10 Lessons I Learnt in my First Year Flower Farming 💐 Backyard Flower Farming in Australia

In today's video, I'm reflecting on my first year running a backyard cut flower farm and chatting through all the major lessons I have learnt. Flower farming has it's challenges which are so unique to your own growing space. My hope for this video is that we can share and chat through our mistakes and lessons learnt to build stronger and more effective strategies to move towards a more successful backyard businesses. I hope this information is useful for you in your own flower farming journey!
💐Online Shop💐 - thepatchinbloom.com.au/
Want to support the channel?
🌱 Support me on Patreon - www.patreon.com/thenaturepatch
🌱 Check out my Instagram for daily garden updates the_nature_patch
🌱 Buy me a coffee ko-fi.com/thenaturepatch
🌱 Follow me on instagram - @the_nature_patch
🌸Timestamps🌸
00:00 Introduction & flower farm background
03:25 Diversify Income
07:40 Plant more but of less variety
09:53 Market to your local customers
12:16 Staying in your comfort zone isn’t a bad thing
14:46 Don’t start more seeds than you have room for
16:32 Don’t set unachievable goals and tasks
20:25 Smaller sales add up
22:22 Intensive growing requires intensive nutrients
24:52 Don’t stick to the seed packet instructions
27:21 Just do what works for you
🌼 Twitch account - www.twitch.tv/thecosypatch
🌲 Shop my favourites 🌲
🌱Veggie and Herb subscription - www.whipbirdenvironmental.com.au/shop/p/vegetable-and-herb-seed-subscription
🌱Seeds - www.whipbirdenvironmental.com.au/shop use code: NATUREPATCH5 for discount
Music (Epidemic sound). Use this link for one month free trial! www.epidemicsound.com/referral/u5xg2p
__________________________________________________
Hey there!
Welcome to my channel, The Nature Patch where I like to share all things gardening, cooking, environmental science and flower farming in my Australian bushland backyard in south coast NSW.
My name is Robyn, an environmental scientist, and flower farmer. I have recently completed my PhD in understanding how people's wellbeing and their connection to nature is impacted by land use change but now I'm taking a break from research to pursue a dream of owning a flower farm. I've always loved gardening and nature and lately have been interested in growing my own organic food!
On this channel you'll find videos relating to garden tours, 'how to' videos, composting, soil health and how to start a flower farm.
I try to upload twice a week and I hope you enjoy!!
🤎 Filmed and edited on Yuin country. I acknowledge and pay respects to Traditional Owners of the land past, present and emerging. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land.
____________________________________________________
You can contact me at (business inquires only): [e-mail]
Thank you so much for your support. It means the world!

[@MarigoldsintheGarden]

Robyn, you have done so well in your first year of growing flowers, and vegies too! 💚Good job. 😃It is so encouraging to find another person who is just trying to grow or start small, from home. 🌳This is such an important video to watch for anyone who is starting small or who only intends to sell locally, or even a home gardener who wants to grow cut flowers in their existing garden. You have just verified all things that I have found; re the growing of seeds, composting, watering etc. especially here in S.E. Qld 🌴Thank you Robyn. I've been working on fixing a large area of my soil, as nothing will grow in it without compost and manure. It needs a lot of work, as we lost a layer of our loamy topsoil in the floods during the past few years. Our buffalo grass did not like all that rain and the ground was very compacted under the remaining grass. You are right about the importance of compost, especially for growing large, healthy, disease resistant flowers. Unfortunately it takes time to make decent compost that is properly broken down, and usable. I found out the hard way that I was rushing decomposition, when my expensive sunflower seeds got swallowed up into the decaying mulch. The rest of my sunflowers then got eaten by grasshoppers😥🌻🌹🌼🌺

[@MartinHouseFlowers]

Thank you for all your learnings! I’m starting a cut flower garden in my backyard this spring, will start growing from seeds. Ive got a small grow light unit set up & I’ve definitely bought too many seeds to try out. My hope is to build a greenhouse if our HOA approves it. Also hope to eventually sell at our local farmers markets. I’ve been a gardener for many years, planning to retire from my full time career and will do this for my retirement. Flowers are my passion👩🏻‍🌾❤️Anne from Northern Illinois

[@Jade-yq1et]

I’m so glad I’ve found someone in the southern hemisphere to watch haha exciting

[@MeridethPeters]

Hi Robyn. Really enjoyed this video and many others of yours. Great to find someone in Australia to follow on KZbin. Appreciate your honest advice. I am really just starting my garden journey. Not sure where it will lead but I’m excited for the adventure. I grew flowers for my niece’s wedding last year and really enjoyed that. I am in Northern NSW. (Northern Rivers).

[@theadventuresofzoomandbettie]

This is great, only part way through the video so far, but I can't believe it's already been over a full year! Just today I had a local reach out to me about buying some of our apricots, and it turns out they have a small flower farm running in a backyard in town, and they given us a whole lot of dahlia tubers in a trade off! The are about 5 years into running their set up and I think we've just made a great local connection to learn from!!! So exciting! ....anyway..... off to watch the rest of your video 🤣

[@thenaturepatch]

The year went so quickly!! I love that! Local produce and flower sharing is the best! Would love to one day have home grown apricots 😍 Yum!

[@rosemarybushea3517]

I love this - I'm a hobby gardener (organic) for 40 years, considering flower farming. No machinery, just hand tools and sweat equity. Learning all I can, thanks for your video!

[@thenaturepatch]

Oh that's awesome! You'd have so much knowledge built up over those years! It's hard work but so rewarding!

[@andreasimpson1018]

I have a quarter of an acre I’ve been growing vegetables on for about four years but we’re switching to mostly flowers next year. This was the advise I needed for my small space. Thank you!

[@thenaturepatch]

Thanks so much for watching :) Glad the video could help!

[@anneliesmith3208]

Beautiful part of the world you're in, I miss the South Coast! Thank you for bringing things back down to earth and being real. I'm keen to start something small in my own backyard and feel inspired by your little farm 🙂

[@thenaturepatch]

It's such a beautiful part of the world! Thank you so much for watching! I really appreciate it 😊

[@newjerseygarden]

Hi, I'm in the U.S. in zone 6a and love your channel. I've personally been looking for more content on backyard flower farms as I only grow on 1/8 of an acre in my yard. I appreciated the tip about following local businesses on Instagram.

[@ElderandOakFarm]

Great tips! Definitely learned some of those lessons myself in my first couple of years!

[@wildpatchhomestead]

Really enjoyed this video, thanks for sharing your experience 😀

[@kimberlywells1794]

Really enjoyed just pottering around in your garden with you and checking out how everything is growing. Great to see another SA garden for comparison. Instructional videos and just seeing what you are up to is interesting. I’m new to veg growing so always picking up tips. I also wouldn’t mind seeing some cooking when you have interesting produce and finding creative way to use things up. I enjoy longer videos but do what is manageable for you as really enjoying getting more than an Instagram snippet!

[@thenaturepatch]

Absolutely, I'd love to do some more cooking and preserving videos. Hard to film in our teeny kitchen at the moment but I'm going to try to make it work.

[@beeintheclover]

It feels like you were talking to me in this video! I want to be a flower farmer here on the Mid Coast of NSW, but I have no money to set it up. No irrigation, no machinery just me trying to dig out kikuyu grass with a mattock and carrying around a watering can. The start of this flower season was so super dry and as we rely on rainwater, I was about to give up. So your lesson about don't read instructions on seed packets is so true! Summer has now turned wet and quite mild really so my spring plant seedlings that survived I am throwing into the ground. Don't ask what because I didn't even label anything this year as I really didn't think anything was going to grow. I managed to buy some dahlia tubers but they have only just been put into the ground so not much growth on them yet. Everything is either late or out of season, but it is still fun watching them grow. So good to get Australian advice and you being a NSW gardener helps a lot too. Thanks for all your tips!

[@thenaturepatch]

Thank you so much for this lovely comment! Wow! Following your instincts takes some getting used to (or at least it does for me), but has made things so much easier this year. You should still be fine if planting dahlias now, particularly on the mid coast :) I think growing a little in and out of the expected season is probably a good buffer for all this crazy weather. All the best for your flower farming journey! I'm so excited to see more Aussie flower farmers :)

[@ilenehales7849]

I love the advice of you do you.

[@evieartsandcraftlover1079]

We use wood chips it’s quite economical, sometimes free.

[@user-os2uh4iu7p]

Good Would like to know more

[@jeannesmith1761]

You try to get some arbiters chips have him drop it off usually up here in Pennsylvania it's free so that's what I use for the park I have 30 gardens out here and flower gardens and that's just that's what I've been using for all these years it works great I don't have to use hardly any fertilizer or any of that stuff you just set those chips they turn into big just like okay talk to you later thank you

[@thenaturepatch]

I'm struggling to find some locals who will drop it off here :( most of it just goes to landscaping companies where it's sold or the council. Might have to keep asking around though as I agree, it's great for the garden!

[@downunderveggiegardendiaries]

Final spacing for Zinnias please?

[@thenaturepatch]

For zinnias I do at least 25cm apart - these I like to give a little more room because we're so humid here and have bad mildew issues

[@allangoodger969]

Are you still doing Husky markets?

[@thenaturepatch]

I'm a little unsure about Husky markets at the moment. It's a very 'touristy' market (which is great for things like bath salts but not necessarily flowers) and last time my customers were pretty much regulars who I see at other markets. I might try again but I'm going to look for a more consistent farmers market :)