The Flowering Farmhouse is a small flower farm located in gorgeous Hood River, Oregon. Jennifer Gulizia, creator and farmer at The Flowering Farmhouse, grows a wide variety of specialty cut flowers. Of course, dahlias have always been Jennifer’s favorite cut flower and the farm currently grows over 2000 dahlias a year. If you’re interested in growing your own dahlias, be sure to check out The Flowering Farmhouse’s annual spring online dahlia tuber sale.
When not working in the flower field, Jennifer loves to experiment with new recipes in the kitchen. Jennifer enjoys incorporating homegrown food from the garden into her recipes and is currently working on creating new sourdough discard recipes for her blog! In the winter months, you’re likely to smell fresh sourdough baking in the oven, and in the summertime, there’s always yummy homemade ice cream for dessert.
Jennifer shares the story of The Flowering Farmhouse in Volume 11 of The Turquoise Iris Journal. Keep reading to hear her tips for starting a backyard garden of your own!
Backyard Garden Tips
Ever since I was a little girl, I’ve imagined growing my own garden filled with my own flowers. Some of my earliest memories of flowers include filling baskets full of flowers on May Day with my mother. We would fill old strawberry containers with flowers and leave them on our neighbors’ doorsteps with a little note that said “April Showers Bring May Flowers.” How I longed to someday be able to share my own flowers with others.
Over the years, my backyard cutting garden has grown from just a few planter boxes to a modest flower farm with thousands of annual cut flowers growing on just over an acre. These days growing flowers has literally become my full-time job, but I did not always have a ton of flowers at my disposal. I started growing flowers on a very small scale in my backyard 15 years ago. I’ve learned how to grow more and more flowers each year.
At first, I started by only planting dahlias in my yard. I quickly discovered that, if I wanted to make flower bouquets, I needed to have more than just dahlias! That was when I decided to learn and experiment with growing other cut flowers in my garden. Wondering how you can grow your own flowers at home? It’s never too early or too late to start! Whether you have only a few outdoor containers, raised beds, or a huge backyard, you too can grow your own garden.
One of the best ways to get started with creating your backyard flower garden is to visit your local garden center, where they can help you identify what flowers will grow best in your environment.
Questions to ask before starting your backyard garden…
- Do you have a shade garden?
- Is your backyard in full sun?
- Do you have plenty of water available for your flowers?
- What is your growing zone?
- How are your soil conditions?
These are all important questions to ask and answer so that your local garden center or nursery can help you pick out flowers that will thrive in your garden. If you don’t know the answer to all these questions, that’s ok too. That’s where your local garden center’s knowledge of your climate and growing region will help you get started on the right track.
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Keep up with gardening tips from The Flowering Farmhouse! Visit their website and follow Jennifer online @thefloweringfarmhouse for more.
