April on the Farm

We are deep into the rhythm of seed sowing, pricking out and potting on, and the polytunnel benches are fit to burst with young seedlings. These will form the bulk of our crop for the season ahead and seeing them in such abundance, you can’t help but feel hopeful.

Wedding season really gets going in early May and it looks like the ranunculus will pop right on time, those fussy crops are a constant source of stress! I feel so lucky to be supplying some incredible Edinburgh based florists and curating their wedding orders is one of my favourite farm jobs. There are some gorgeous wedding colour palettes booked in, with buttery yellows, soft lilac and peach the most popular choices.

I did find the time this month for a trip to visit two Fife flower farms - Sarah at Keeping the Plotand Erin & Becca at Simply Pottering. I love what I do but it does involve a lot of lone working so it was great to visit friends, catch up over a coffee and see how they do things. Both farms are several years ahead of mine so it was incredibly useful to swap notes - we spoke about their most reliable crops, routes to market, irrigation methods, cover cropping and how to stop your dog from digging in the polytunnels... The Scottish flower farming community is full of kind, hard working and very resilient people, I feel very proud and lucky to be a small part of it.

I use only organic plant fertilisers on the farm; bonemeal is incorporated into potting compost, well-rotted manure is mixed into beds and liquid seaweed is used on developed plants. Seaweed is naturally rich in potassium, which is important for the development of fruit and flowers and I start to feed the sweet peas, ranunculus and anemone with this every two weeks as soon as buds appear.

I have experimented with making my own comfrey plant feed, which is also very high in potassium and a more cost effective way of feeding hungry flowering crops. Comfrey has deep perennial tap roots which draw up nutrients from low down in the soil, these nutrients are then stored in the plant leaves which can be used to make a very rich fertiliser. It typically likes to grow in damp shaded ground, so you often find it in woodland or near riverbanks and hedgerows. The woodland that surrounds my farm is full of comfrey from around April until the first frosts in late autumn, you can see their leaves in the photo above. They are fast growing perennials so you can harvest their leaves several times from late spring into the summer months but they are most nutrient rich before flowering, so now is the perfect time.

How I make my comfrey plant feed

I cut the largest leaves from around the base of the plant as these hold the most nutrients. The leaves are quite hairy and can irritate skin so I wear gloves when doing this. I avoid any flowering stems, these are not necessary for making feed so it’s best to leave them for the bees!

I tear and crush the leaves into a large bucket, weigh them down with a big stone, cover with a lid and leave outside for 4-6 weeks. The warmer the weather the quicker the leaves break down.

Eventually the leaves rot down to create a smelly, brown liquid plant feed. To use on crops, I dilute this with water in a can at a ratio of 1:20.

The Rosemains Steading Spring Market is tomorrow, Sunday 26th April from 10am-3pm. I will have beautiful spring bunches available, full of double tulips, scented narcissi and blossom. As the only place we sell direct to the non florist, it would be lovely to see you there to celebrate Scottish grown flowers. There is a great line up of Steading residents and guest stallholders, some personal favourites include - Chesterhall Honey, Ella Fletcher Ceramics, Pinkminis, Common Coffee and Company Bakery.