker
It's a lot more, you were seeing a lot more people here growing in their back gardens as well, which is quite a nice thing to see. Yes. I think more people have switched to that also, especially like we said with the COVID and you mentioned
00:17:50
Speaker
going back to your allotment and during COVID how you were free to go to your allotment, but otherwise you couldn't be outside. I'm sure that that made it a lot easier and it no longer felt like a chore or something you had to do when you were driving to your allotment. Oh, absolutely. I mean, my allotment is actually only about
00:18:09
Speaker
about 100 yards, if that, from my front door. So it really isn't that far. But you know what I mean? If you've got to pack up all your stuff and go to a place, it can become a chore. But during lockdown, you should have seen me skipping along that road, like freedom, my hair in the wind, thinking, here I was outside of the house. Ask me where I'm going. I felt like saying to people who were driving past, ask me, I'm going to the allotment, because it felt like freedom.
00:18:40
Speaker
Totally. When you said that I was picturing like Julia Andrews in Sound of Music like skipping through the whole thing. I always say to people like, if that's what you think that growing flowers is, you are sorely mistaken. You know, it's more like mud on my face and dirty clothes, but I wouldn't swap it because it's just
00:19:04
Speaker
like you say, the feeling you get from it, you can't explain it. So if I could bottle it and share it with somebody so they understood. You'd be so rich. That and the other thing I'd like to bottle if I could is the smell of a sweet pea. Oh, because I'd never smell anything like I mean, roses, like you can get perfumes and essential oils and things that smell like a lot of flowers, but nothing ever quite does a sweet pea the right way.
00:19:35
Speaker
No, that, and for me it's daffodils, bottling up a scent. Like Sir Winston Churchill is my favorite daffodil. And if I could bottle up that scent. I like Bridal Crown. Oh, that's a pretty one too. I don't grow that one, but it's all my wish list. It should definitely, it's super strong. And the other one I like for the scent is a high scents. I know they can be a bit
00:20:02
Speaker
you know people can be on the fence with them but I've got some growing in pots at the moment and when I walk around the corner I can smell them before I even see them and I just love them. I love the smell of hyacinth and I don't think I've mentioned this on the podcast yet. I am terribly allergic to hyacinth. Is it the sap? I planted
00:20:25
Speaker
It's everything. The bulbs I first broke out. This was my second year with Hyacinth. I trialed like 100 last year. When I planted them, I broke out in a rash. I thought it was maybe the tulips or maybe I got into something. This year, I planted 800 in crates.
00:20:44
Speaker
After harvesting a hundred, I had to stop harvesting. I've been on medication. If you Google Hyacinth finger, it's a total real thing where you can get this rash. It's an actual thing. Not everyone's allergic.
00:21:00
Speaker
I'm a highly allergic person with a lot of food allergies. And I, my florist came by the other day and she said, you have all these hyacinth that you let go. And I said, I can't touch them. I am so terribly allergic. The rash, because it was even wearing gloves, the rash came through on my hand. I have just a little remnant of it left.
00:21:21
Speaker
It's super pink. It's a rash. It's on the side of my neck. My face is now looking better, but it was on my eyes. I had prescription cortisone cream that I had to put on three times a day. And every time I would touch them again, even with gloves, it would come back. So I'm really sad. I think I'm going to
00:21:39
Speaker
Yeah, I'm gonna perennialize my bulbs. I'm gonna plant them in the ground so I can smell them every year and then never touch them again. Yeah, I do that probably the only way. Goodness. I mean, I do always say to people, you know, you got to be careful of some of the sappy things because what is that?
00:21:55
Speaker
what that green foliage called, that's really, you feel the beer. Yeah, you thought, yeah, that is so toxic, isn't it? And I remember, you know, seeing something on Instagram about people like, you can't put that in a bouquet because you'll poison somebody. And I thought, well, some of them are not eating them. They got in a bouquet, they should be fine. But to harvest them, you've got to be so careful.
00:22:24
Speaker
Yes, I had a friend have to go to the ER harvesting them because they got the sap in their eye. We have this thing here as well. It's not a cut flower, but like, do you know what cow parsley is? Yes, it grows wild everywhere around here. It's an absolute weed. I mean, really, but it's so pretty, isn't it? You know, that springs here when you see the cow parsley. But here we have this thing that grows with the cow parsley that kind of looks like cow parsley, but isn't it? It's called hogweed.
00:22:54
Speaker
And it basically, the sap of it gives like the equivalent of a third degree burn. It can blind you. It's really dangerous. So whenever I see people cutting the cow parsley, I'm like, be careful of the hogweed. Every year you always see somebody in the news has like lost layers of skin from it. It's terrible. So yeah, I guess when you forage, I love to forage for things, but you've got to be so careful.
00:23:24
Speaker
Totally. I have not done any foraging yet. I'm just too worried about what I might have in contact with my origins. I love to forage for a lilac. What's the old phrase? I think it's an American phrase, that nothing smells sweeter than lilac that doesn't belong to you. Ooh, I like that. So yeah. Oh, we have so many lilacs around here and they're blooming early. Everything's early this year. Mine are almost in full bloom. So early. We're tulips early too.
00:23:52
Speaker
Mine are so early too. It's a weird year. Like last year, it was either last year or two years ago. I have to go back through my records. We got about 10 inches of snow this week. And we're talking in the middle of April. So I was hesitant to plant my dahlias, but after this week, it doesn't look like we have any frost in sight. You got to get it done whilst the weather's still good then, right?
00:24:15
Speaker
Yeah, because last year, I don't know about you guys, but we had a terrible heat wave in May. And we went up to like 100. I mean, ours was a couple of weeks after yours, because I remember I went away, I went on holiday, I think the second week of June. And I remember just like, almost drowning my sweet peas in water, I cut all the buds off. And I was like, please live through this. And they didn't, they kind of limped through to the middle of July, but that heat wave just
00:24:44
Speaker
got them. Especially when they're not being watered every day.
00:24:51
Speaker
Definitely. I was debating whether or not to even grow a sweet peas this year because the last two years we've had such terrible heat waves here that they've taken mine out so early. I just love them so much. I used to give about 200 feet. Oh, yes, they're beautiful. So you're growing sweet peas this year. I take it. I am. I've got a three metre long frame that I grow on each side of. So I've just kind of crammed as many
00:25:17
Speaker
plants as many different varieties as I can on on either side. I've done one, I planted one half yesterday. I've got to do, my pink side was yesterday, the blue and purple side I'll get done one evening this week. What varieties are you growing? Oh my goodness, so many. I actually wrote them down yesterday because I thought you might ask me what I was growing but I've got, I've gone for some new varieties this year. I mean I've got some of the like
00:25:42
Speaker
what I suppose you'd call classics like Our Harry and
00:25:50
Speaker
I think Yvette Ann's quite a popular one now, isn't it? And Susan Burgess, I've got her too. And then I tried to go for some different ones this year. I came across a different seller of Sweet Peas and I've got some more unusual ones called like Rory Kay. I've never even heard of that one before. And a few just different ones, like they all have really unusual names, don't they?
00:26:19
Speaker
You know, like, dahlias have got just descriptive names. You can usually almost tell the colour from a lot of dahlia, like, you know, Babylon bronze or something like that. But Sweet Pea's always somebody's name, aren't they? They really are. I've never thought about that. Cyril Plater.
00:26:38
Speaker
Ava Elizabeth. I'm growing Charlie's Angel as well, which obviously is quite a classic one. But yeah, I'm excited to see them all. I thought I'd go for some new and different ones and then try to keep some of the favourites in there too. That sounds like a great list. Where do you get your sweet piece in the UK? Roger Parsons is my absolute favourite. He owns what we call the national collection here. He's the president of the Sweet Peace Society.
00:27:08
Speaker
know, so he's kind of the guru of sweet peas, but I've also, I got these ones, I'm trying to remember the place I got them. Roger recommended them to me, they're called Curtains, K-E-R-T-O-N. I got a whole bunch of like unusual ones from them.
00:27:27
Speaker
And then I also got some lovely varieties from English Sweet Peas, which are more local to me than the other ones. And they've got some fantastic varieties as well. They grow tons of gorgeous ones. They sent me some one that I was trying to get hold of and couldn't
00:27:48
Speaker
for some reason called Eclipse. I don't know if you ever grown that one, which is kind of like the two-tone ones. Oh, I love the two-tone ones. So I'm excited for that one too. Nice. I'm very envious of where you can get yours because I can't get Roger Parsons' sweet peas here.
00:28:08
Speaker
because of the shipping regulations, it's so hard to get Sweet Peas shipped over here to the US, but I do have Marin. I was just going to say, Marin is your gal for that. She's definitely got a good selection there, so yeah, she's got me hooked on a few different kinds, so I can blame her for the addiction, I think.
00:28:29
Speaker
Yes, it's on my goal to get King's Ransom from Marin at the farmhouse flower farm next year. I tried for it this year and I didn't, I wasn't fast enough on the clicking on her sale. That was a popular one. I have some of it, but I don't know what happened to my plants of it. And I've only got, I think I've got only six seedlings of it. I was hoping for a little bit more, but
00:28:55
Speaker
at least I'll get to experience that colour this year. I'm excited for it. I got to see that one in person. It's so pretty. It's like a smoky colour, isn't it? So unusual, so yeah. Yes. I'm excited for that one. Yeah, it's really unique. It would pair. My sweet peas never last long enough to go with the dahlias here. But I was like, oh, I have some dahlias that it would be so beautiful with. I've only had that happen one time, but not last season, the season before. I had a few
00:29:22
Speaker
sweet peas at the same time as the dahlias because I always say like for me like the magic time is if you get the roses and dahlias to come together because they make such a pretty bouquet together.
00:29:37
Speaker
Well, I was trying to time it this year, and I hope I don't mess this up. I interviewed Ben Hanna from Heirloom Roses on, I believe it was episode 14. And he shared a 60-60 rule. And so when you prune your roses, it's 60 days out until the blooms. Oh, really? You can expect to have blooms. So I'm trying to track it. And so my first set of blooms will be in May, so I won't have dahlias then.
00:30:05
Speaker
but I'm like, okay, so then after I do my hard cuts, when I take the first set of blooms, I should have a second round in late July, early August. So I'm crossing my fingers that I can get them together. Maybe delay it by a week or two.
00:30:23
Speaker
too, if you can. Exactly, that's a good idea. But yeah, I didn't think of it like that, actually. But yeah, thinking about it, mine are kind of, I think I gave mine a hard cut at the end of February. But my roses are looking amazing this year. I know that I think you've had quite a lot of rain up in your end of the world as well. But if there's one thing I know, roses love rainwater.
00:30:52
Speaker
And I think of anything, you know, all the rotten bulbs people have had and people say their dailies aren't coming back up because they've rotten because of the rain. The one thing that's flourished for me is the roses. They look amazing. Fingers crossed it's going to be a good rose year. Mine are looking good too. They seem green and luscious looking. I'm so pleased. Even the ones in pots which aren't always as good looking as the ground ones look amazing.
00:31:18
Speaker
That's awesome. So did you have those on your allotment and move them to your house?
Creative Gardening Solutions and Mobility
00:31:21
Speaker
I had a few in the ground at the allotment, but I had a lot in pots. I'm a little bit of a plant hoarder, no surprises, like most people. And I ended up buying quite a lot of roses that I just didn't have space for, but they were being discontinued. Like Evelyn, what a beautiful rose. And I ended up buying a few of her and just putting her in
00:31:47
Speaker
you know massive pots to try and and she does all right in them actually but she doesn't love a pot but at least she's getting through but we're planning on kind of at the moment like I said you know we've got the space here but we actually rent this house so we want to buy a kind of we call it like a small holding here I think you'd call it a homestead in America and we want to
00:32:15
Speaker
by that kind of a bigger space like that in the near future. And my husband always asked me, what are you doing with all of these pots with plants in them? Why are they just there? And I'm like, they are for when we move. I cannot let the discontinued roses pass me by.
00:32:36
Speaker
You never know how many pots you're going to need until you have to move. I am dreading that move. I think I'm just going to pay somebody to do it because there's a lot of pots. Pots and crates because we just had to uproot our flower farm. Oh, yeah. Because we were on rented space and so I have about 250 peonies growing in crates right now. Oh, how are they doing in the crates? Incredible. I suppose because they don't like the sun on them. They don't need the depth, do they?
00:33:06
Speaker
They don't need the depth. I talked with Galena at Microflower Farm before doing it. I'm like, should I do it? And I know she doesn't really grow peonies and crates, but she, she's like the master at growing in crates. Yes. And so we were like, well, it's worth the shot because I only have a third of an acre. Exactly. I wasn't going to lose all of them. They were, they're going in their third and
00:33:29
Speaker
third and fourth year, I think. And so they're going to be big and beautiful this year. And I thought for sure I would not have balloons on them because I dug them in February. Almost every single one of them is almost up to my waist. Granted, they're in crates, so they're higher off the ground. And they all have fun and look phenomenal. But they're going to stay that way until we find our forever farm. We're in the market trying to find about two to five acres. Yeah, that would be amazing.
00:33:58
Speaker
Yeah, I don't want to dig them and move them again. That's a new home for a little while. Yeah, I can personally attest that you can never have too many pots laying around. I know the feeling. I've got a lot of potted peonies as well, actually. I didn't think about putting them in crates, but I've got quite a few in pots and I don't think they do as well as the ground, but they do reasonably well.
00:34:25
Speaker
Yeah, they, I mean, they're, I wouldn't say that the stems definitely seem thinner than when they were in the ground, but they have buds, they're tall. There's no sign of stress on them. How many pennies are from the wind, but I have close to 300. And so I put about 250 in crates. I found space for some of them in the ground. And then I realized I didn't have space for all of them.
00:34:50
Speaker
And it just made sense to keep them mobile because if we sell this place, I don't want to have to negotiate with the P and E's in the van and you're off. Exactly. We're in a trailer. They're pretty heavy. I mean, it's amazing how I was, it was funny because this once it were second year going into their third year, those ones, I was able to fit two to four P and E's per crate. So they're really crammed in there.
00:35:17
Speaker
But my Julia Rose, that our third year, I could barely fit one. She's a big one though, isn't she? She's not, what do they, is she more of a hybrid than a? Yes, it's a I-T-O-H, I can never pronounce it. I think they say Itto. If I remember what the, thank you. We had a chap on who did PNEs and I think that's what he said. But mine are all herbaceous ones, but I think that Itto ones, they grow big.
00:35:48
Speaker
Yes, I went to Adelman's Peony Gardens before buying all my peonies. I think I listened to your episode on the Let's Girl Girls podcast, made my list. And then I went to Adelman's and I saw the Julia Rose in their display garden. And I fell in love with the color. It's kind of the same color as the King's Rancil Sweetie. You also have a smokey look to it as well, hasn't it?
00:36:09
Speaker
Yes. And I was like, I have to have this and buying it wholesale, you had to buy 30 of them. So I have 30 massive ones of it, but they're gorgeous. They, they're great for event work, but don't last a long time in the face. I mean, some of the other peer, I think it's because it's more single petal that Julia raised a single petal, isn't it? Yes. So they never last quite as long as single petaled ones, but, um, yeah, I can never get enough of a peony.
00:36:35
Speaker
No, I love them. For me, it's the dahlias and the peas. I mean, they're your two favourite.
00:36:41
Speaker
Those are my two favorites. Absolutely. What about you? Day is definitely number one, but then it changes with the
Favorite Flowers and Plant Management
00:36:48
Speaker
season. Like I've just been outside just earlier today and I, my tulips, they're all in crates as well. And they're starting to really go, I can't believe how quickly they're blooming. And my first, I just had one of them, copper image. And I was like, Oh, I just harvest those too. I love you. And I was like,
00:37:11
Speaker
so now I would say tulips but then give me you know give me a month and I'll be saying peonies and then give me another month and I'll be saying sweet peas and then somewhere in there I'll be saying roses it's so I just love flowers. I know I have not well I've come across a few flowers I don't care for but for the most part
00:37:36
Speaker
Uh, forget me not. I love them when they're in flower, but the seeds are like the bane of my existence on the farm. They self sew everywhere and stick to everything I own. So. Are they sticky?
00:37:52
Speaker
The seeds, if you let them go to seed and I have seeds everywhere, they're popping up all over where I had sweet peas. I'm trying to clear out the space. And so this year I'm trying to stay on them as they start self-sewing and getting them out. They are really beautiful, but because I mostly sell wholesale to florists, they don't typically buy very many of the Chinese forget-me-nots around here. So I've been trying to remove them from my garden. Have you ever grown Argentine forget-me-nots?
00:38:20
Speaker
No, you should definitely check those out. They're white and they're like, they kind of look like a forget-me-not but they're super tiny like these precious little white flowers and they grow tall. They're definitely not sticky and they, I love them, they're great for wedding work. You know when you just want that little extra cute thing in there?
00:38:46
Speaker
Yes. That's a great suggestion. I love those. Well, now I'm not going to be able to say that there's a flower I don't like. Well, they're a totally different, is it called a genus? I don't know. They've not got the same Latin name. They're totally different. I think they just probably call them forget me knots because it's a similar shaped flower, but it's a different family. Awesome. Thank you for sharing that. I hate cornflowers.
00:39:13
Speaker
Those are a lot of work too. They're just horrible to harvest, aren't they? If they're in like the borders or, you know, the landscape or something, I don't mind them. But they can become like really unruly and floppy, can't they? Because they grow so huge. I just hate harvesting them. I tried last year. I got somebody sent me some beautiful, my friend who owns a lovely seed company here called the Rose Press Garden.
00:39:40
Speaker
she sent me some beautiful black ones. And I'd never seen a black cornflower. So I thought I'm going to grow them. And they were beautiful. But every stem I cut, I was mad at why I'd grown them again.
00:39:56
Speaker
Yes, that was what I grew. I grew the black and I grew a white and blush mix. But after about a week of harvesting them, I was done. I found they were really difficult to pull out of the ground, like the root ball those things make. It was a workout getting those things out. So I actually don't cut the roots out. Just cut them down.
00:40:20
Speaker
at the base, and then let the micro, not, I'm... The worms and stuff. Yes, thank you. I let them decompose naturally and let the beneficials in the soil. Yeah, I have been doing that. Eat them for nutrients. But where I had them, I wanted to put dahlias. And because the roots were so big, I had no choice but to get them out. You needed the space. And I really regretted planting them where I did.
00:40:48
Speaker
I might be facing that situation because this year with limited space, I'm having a succession plant where last year I would just do one single flower for the whole summer in a spot. But now I'm going to succession plant and they actually self sewed. And so I still have in the same spot I grew them last year. They've all come back. I might need to pull them before they get big. I always think I don't want that keep coming back.
00:41:11
Speaker
Exactly, they do. Well, I think that's why I like the Chinese forget-me-nots are called forget-me-nots. You will never. I will never forget them. So I want to know, is Cafe LA still your favorite, Dahlia? Oh, I think she'll always have like a special place, but actually, and let's face it, when you get these real pinky blush ones, there isn't much better than those ones, right? But she can be a diva. Oh, totally.
00:41:40
Speaker
she can be a bit of pain in the bum to grow and you end up you probably only get half of those half of the flowers that that magical colour. But I found I really love a ball shaped dahlia like I really love that round shape there's just something so mesmerising about how Mother Nature created something so like
00:42:06
Speaker
geometrically perfect. And I would think they do better in the vase once you've cut them. So I still love Jowie Winnie, although she can get a bit floppy towards the end of the season. I really got hooked on Hamari Rose a couple of years ago. She is insane. Hamari Rose and Meg and Dean, I love those ones. And I love the cactus as well.
00:42:36
Speaker
Those are all really beautiful. So this year, when you're, did you say Jawa winning? It got towards the end of the year, it just got a little bit weak stemmed. So try this, do you do a full year spray? Oh no, I've never tried a full year spray actually.
00:42:52
Speaker
If you want to try a foliar spray, add in a little bit of calcium and the calcium will help strengthen the stems. I get, I don't, hopefully no one can hear the wind gusts in the background today. We're getting like 40 mile per hour wind gusts, which
00:43:08
Speaker
is a little unusual this time of year, but pretty common in the summer. And so my dahlias have to be super strong and sturdy. So this last year, I decided I was going to start applying calcium throughout the summer. I had the strongest stems that I have ever had
00:43:25
Speaker
And of course, if your soil is already heavy in calcium, you maybe don't want to do that. So a soil test is always an important thing. But I gave my stem or my dahlias a full year spray every two weeks. And especially paid attention at the end of summer as the plants are getting tired and my stem stayed so, so strong for every variety. Well, mine are growing in Ray's bed. So I envision I'll need to add some nutrients
00:43:52
Speaker
in there. So definitely calcium is now on my list. Who knew? Oh, I didn't even think about that. But actually it makes sense. You know, I know that floppy, renunculus are usually because of a calcium deficiency. So I don't know why I didn't think about it for the day it is.
00:44:09
Speaker
That was exactly how I thought of it is because I listened to something about applying calcium to strengthen the anunculus. It wasn't okay. And so I was like, well, if that's working there, I'm going to try it on my dahlias. And sure enough, it made a phenomenal difference. We had a great tip. I'm going to give that a go. Thank you.
00:44:29
Speaker
Yeah, of course. So let's backtrack a
Transition to Backyard Gardening
00:44:33
Speaker
little bit. You had your allotment. At what point did you decide to switch to your backyard and grow in your own space? It was probably around September, October last year. Like I said, once something stops being joyful and starts to become a chore, then you've got to rethink
00:44:52
Speaker
rethink things. And I'd seen a friend of mine on Instagram, he's called the drag queen gardener actually. He's a gardener by day and a drag queen by night. And he was saying, you know, he changed his whole career to become a gardener. He just bought a house with a small garden and he had an allotment, like something had to give.
00:45:17
Speaker
And I thought his words just rang so true to me. I got a promotion at work last year. I love my day job.
00:45:29
Speaker
you know, I've got the, you know, my husband, the dogs, you know, a normal social life, and then the allotment. And the allotment was becoming the one that was sort of increasingly losing out. And the more I didn't go, the more I didn't want to go because I knew what would be waiting for me, you know, the weed pressure, the
00:45:57
Speaker
It was just, I think it was a weed pressure that really got to me more than anything. There was a lot of brambles and other sharp things. And I think one day I was just, I'd heard his Instagram rant about things and then I'd been at the allotment and I was walking through and I caught my leg on a bramble and cut it. And I just thought this,
00:46:26
Speaker
is the last straw, like it's just tipped me over the edge here. And I thought about it, I sort of made the decision then and then thought about it for a couple of days. And I said to my, I thought I'm gonna tell my husband and he's, he always says to me, like, I come up with these like crazy ideas of things to do or, you know, places to go. And he's always like, oh, so I said to him, you know, I've been thinking he was like, oh,
00:46:55
Speaker
what now and I was just and I told him like my thought process behind it and he was just like that is that's actually the most sensible idea you've had in a long time he thought I was going to say I was getting another allotment plot so your idea sounded genius yeah I mean I don't know if he was saying that when we were like moving the raised beds back home and and digging up the the roses in the cold but actually
00:47:24
Speaker
having it all here. We were just talking about it yesterday, how it's all starting to really come together. You know, how I feel so much more on top of things. I've really enjoyed it. You know, all my seeds are being sown roughly at the right time. You know, I've started popping up tubers, which, you know, I would, I'd probably still be waiting another couple of weeks before I even started that. So it's just really feels like,
00:47:52
Speaker
The joy has come back to it, being able to just walk into my garden and see everything.
00:48:01
Speaker
That's amazing. And you installed a greenhouse just recently. I did. I did. I had a really small greenhouse before, a six by four. And we decided when we moved back here, like, we would make the most of it. And I was lucky enough, a friend of mine, she actually moved to Australia last year. She's on Instagram as well called Planting with Michaela. Her neighbor had a greenhouse.
00:48:29
Speaker
And I can't remember what he was doing. I think he might have been like putting a pool in instead or something, and he was just getting rid of this greenhouse. And she's like, no, don't get rid of it. I'll have it kind of thing. And then she decided to move back to Australia and and offered it to me. So I got this beautiful, I think it's an eight by six greenhouse to kind of double the size I had before for free. So, you know, it's amazing. It was an amazing gift.
00:48:59
Speaker
from her so yeah I was in storage for a little while because I wasn't quite sure you know what we were doing and we're not the allotment doesn't allow glass for like health and safety reasons and then when we decided to move everything back here we said we'll go get the big greenhouse in there and I mean
00:49:19
Speaker
you know what it's like with these kind of spaces. Once you've got the bigger you go, I think you can go as big as you like, and you'll always fill these things, right? You could, I could have double the size and probably still fill it. But this feels like a really good size for me at the moment. Like manageable.
00:49:39
Speaker
That's awesome. Manageable is a good thing, especially when you're changing locations and kind of giving yourself a fresh start. Definitely. It's my favorite place to be in that greenhouse. I just love to just sit in there. It's so warm and always so nice in there. So it's my favorite, my favorite spot for sure.
00:50:00
Speaker
That's awesome. And so what are you doing with all the flowers that you're growing this year?
Future Plans and Sustainable Practices
00:50:05
Speaker
Well, one of the funny things that not many people know about having an allotment is you obviously have to pay to rent the land, but it's
00:50:18
Speaker
It's a token amount. So my allotment, I had two plots. My husband had one, I had one, but technically I looked after the whole thing. So for the two plots, I paid 70 pounds a year. So it's probably about $90.
00:50:34
Speaker
So, you know, just for a small piece of land, I thought it was incredible for like a whole year of having this land. I couldn't believe it. When I got my first plot, I only had the half plot. So that was only £35, like $50, something like that. So I just like, it was just amazing to have that space. But what it comes with is a clause that says,
00:50:59
Speaker
it's for personal use only. So you can't sell anything from the land, you can't get any sort of commercial benefit out of it at all. Although during lockdown, I did give away a lot of like bouquets to
00:51:14
Speaker
teachers and like, you know, people who are still having to work, which was lovely, but I couldn't sell any of them. So now with the space that I've got, I really want to, I might start selling this year, but I want to kind of use it more as like a practice run of how I would sell things if I want, because my ultimate dream is to have, like I said, to have the sort of small holding
00:51:42
Speaker
where I could offer kind of you picks or curated buckets with maybe like the occasional wedding thrown in. Because I do love to do a bit of floristry myself as well. So that's kind of what I wanted to trial a little bit.
00:52:05
Speaker
That's really exciting. And I love that you're doing kind of a trial year to get all the kinks worked out and see what you like and don't like. Yeah, because I think obviously it's still a small space, but I'm really trying to make the most of it this year. I think probably last year, because I was kind of getting to the point where I was fed up with things, I didn't make as much of the space as I could have or should have really. So this year I've got
00:52:33
Speaker
all the raised beds in place, I've got the ground sorted where I'm growing things in the ground, obviously got my pots, you know, I'm ready and raring. I'm still wearing some veggies, can't not have a few veggies in there. But yeah, just really excited to see what works with what what's popular, what do people like and get my head around that really.
00:52:59
Speaker
That's great. And remind me, how big is your backyard space? So I think it's probably about the same size as the allotment, maybe. Yeah, I think it is, but obviously I've got the greenhouse on there as well. I've got a little potting shed.
00:53:15
Speaker
and the chickens. So it's it's it probably works out about the same but actually when we were when we were looking at what the size was and like how many beds I had to grow with at the allotment because of the weed pressure I put like a lot of weed matting down in between beds and things so I probably didn't have I probably didn't utilize the space as well as I could have because I had these quite like
00:53:41
Speaker
you know, meter-wide paths. Whereas, you know, this is my garden, now I've just crammed it all in as tight as I can to get as much as I can in. That sounds like my kind of gardening. Where can I cram something else in here? I said, I said to my husband, I'm gonna, I'm just gonna, you know, plant some things down the side of the chicken run. He was like, what do you mean? Just down the side of the chicken run. I was like, you know, they'll just squish in there.
00:54:09
Speaker
There's always room for one more plant, especially if it blooms. So would you say you have about an eighth of an acre? Is that what we were saying earlier? I'll have to measure it for you. And then perhaps when you post about the podcast, you can put what the actual size is so I can work it out. But yeah, it's tiny really. It's about a backyard. It's just my small garden that
00:54:38
Speaker
we've tried to make the most of. I'm, you mentioned Galena earlier, and I'm definitely in her mindset of death to the lawn. There's no lawn here. It's now been taken over by, by raised beds. And I think I'm gonna, where I'm, I obviously want something to grow in between them. I think I'm going to try a clover lawn. I've heard that's quite
00:55:02
Speaker
popular now and easier to maintain than grass. So, but yeah, the lawn's gone. It's all flowers now. I would say that Europeans are much better about that than Americans. The concept of getting rid of grass lawns. Oh no, I don't think so here. People love a lawn. I mentioned it to somebody today and they were like, I talked to a man and he was like, oh no,
00:55:32
Speaker
He said that's the only thing I do in my garden is look after the lawn. Men are very protective about their lawns here. It's like a thing. My neighbour like religiously mows his lawn and if you step out into any
00:55:45
Speaker
like garden here in the UK on a Saturday, you'll hear somebody mowing their lawn. People are quite precious about it. I think it's because it's got that, you know, if you look at like a lot of the old English country gardens, they've all got traditional like lawns and borders and beds, and you've always got that immaculate sort of luscious green grass. But I think people today are just like the more the younger generation are probably can't be bothered with all that mowing, right?
00:56:15
Speaker
Yes. Well, and it takes so much water too, like as we're starting to face droughts and water shortages, finding alternatives is so important. Although the part of the country that we live in, we're lucky we don't suffer too badly from that. We actually, we don't really flood around here, but we border on to a place called The Wash, which is quite wet wetlands.
00:56:43
Speaker
So this round here is quite an agricultural area because stuff grows so well because the soils have a good consistency.
00:56:55
Speaker
Oh, that is nice. So do you just use water from your house to water your yard or do you have an irrigation system? So I just use water from the house, but this I'm about to go this next weekend to pick up like an animal trough type thing from like a local farm shop that I want to utilize more like rainwater for. But I'm going to try this year and be a little bit more frugal with the watering to see like what the plants can
00:57:23
Speaker
take and what they can't take. I mean, obviously, the sweet peas, we've got to, you know, look after those gals. But, you know, in terms of the dahlias, I don't find they need tons and tons of water. And I think some with some plants, it's better to treat them a bit meaner, isn't it? Because then they, they become hardier, like they can cope more with the droughts.
00:57:46
Speaker
Uh, I have found from where I am because we have so much wind things dry out so much faster. I implemented Jenny loves suggestion of pulse watering last year. And so it's where instead of spending like for, I used to water my dahlias for an hour every morning on a drip line. Now I do three to five waterings throughout the day. So I spaced them out and they, depending on how the drip line is set up, they only get water for five to 10 minutes at a time.
00:58:16
Speaker
I think one line is 15 minutes because the spacing is further apart on the drips. But the idea is instead of all the water soaking down past where your bulbs or roots are, it stays more on the surface so the plant can absorb it faster.
00:58:32
Speaker
same kind of idea, you're giving it less water, but it's actually utilizing that water versus it soaking deeper down into the soil. That's a clever idea, yeah. I think there are more clever, sustainable ways of using water rather than either putting irrigation on for an hour at a time. I know a lot of people use
00:58:59
Speaker
I started using sprinkler systems as well to try and water more economically and I want to try and use a rainwater a bit better so I do think there are more clever ways than racking up a humongous water bill.
00:59:19
Speaker
Absolutely. Well, Nicole, this has been really fun chatting
Social Media and Podcast Relaunch
00:59:23
Speaker
with you. I could chat for hours about flowers, so I was really excited to be invited on. Thank you.
00:59:30
Speaker
Yes, it's been such a pleasure and I can't wait to watch your garden unfold as you're growing it in your backyard. I know you've been working so hard on Instagram. I've been watching you and your husband assemble your raised beds and get your sweet peas sewn and started. For those listening that are not already following you, can you please share? How can they find you? I'm on Instagram. It's
00:59:52
Speaker
at Nicole at Cherry Garden. That's an 80 in the middle there, Nicole 80, Cherry Garden. And that's the main place you can find me or as I mentioned earlier, we'll be starting the Let's Grow Girls podcast hopefully in the next few weeks again. And that's the handle for that as well at Let's Grow Girls podcast and we'll be back there sharing, you know, like you do lots of lovely flowery stories. So yeah, come and say hi.
01:00:20
Speaker
Awesome. We'll all include links to both of those in the show notes. And before we say goodbye today, do you have any parting advice for our listeners today? Wow. There's so much advice, isn't there? But I would say if you don't plant it, it won't grow. So just do it. Like, don't talk about doing it. Just do it before the time passes, you know. Stick that seed in the ground or that tuber
01:00:50
Speaker
And like me, you might just get hooked on them. I love it. Just get out there and let's see. Find the magic. Yes. Thanks so much, Nicole. It's been so fun chatting with you. Yes. Have a wonderful growing season and I hope we can chat again soon. Thanks. Bye-bye.
01:01:12
Speaker
Thank you Flower Friends for joining us on another episode of the Backyard Bouquet. I hope you've enjoyed the inspiring stories and valuable gardening insights we've shared today. Whether you're cultivating your own backyard blooms or supporting your local flower farmer, you're contributing to the local flower movement, and we're so happy to have you growing with us.
01:01:33
Speaker
If you'd like to stay connected and continue this blossoming journey with local flowers, don't forget to subscribe to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. I'd be so grateful if you would take a moment to leave us a review of this episode. And finally, please share this episode with your garden friends. Until next time, keep growing, keep blooming, and remember that every bouquet starts right here in the backyard.