so you think you can farm?
We are not cocky, arrogant people. We might only call ourselves “experts” in the fields of which we have been educated and worked for several years. However on some level it does take a bit of confidence to observe the results from our first year of growing flowers and use that as motivation to double down in year two. That is precisely what we did, foolish or not. There was one underlying truth that drove the decision to more aggressively pursue a flower farm business in 2019; we loved doing it! We’ve reached a point in our life where that might be the only genuine reason to do anything. And so we dove into 2019 with gusto!
There is a simple equation that must be computed when you are expanding an agricultural business, at least a more traditional agricultural business. More seeds (tubers, corms, cuttings, etc…) plus more land equals more flowers and more revenue. In many ways we did not see an immediate barrier to expanding the number and variety of flowers we grew from 2018, all we had to do was have Sarah go on Gloeckner, GeoSeed, Johnny’s, or any other seed supplier and spend away! She took a lot of feedback from designers and florists and used that to guide decisions about what to grow. This ability, it turns out, was incredibly valuable in selecting the right things to grow, because designers loved and continue to love what we grow! But back to the equation. What to do about more land??? Our small farm has maybe 2/3rd of an acre to grow on, MAYBE. And about half of that 2/3rd is full sun exposed. Just to give some perspective, an acre is 43,650 sq ft. Two thirds of that is about 29,000 sq ft and one half of that is 14,500 sq ft. You can see how quickly it became clear to us we had only a small portion of land to work with (we’ll get to the shade loving plants another time). We quickly assessed where we could cut new beds, build raised beds and put plants that would get the full sun they would need. In the end we tripled our bed space from 2018 and planted about 5 times as many varieties as the previous season. You know what they say though, “more plants, more problems!” (they say that, don’t they?)
Just as quickly as we rode that new confidence into tripling our bed space, we realized how outgunned we were when growth escalates like that. More flowers ALSO means more weeds, more spraying, more fertilizing, more irrigation, more netting, more bagging of blooms (UGH!), more harvesting, and critically, more expenses. The love was still there, and we felt it almost every day (those hot humid July days we DID NOT enjoy). But we pushed ourselves to the brink of exhaustion to maintain this new standard of farming. We did not live on our farm either, so every weekday we drove over to our farm in the evening after work, worked until dark, and then drove home wiped. Every weekend we spent 16-20 hours on the farm trying to keep it going. It was the hardest AND the most rewarding thing we have ever done. They say that the universe aligns itself to make things happen once you decide on the thing you want. In September we were able to buy the house and land our farm was on and it has made all the difference. We built a walk in cooler (thank you to my father, Terry Precht of Rocky Mountain Blooms for that), which is a game changer for a flower farmer. We increased our revenue 8 fold in 2019!! Somehow, some way, we had made it work.
Life has so many twists and turns to it, that you can barely keep track of where or how you end up from point A to point B. The success of 2019 came with failures and lessons galore, but we made it to the place that told us, “YES, we can do this!” It has launched us into 2020 where we are now attempting to grow substantially yet again. We’ve had some help. In late 2019 we were notified that we had won a position in the Spring 2020 cohort for the Bethesda Green incubator program for environmentally friendly businesses. Bethesda Green is a non-profit agency based in Bethesda that promotes, supports, and aids green entrepreneurs and their businesses so they can scale and achieve their mission. We owe them so much! The real “secret sauce” to the accomplishments of 2019 is that we are a team. Neither one of us could do this without the other one, and each of us feels that much stronger because we have a loving partner in the thick of it with us. That’s the only reason we think we can farm!
Next week on the blog…
Our Bethesda Green Journey