Lessons

June 25th, 2015

With winter setting in, I find myself looking back at the season that was. It was another year of roller coaster emotions, but I’m happy to say more highs then lows.
Heading into the season I spent any free time I had over the winter trying to learn the art of flower growing. I scoured every book, blog and website. I planned things out to a tee, this year I was going to get it right, take from all the experienced growers out there, simply implement their techniques on our farm, then Wah Lah best season ever!!

Unfortunately farming is not as simple as following a set of guidelines. What I quickly learnt was that our growing conditions were very different from the farmers I was taking notes from. What worked really well for them had us running around battling disease and pests. By mid March I had put my hands up, waved the white flag and admitted defeat! It was a big learning curve for me, and one I wouldn’t change, because you really don’t know till you try. In all the failures I learnt a lot about our farm, I really learnt the nature of our soil, our climate and how to better battle pest and disease on our little patch of dirt.

I now know heading into this next season that I’m not going to get it right. Even with all that I have learnt this past season, some things are going to do well, while others not so much, and a lot of that has to do with circumstances that are out of my control. I feel so much lighter knowing this fact. Already this season is starting to look very different. Last year our cornflower flourished, this year it’s really struggling. Half of our pink cornflowers got knocked back by a combined slug/bird attack. But rather then get upset, I sowed seed into the gaps, and came to a peace that we’re going to be a bit short on cornflowers come spring, and thats ok!! It all seems so obvious, but for me a self proclaimed control freak/perfectionist, this has been a lesson I’ve had to learn. So here’s to 2015/16 and not getting everything right!!!