Planning the beds on our flower farm plot
We started growing flowers in 2021, and have been expanding gradually each year. Here’s what we’ve learned so far about planning beds on a flower farm plot.
What type of flower bed?
Raised beds with sleepers
When we started - and thought we’d only ever have four beds - we made raised beds using sleepers, roughly one metre by four metres. These looked lovely and gave us somewhere very comfortable to sit while we worked, but the sleepers and compost were very expensive.
Beds with cedar planks
When we first extended, we made longer beds 12 metres by one metre, using a framework of cedar planks. These worked brilliantly, but are still more expensive than just making beds in the grass which is what we do now.
No dig beds on grass
We’ve always used the ‘no dig’ approach. We lay tarp for as long as we can to kill off the grass and hopefully the weeds, then we lay cardboard, wet it, and cover it with compost.
Weed cloth on the beds and inbetween
We put weed cloth on and between most of the new beds now. It looks awful, but it keeps the weeds down. It’s easy to sweep and keep clean, and we can resue it year after year. We tried leaving grass inbetween the beds initially, but it needs an awful lot of mowing and strimming. We’ve also tried woodchips, which look much nicer, but again, there’s a cost and you can’t sweep them clean.
What size to make your flower beds
One metre wide
We now make all our beds one metre wide. This makes working out how many plants we can fit easier (see below), and we can easily reach into, or step over, them from either side.
70cm inbetween
Allow at least 70 centimetres between the beds – enough to get a wheelbarrow down. if you use weed cloth, this comes in two metre widths to fit over the bed nicely with 50cm overlap each side. Two strips of weedcloth will overlap to create the 70cm weed-free path.
Planning how much you can grow
Divide plot into one metre squares
We first divide our plot into one metre squares.
Work out flower spacing
Flowers require different spacing requirements – typically either 22cm / 9 inches, 30cm / 12 inches, or, for the bigger varieties, 50cm / 20 inches. In one square metre, with 22cm spacing you can fit in 20 plants, with 30cm spacing you can fit 12 plants in, and with 50cm spacing, you can fit four plants.
Total it up
Once you know how many plants fit into one metre square, multiply this by the number of square metres you have to get the total number of plants you can grow. For example, if I have a 12m x 1m bed, I have 12m2. If my plants need 22cm spacing, I can fit 20 into one metre square. So, with 12m2, I can fit 12 x 20 = 240 plants.
Bigger varieties aside, I find that assuming 22cm spacing for all plants, and therefore 20 plants per square metre, multiplied by your total metres, is good enough to get a rough idea of how much you can grow.
Deciding what to grow
Two thirds foliage, one third flowers
We aim for two thirds foliage, one third flowers. We never have enough foliage, especially as any shrubs we plant take a few years to establish.
To make mixed flower bouquets, we need a mixture of focal flowers, fillers and spikes. So within our third of flowers, we allocate roughly one third to each type.
See our ‘Ten ‘must grow’ flowers’ and our ‘Ten must grow fillers and foliage’.
Bulb to Bunch | Beautiful, locally-grown flowers and foliage, available as bouquets, in buckets and wholesale, plus gifts and more
www.bulbtobunch.com