Welcome!
Greetings everyone!
Welcome and thank you for being here!
This is the very first blog post of Lovely Rain Flower Farm. And I’m so excited XD
My name is Kerri (excited wave*)
Where do I begin? Do I tell you about how the farm started or why I’m looking forward to the blog or what’s happening on the farm right now? I guess all of the above!
• I’ll let you peruse the Our Story section of the website (lovelyrainflowerfarm.com) for the longer explanation but the short of it is: I started as a VERY hesitant gardener back in 2019 and now in 2022 I’m a passionate grower who, this year, became a farmer.
• I’m looking forward to the blog because I’ve always loved writing.
• And! This, together with the social media posts, will keep you up to date on what’s happening on the farm.
All us plant people know that we love seeing other plant people… and their plants lol. But I truly think that most garden challenges are not unique to us and it’s comforting to know that other people go through what we do. Not to mention we get to experience each other’s joys.
So, what’s happening right now? Man, I wish I could go back and give you the rundown of what the experience was like when it all started this year. It would be such a relief to vent my frustrations to other sympathetic green people :)
There are some parts I’ll save for a later time. But firstly, I garden on an allotment. When I found out my application was approved I was overjoyed. Then I went to the physical location and realized that they stuck the newbie in the furthest corner of the plot, covered by trees. I could’ve cried. Flowers need a certain amount of sunlight. If the results of my farming were unpredictable, how could I manage this as a business? It may sound like I was panicking over nothing, but when you take growing to a commercial level, being able to time your crops is crucial. And certainly, from April to now I’ve realized that my concern was warranted – it has pushed back my harvest significantly.
But what helped me? Well, a few things. 1: I follow the weekly content produced by The Gardener’s Workshop on social media. Lisa Mason Ziegler is the head of that operation and she shares all her wisdom. I am so fortunate to have found her. (I often wonder how more people haven’t discovered her. In my opinion, she is one of the most valuable flower farmer educators in this day and age). And every podcast or video I watch is my weekly pep talk. Newbie farmers (and probably all new entrepreneurs) know that the cycle of confidence and panic is an ever-turning wheel. I get the courage to do this every week.
2: I also remembered an episode on the Let’s Grow Girls Podcast where something an interviewee said helped me to appreciate that farmers are always dealing with the unexpected. So I thought: other farmers may not be dealing with a very small space, or insufficient sunlight, but hello! Their job depends on the weather! Every year they have varying ‘fires’ to put out – not just on the farming side of things but on the business side too. So I prayed, took courage from those words of wisdom and said: I’m a farmer. This is normal. Work with it.
Welp, I’m hoping the first crop will be ready the first week of July, so please check out the online shop at lovelyrainflowerfarm.com. I deliver to both Westminster and Baltimore M.D. I will keep you posted!
Thank you so much for your well wishes and support!
Much love,
Kerri.