Colourful helpers hiding under a tray of Scabious. They was a lot of squeaking when I tried to get a close up. Must dig a pond or two soon. #frog #flowerfarmers #friend
Tabitha catching moles. Well not catching exactly, more of a verbal warning shouted down the hole... Get off our dahlias! Who can blame them, gorgeous soil, some kind folk even covering it in mulch and encouraging the worms... #moles #holes #flowerfarming #daughter
Black Shed backdrop, an ever changing velvet vista of the Sherborne Castle parkland. Delicious distraction. #capabilitybrown #sherbornecastle #sherborne #dorset #parkland #park #landscapedesign
...and then when it rains, you can snuggle up in the van with your lurcher. #BlackShed #lurcher #snuggles #flowerfarming #daughter #notsobad #vwt4 #t4
There's another reason (or more!) why Tabitha's so happy that we've started Black Shed Flowers at The Toy Barn. The Toy Barn! All @peterhuntt's amazing creations! Not many venues offer cut flowers and trampolining. Back to the foxgloves... #BlackShed #toybarn #children #kids #toys #trampoline #tithebarn #wedding venue #dorset #farmbuildings #barn #flowerfarming #daughter
Like a hot knife through landscape fabric... One of the benefits of being an occasional dinosaur sculptor is a really good hot knife for carving polystyrene foam. Works a treat on landscape fabric too. It has interchangeable blades, so I'll make up a circular blade for round holes. Edges are much neater than burning and are neatly sealed to stop fraying. #nordstrand #styrofoamcutter #hotknife #landscapefabric #flowerfarming #BlackShed #toptip #flowerfarmers #flowerfarm
Uh-oh, might have prune the vine on the kitchen roof... #itslikeajungleoutthere
Morning from our tiny part of #britishflowersweek! Still so many plants to go in here at Black Shed. Thousands. Quite cool here so far this morning but the sun's peeking through the mist now. Please weather, be a little kinder today. #britishgrown #cutflowers #sherborne #flowerfarming #BlackShed #floristsofinstagram #britishflowersweek2017 #horticulture #smallscale #grownnotflown #localflowers #seasonalflowers #dorset #somerset
Happy Summer Solstice everyone! . #summersolstice
The calm and cool end of a long hot day in the garden. Far too hot to plant, just remedial watering. A long and very necessary business meeting took the sting out of the heat, until Helen and I could start bed building after she finished work. We have a mole. Hopefully and definitely temporarily. Freshly planted plugs tossed asunder into the heat. NOO! It's British Flowers Week, not toss the bronze fennel, knautias, red amaranths and pennisetum plugs all over the shop whilst taking residence under the landscape fabric week... #flowersfromthefarm #grownnotthrown #holes #vs #moles #britishflowersweek #BlackShed
British Flowers! Not a single bloom on our new Black Shed site, as I've pinched them all out but very, very soon. Can't wait! Lots of Cafe au Lait and Preference this year. #BlackShed #flowersfromthefarm #flowersforflorists #britishflowersweek #britishflowersweek2017 #dahlias #cafeaulait #flowerforflorists
To kick off British Flowers Week 2017, here's the photo that kick started our journey. Helen playing with Design at Eype Church, high above the Dorset coast one balmy evening last year. We'd been growing and selling for a couple of years and an idea was forming... But it was tge reaction to this and all of last years bumper crop of dahlias that made us both think that there was a future in flowers. Now, thanks to the wonderful support of our friends and partners, Amanda and Peter Hunt, we find ourselves on our wonderful new site, preparing beds and planting in all the daylight (and other!) hours. Not one single bloom to show yet, but soon... Huge thanks to all the support from our friends, family and all the @flowersfromthefarm members who have helped us on our way! Have a great week one and all. Here's to British Flowers! #flowersfromthefarm #britishflowersweek #britishflowersweek2017 #sherborne #dorset #flowerfarm #flowerfarmers #flowerfarming #grownnotflown #britishflowers #flowersforflorists #dahlias #flowers #florists #weddingflowers #weddingstylists #eventstylists #blooms #britishblooms #grownwithlove
Happy British Flowers Week to you all! Put the tent up at the flower farm yesterday to provide some shade and coolth as we pushed on with the planting. Perfect for dogs, cats and kids. Must admit to an afternoon snooze myself too! Watering is an issue with the soil blocked plants that are still in their trays but despite a few babes being fried, all seems well. Here's to a successful British Flowers Week for us all! #britishflowersweek #britishflowersweek2017 #flowersfromthefarm #grownnotflown #britishflowers
Getting a bit dark...
Blimey! In Sherborne... David Birley, to his great credit in his term as Mayor has done a lot for Sherborne and this is a great example. Don't think there's ever been a party in the Purlieu before and loads of people have turned up. What do you think @augustus_stickland @_stickland @rowanstickland @sticklander @felixstickland?!! #sherborne #dorset
@helenstickland and I are are vying to photograph these allotment beauties. I had no idea that they cut so well. So much to learn. #poppies #poppy #papaversomniferum #cutflowers #grownnotflown #flowersfromthefarm
In a quick break from planting and the blazing sun, here's 85 happy teachers in Stratford earlier in the week at the Discovery Education Writing Without Words seminar. Great fun and a very interesting day. #literacy #storytelling #storymaking #teachers #creative #popuppaper #workshops #discoveryeducation #discoverychannel #primaryteacher #teachers #teachersofinstagram #creativity #artactivity #kidsart #kidscraft
It may not look much but this means a lot. Fingers ripped to shreds by the burnt edges of the landscape fabric holes, (gloves, I know!) This the first 'proper' bed, drip tape down, mulch on. Trying to work out the best way to plant through a 3 hole. A 4 hole maybe?! Scabious atropurpurea and Didiscus in this one. All our beds are 8m square, with 1.2m beds in 2m fabric. At 50mm spacing, that's 154 plants per strip, 616 per bed. 8 of these beds are waiting, with a further 13 dormant this year... 24 wheelbarrow loads of mulch per bed. Better get on with it! #BlackShed #flowerfarm #dorset #flowersfromthefarm #grownnotflown #cutflowerfarmers #cutflowers #britishflowers #sherborne
