Gardener vs Farmer
You’re a farmer now - time to plant in rows!
People ask me all the time, “What’s the difference anyway? Aren’t you just a gardener who’s now selling her flowers?” And that’s what I thought I was going to be. At first.
As a lifelong gardener, I definitely had accumulated a stash of harvestable inventory. Some might say years of hoarding, collecting, coveting, acquiring with no idea what/why/where to plant….
Farmer Teri wishes Gardener Teri hadn’t been so enamored of plants like oak leaf hydrangea and camellias. Lovely to gaze upon, but not so great for vase life. If only Gardener Teri had put in a whole bunch of Annabelle hydrangea and peony all those years ago! But honestly, I still came to the flower farming game with quite a bit of usable product! I love perennials and many of my favorites also happen to make great cut flowers.
So really, what’s the difference BETWEEN GARDENING & FARMING? Here’s a few details that jump out at me in looking back at my farmer evolution:
Layout & simplicity - narrow straight beds, all in A ROW. Yawner for sure. Designer Teri had a hard time with this one! But the standard sizing helps with irrigation, horizontal supports, row covers etc. etc. And the narrow beds also help this short farmer harvest her flowers!
Scale - Growing so much more (yea for me!) and sourcing things through wholesalers. Also, not agonizing over loss and learning to pull a bed long before Gardener Teri would have!
Size - Using different varieties of the same species because they grow taller and therefore will be more sell-able. For example, Gardener Teri might have opted for a zinnia that was more compact and didn’t require staking. Farmer Teri wants those long stems!
Cheating on those first 2 bullets - When our farmhouse renovations were complete and we looked towards the landscaping, I definitely designed with an eye towards beds that could also contain harvestable goodies, workhorse shrubs and perennials. I also neglect this space and don’t wipe the slate after a “crop” is finished, because it’s part of the landscaping. Those dead flowers over there - winter interest ;-)
Planning for the entire growing season/succession planting - I’ve got to leave room for the next season’s plants and not fill up the whole space willynilly, which is challenging! I also need to plan for succession plantings of staples such as zinnias throughout the growing season to ensure those blooms keep a-coming!
Weed Control - Growing at a larger scale there’s never enough time to weed. The pasture is constantly wanting to creep in… You gotta have a plan in place - I’m still trying to figure that out! The best non-chemical solution I’ve found are row covers. I love a product called Bio360, which breaks down and can be worked back into the bed, but it’s challenging to install when you’re a 1 person operation…
Reorienting my opinions of specific plants - some plants I never gave much thought to as a gardener are great for this business -gladiolus and bearded iris for example.
Marketing and sales - This is a biggie, cuz if Farmer Teri can’t sell what she grows, she’s really just a gardener after all!