Cut flower plot at Holme Field
My name is Katherine and I live in Embsay with my husband and three children. In recent years I have become an increasingly keen gardener. I’ve always loved flowers and often brought them into the house or gifted them to friends.
This year, I decided to set myself a new challenge. Over the past six months, I have completed a Level 2 City and Guilds Floristry Award at Craven College. I also wanted to combine my love of gardening and floristry by growing my own cut flowers in a sustainable way. I feel very lucky to be able to grow on a small slice of land at Holme Grown Eastby. I’m keen on planting as many perennials as possible and plugging the gaps with annuals. This is my first year with a cut flower plot and I’ll try to share honest updates of the highs and lows along the way.
June update:
Although my perennials are still getting established in their first year, many are also busy flowering. The Geums; Mai Tai and Scarlet Tempest are particularly floriferous at the moment. Lines of Feverfew, Oxeye daisy and Shasta daisy are all about to burst into flower. My Purple Sensation Alliums have just gone over but I planted Alchemilla mollis alongside them to hide the tatty allium foliage as it dies back. I can’t wait for the Allium Sphaerocephalon drumsticks to have their turn soon.
Some annuals are doing well and I picked some fragrant Apricot Stocks for a recent bouquet. To be honest the slugs have devoured many of my precious annuals grown from seed; cornflowers, snapdragons and umbellifers have all succumbed. I’ve tried wool pellets, layers of grit and beer traps; it’s a steep learning curve in the battle against the slugs! I’ve been planting out my dahlias this week. By waiting until now they will hopefully be big enough to tolerate some slug damage. Time will tell!
