This has helped me out so much! Not only with time and cost but also with the basic planning of my garden and what makes the most profitable sense of what to plant the most and where. I really appreciate you passing on your knowledge of flower farming!

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I am sooo glad to hear this and would love to know if you have any follow up questions!

You are a great consultant

Love your content, and style. Thank you so much for your sensible, kind to the environment approach, and sharing as you learn. PS, love the seasonal painting! 😊

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I so appreciate you taking the time to write this :). And yes! I love how simple and cute that seasonal painting was!

Wow awesome intel gave me a lot to think about for the coming season.

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I'm so glad to hear this!

Thank you for the great wealth of information. I appreciate all of the information you put in your videos.

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

Thank you so much :)

Thanks Jessie🌸 great video x

I'm using your videos to help me check my business plans for the coming season, thanks! I also sell retail at farmer's markets and wholesale through a co-op to event florists, and I'm also in zone 7a so we have lots in common. One exercise I did towards the end of the season was to calculate my return per square foot on different crops. I'm a micro, backyard farmer and I really have to squeeze every cent out of each square foot to reach profitability. Surprisingly, my highest return per square foot this year was fall planted fata morgana scabiosa. I sold right about 1,000 stems from 45 square feet, and input was pretty low. Yay! I'd love to see how exactly you calculate return on square foot for different crops to see if I'm on the right track. I calculated my cost per plant (scabiosa costs me $.13 to grow from seed), plants per square foot (scabiosa is spaced 1.3 plant/squ.ft.), return potential per plant based on stem production (my plants averaged 16 sold stems/plant) and market price ($1/stem). This puts my return per square foot at $20.63 (I think, lol) My model doesn't consider demand of different flowers (this flower was on trend this year) and labor since those are much harder to put into numbers for me. I've thought of marking these factors using a scale to help me differentiate between crops; demand is high, mid, low and labor inputs compared to other crops is high, mid, low. What do you think?

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I love that you're calculating your return per square foot! I am not surprised to hear about perennial scabiosa do well for you, even the non scoop types sell so well!! I think your calculation formula is fine with the exception of missing the labor piece, which you noted, and that is always super hard to incorporate. To your point, your scabiosa had lower input from both a seed and labor perspective than something like dahlias or lisianthus. I like the scale idea and I would also add the labor piece. Do you have a handle on Instagram? I'd love to follow!

Love your informational content! Thank you!

@bareflowerfarm

7 ай бұрын

Thank you 🙌🏼

thank you so much~! so timely. this is exactly what im working on figuring out and planning for next year. I created tracking templates to use when tracking next year

I appreciate your time and dedication to these videos. I just found your channel and I’m currently binge watching them all!!

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

Awww! I'm so glad you're enjoying them!

Love the Christmas tree painting!

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

Me too! I love being able to change it every few days :)

I just have to say that I have started to call your videos 'coffee dates'. I can't listen to them while I do other things because there is just so much information. So thanks and coffee cheers! My newest high-dollar crops are the fancy echinaceas and I'm starting to increase my succulents to 'mulch' the beds as I'm newly obsessed with succulent bouquets. I think florists would like them as well for wedding work and each one increases by probably 10 each year.

@mhubertcfi

8 ай бұрын

Mulch the perennial beds I should add. I guess perennials aren't really on topic though. I guess for annuals you could fit in a quick succession of something like phacellia and then put it to a later planting of sunflowers or amaranth

@YanickaQuilt

8 ай бұрын

Wow succulent bouquets are such a great idea....and no need to worry about the stem length 😂.

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I love it! Coffee dates! Ohhh interesting with the echinaceas! I am seeing more folks grow them but not a ton so this is good to know they are working well for you. And totally on the succulent bouquets. What kinds do you grow? Although perennials aren't "on topic" compared to these 4 crops, they technically are very relevant especially since my goal is to turn the bed as few times as possible. One thing I want to figure out is what can I intercrop from certain perennials? Someone told me that a well known flower farmer intercrops things like daffodils and yarrow which is an interesting concept to me!

@mhubertcfi

8 ай бұрын

I have mostly hens and chicks but also several smaller 'drapey' varieties that are good on succulent pumpkins etc. Some of the echinaceas are pretty short so read labels. I do a lot of table arrangements so they work for me and the new ones don't look too wildflower-ey. Am trying to market myself to the floral equivalent of a foodie. Someone who appreciates distinct varieties. I think you would have to space yarrow and tulips pretty far. IDK. Maybe tulips and sunflowers and then bonus if you left the sunflowers roots in the ground for more of a permaculture but. Then you could get in a late succession of buckwheat to cover crop it. My daff foliage didn't die back until July. From your inspo on dividing yarrow I did divide mine and plant some against the fence. I have Heshiko scallions and chives against part and stachys against another (and also under roses) to weed block. Thinking of taking my fences out. Anyway, thanks again. Does your membership come with a Facebook group?

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I love this distinction of "floral equivalent of a foodie". I definitely know designers who fit that bill and are not only always looking for "unique" but are willing to push their clients to accept seasonal, unique blooms! I think with regards to the yarrow/bulbs, I can see it potentially working since bulbs are so shallow rooted. But I am more interested in lasagna planting bulbs and basically taking advantage of the vertical space of a raised bed. We shall see, I still need to noodle on this!!

I was thinking about your dahlia space analysis. I actually grew tulips and dahlias in the same space. I would plant the tulips in between the dahlias, cover with mulch, and then the tulips would be out as soon as the dahlia shoots started coming through. If you wanted to use that technique again, it would not be tulips but rather the first and earliest overwintered hardy annuals in that space.

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I am thinking about doing something similar but with daffodils and something else that comes up after. Jenni Love has talked with a guest who does daffodils with things like yarrow or really any plant that doesn't have thick leaves. I'm not yet overwintering my dahlias here but if I do, perhaps also a good companion to try it with. Thanks for this!

@matthewboddum7723

8 ай бұрын

@@bareflowerfarm i know that some daffodils spread as they naturalise and yarrow also spreads. i did the tulips because they are one and done and then can be pulled to allow the dahlia to spread.

I think this is the best by far video you have done to date, and better than almost all other flower farming platform videos as well! The only thing I would add, is decide which is your hero crop. Just one. With that in mind plan your other crops accordingly. For example, mine is dahlias, they start July and go into November. This means I only need secondary hero crops to overlap the start of the dahlias and for before them. This is why I don't plant lizzies but most definitely plant suns. Also, climate matters and June is often called Junuary where live because the air currents get cold again for that month. This means Ranuncs bloom and bloom for me so they are another secondary hero crop for me. Peonies do well in our climate so they are a third and while I sell lots of tulips, I only sell them as potted plants because I find them more profitable than cut tulips, this of course, does not work for wholesale so knowing and planning ahead on who your buyer is, is key.

@YanickaQuilt

8 ай бұрын

So much great info! Thank you.

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

That is high praise coming from you! And I love the term hero flower. I am going to borrow that terminology from you! The context here of climate and where one grows is super important and one I never give enough attention to, perhaps because it can look so variable even for people who seem to live close to each other. Alot of what you mention here is basically wisdom that is extracted from years of not only growing but also observing to be more intentional. I think this intentionality is the first step to turning something from a hobby into a business.

@EvelynM-vlogs

8 ай бұрын

@@bareflowerfarm I know it may not seem like it, but you are one of my preferred channels to watch. I may not be cheer-leading every video but I can see you clearly thinking through each process and constantly adjusting according to your situational experiences, that to me is so refreshing.

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I actually very much appreciate your comments and your follow up here. Don't get me wrong, cheerleading comments are nice. But I am always looking for constructive feedback and advice, even if it's unsolicited. It is how we grow and grow quickly. You have years of experience under your belt that I don't have and I appreciate it when people like you share learnings from their personal experiences and even call me out on things that they disagree with. I very much believe "feedback is just feedback, and how I interpret it turns it into advice or a potential insult" :)

@EvelynM-vlogs

8 ай бұрын

@@bareflowerfarm Hah, don't encourage me!

I've been working on a perennial cut flower gardens. It's taken a few years. But my idea is to open for photo opportunities, then you pick. It's more of an experience then just rows of flowers.

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I love that and it's also one of the reasons why I wanted to rework/shrink my grow space. I want to have a place where I can bring in a bench and sit and read! It just doesn't feel the same with rows lol!!

@zaneymay

8 ай бұрын

@@bareflowerfarm yes there are several places in my garden to do just that.

If i could get stems at that price my god I produced thousands of stems this summer and made 300$

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

I'm sorry to hear this, David. I know in the past you've mentioned this. The prices that I am able to fetch are not abnormal meaning that many growers are able to achieve this, if not better pricing. Based on this, I would ask - do you have a market problem or do you have a "promotional" problem? Meaning, how are you marketing your stems to florists? Happy to take this offline if you want to email me at hello@bareflowerfarm.com!

I had 27 interruptions while trying to watch this...WHY ..WHY. WHY.. ILL TRY AGAIN LATER.

the farmers market i wanted to sell flowers at, wanted insurance. Do you need to get insurance?

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

Yes! You should definitely get insurance. I use Campbells risk assessment which covers many markets for a reasonable price like $300!

If you need someone to make you free PDF printables to offer as freebies on your website in exchange for signed-up email addresses, please let me know, id love to help!

Is it just me... Or is there no audio?

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

Haha you are so fast! KZread somehow published it without fully being done. Should have audio now!

@Fabdanc

8 ай бұрын

​@@bareflowerfarmI saw "maximize" in the title and clicked immediately.

@bareflowerfarm

8 ай бұрын

🤣🤣🤣