Welcome to January. So January is all about cutting patch and cutting flowers. So I'll be going solo for the month of January. So I'm telling you all about having your own cutting patch and all the advantages of doing so. So whether you have a garden and an allotment containers on a patio, a small plot, or large area that's destined to be a flower farm, it's all about the plan. We are running out annual cut flowers series of three master classes online, and these kick off on the first of February, we'd love you to join us, all you need to do is go to the Facebook group, cut flower master classes 2024. So today's podcast is all about having your own cutting patch. So do get a notebook handy. And here are some of the factors you'll need to consider when you're planning your cut flower plot. What do you want from it? So what do you want to grow? What do you want this to give you? Is it just about having enough flowers for yourself? Is it about having cut flowers to give to family and friends? Or is it more than that? Do you want to turn it into a little business a side hustle? Or do you actually want to be a flower farmer? What do you actually want to do? You may be grown for a special event or a wedding. If you have the space to expand it further. Like I say the ambitions to make money from it, you may want to be a flower farmer. So I think that's about establishing very early on what do you want this book to do. And of course it can change. We're looking back at some of our seeds of ours course participants in the past our online course. And really, they kicked off growing for lots of different reasons. And then some of them went on, they want you to go on and make a flower farm of it, but they didn't know that initially. So just to have an open mind about where growing cut flowers can take you. So how much space do you have. If you have a small space within your existing garden or an allotment, you will need to really make it as efficient as possible. You choose to concentrate on half a dozen varieties or annuals, or pack in loads of varieties but less of each. Look at what flowers when and when you would like flowers and try to plan a selection of flowering plants that will mean you have blooms of some sort from April through to the end of the year. If you have a larger plot, think about how you might access your plants for watering. Planting a long way away could mean installing a watering system, which could be a little bit of an unwanted expense in the beginning. Also consider that you want to just you might just want to nip out and cut some flowers 10 minutes before visitors arrive to put them on the table. So it's really how much space do you have? What do you want to grow? How much of it do you want to grow? And what do you want it to be? Think about your layout. So if it's in your garden, so isn't a separate flower, growing areas and a cut flower area. You want to say okay, well I want to sit near it. So I want to look over at you and look at this statics of your future flowerpot. If it's not, and it's a bit more practical, you might want to arrange some rows or clusters or mix beds, depending on your preference. If possible position a plot where you can see it from the house. Certainly if you're just kicking off and get joy from your blooms when you're not out there amongst them. One of the questions you might want to ask is do you want to use raised beds, the no dig method has really become popular. But you may find this method doesn't maximise maximise the space you have. If you choose this route, remember to factor in space to walk between and to be able to read and cut our raised beds. Here at the farm we have about 10 Our three metres by one metre, which allows us to walk around it and actually lean over and cut our flowers. So just think about the layout. If you make them too wide, it's too difficult. Think about sunlight and aspect. Most flowering plants require at least six to eight hours of direct sunlight per day. That's why we don't kick our seeds off until March. So there's a little bit of warning there. I know lots of people are talking about seeds in January, we wouldn't consider doing anything until March and then into April. Choose a location that requires adequate sunlight throughout the day you need sunlight. If you have a south facing wall, you can plant alongside brilliant. Reserve this space for plants that love warmth, or those who want to be able to plant out in early spring. If your plot is particularly exposed and very windy. It'll be worth installing or planting windbreaks, either semi permeable fences or hedges that will provide a natural windbreak know your soil. Now you can just purchase a really cheap soil analysis kit from the garden centre or from those on online retailers. Or you can actually send it off to the RHS. Bear in mind that soil in one area might not be the same across your whole plot. But carry out a soil test to determine the pH and nutrient levels in your soil. That's very important. Most cut flowers prefer well drained soil with a pH between six and seven. You may need to add compost or other organic matter to improve its quality. It is really difficult to change a soil and inherent nature of a soil it's really difficult You can add in manure and compost and that sort of thing and make it more manageable. So you can change your clay soil by making it more manageable, but you can never really change soil. So always plant what you want to plant, I always say the right plant in the right place. And that's really important. Watering we've mentioned watering and obviously, as we're getting warmer summers is something you need to take into account. Try and give yourself as little work as possible. If it turns out to be a really hot summer and your regular watering, you don't want to be running up and down the garden where the watering can. Irrigation systems are doing really, really useful. We use the irrigation system here on the farm called Tea tape. But you will need to think about watering and also water rainwater harvesting and how you could do that really effectively. Here on the farm, we grow sustainably. environmental friendly practices are always part of our prime consideration. I actually had an email in from somebody today who's a florist in London and would like to work with us and buy our flowers. But we need to give our Eco and sustainable credentials first. So that was really quite interesting, I thought. So we you know, we use we don't use herbicides or pesticides, we're using organic fertilisers, everything we do is eco friendly. So all of our pest control is biological. We incorporate native plants to support local pollinators. We want lots of bees, we want loads of insects and we want to be surrounded by them. And when we've got lots of composites across the farm and water butts we do as much as we possibly can add to the transport of course an electric vehicle if you can see it and tender parts. Lastly, have you considered where you're going to sound germinate seeds, you don't have to have a greenhouse or polytunnel or light conservatory or a window seal is just as good. I know people who've done it in garages with grow lights. Once seedlings grow bigger, you may need more space. And if they're tender, or half Hardy, or they won't survive frost outside, you will be nursing them indoors until late May or early June is something you need to think about and the sanity of everybody in your home. I did see something aligned today, questioning about where they could grow in a marriage or not because they thought that their husband would leave them. But hey, just a few ones on your windowsill I'm sure we'll be fine flower selection. Choose a variety of flowers, different colours, shapes and sizes for a variety in your bouquets. Think about perennials by annuals and annual plants do come along, like I say to our free master classes. And we'll be telling you more about all of those different varieties. Herbs are also invaluable for giving you sent grasses a brilliant, then you need to think about foliage. So come along, we'll tell you all about those. So in commercial plots, since for instance, we will be looking at about 50% of the plot to be perennials. And these are flowers that come back every year. And then you need to put into the plan biennials and annuals. We do actually I should mention it here, we do have a cut flower planner, which is on Amazon, which plans your whole year out for you and has lots of free resources. So it's called the cut flower planter 2024. And you can look just by my name if you want to have a look at that. So planting for succession is quite important. We've touched on this briefly before in other podcasts. But think about how you can use for instance a raised bed and then actually and then plant again and again and again to get successional planting of annuals. So things like sweetpeas Cosmos Auntie Ryan Adams Nigella's, how are you going to keep them going, if you do a whole raised bed in one of those, you and then they've gone over then you haven't got anything to replace them. It's a very empty bed for quite a while. So think about successional keep the pollinators happy. I'm an absolute avid fan of bees and diversity. And if you haven't followed Dave gholston or you haven't read any of his books, he's actually on our pod podcast, he talks about bees, and why we need to look after our bees. So do have a look at that. spacing and layout pay attention to spacing requirements for each type of flower. We're very naughty here. We put them really close together. We don't normally follow the packet. If they're really crowded, they can just be more susceptible disease but annuals are not that's not going to happen with an annual you know, and if you've got tall flowering plants such as delphiniums, they're going to need staking so you need to get get close to them. But we tend to not follow what the picket says we're very naughty. So preparation is crucial. We've talked about weeds rocks Debray. We've talked about adding organic matter have a look at that. One of my favourite things and I actually picked this up probably last year or the year before from a lot put someone who does have been doing allotments for a long time. And he used in that very hot summer we had in the UK. He used lots of mulch, and he tells me he never watered anything that summer that really hot 40 degrees summer, so mulching consider using mulching to help conserve moisture. It does suppress your weeds bonus and it will mean Don't even soil temperatures. Another bonus. So mulch is definitely if you want to mulch now in January it's a really good thing to do. There can be organic matter such as leaf mould, there can be compost or wood chip, or there can be a semi permanent membrane. It's just a way of keeping everything down. We actually just had delivery 10 minutes ago from plant grow. And we use plant grow. So amazing mulch and they've just delivered four tonnes. So we will be mulching all week. So it's a good time to think about mulching. Also, even at this time of year, be vigilant for signs of pests and disease. Use biological control where you can there is a podcast from Tesla probably of ladybird plant care, who talks about all things biological control, but start to look at them. Bear in mind that slugs, for instance, will start meeting on Valentine's Day. So that is not that far away. So think about what you're going to do with slugs on Valentine's Day. Plan your seasonal tasks out feeding pruning, dividing, doing seed putting new seeds in doing hardwood cuttings, just plan your season, equipment and tools. Hopefully some of you got some nice crimbo presents. My favourite tool of all time is a hurry hurry knife in your walkie Hori Hori knife. It's just that's everything. I mean, it's a great one. And at this time of year you want to sharp clean your tools get really efficient, clean your greenhouses, clean your polytunnels just get it ready. You don't have to be doing any other work in January, mulching any other work on seats or anything like that. Just enjoy the time cleaning everything. And finally, don't forget to have a good time. It's all about creating Joy flowers is all about creating joy. Spend time in your patch, watch it bloom, get excited when the seeds start germinating. I do after nearly 14 years. I'm still jumping up and down when something germinates and some of the hard things like sometimes larkspur actually, or even Lizzie anThis is really difficult to germinate then it becomes really exciting. So don't forget to just sit back and enjoy it. Remember planning and maintaining cut flower plot is a learning process. Don't be discouraged by initial setbacks. Don't be discouraged when things don't work. See germination is not 100%. Cut flowers is not 100% it teaches us all that nothing's perfect. It's a skill that involves experience involves having a joy and then it comes you're rewarded with the joy of having fresh, homegrown flowers. And believe me, it's well worth all the effort