Getting to Know Our Soil

With the site for Bloom & Berry chosen, it was time to get our hands dirty – quite literally.

Before we start planting, we want to give our flowers the best possible growing conditions. And that begins with understanding the soil.

Testing the Soil

We carried out a soil analysis to learn more about what's happening beneath the surface, including nutrient levels and the soil's pH.

The results showed us that one of the things we'll need to work on is lowering the pH of our soil to create better growing conditions for the flowers we plan to grow.

That's one of the interesting things about starting a flower farm: you can't simply arrive with thousands of seeds and start planting. There's a lot of preparation that happens long before the first flower appears.

Feeding the Ground

Our next step has been adding manure to the field, helping introduce valuable organic matter back into the soil.

We'll be ploughing this into the ground along with additional compost, improving the soil and preparing it for what's to come.

Once everything has been incorporated, we'll power harrow the field to break the soil down and create a finer, more even surface.

Finally, the ground will be rolled, leaving us with a level and prepared growing area ready for the next stage of the farm.

So, in simple terms:

Manure & compost → Plough → Power harrow → Roll → Ready to grow!

Building From the Soil Up

It might not be the most colourful stage of creating a flower farm, but it's certainly one of the most important.

Healthy flowers start with healthy soil, and taking the time to prepare our ground properly now will hopefully reward us with stronger plants and plenty of beautiful blooms in the seasons ahead.

There's still lots of work to do before Bloom & Berry's field is filled with flowers, but seeing the ground being prepared makes everything feel that little bit more real.

We're building this flower farm quite literally from the ground up – and we can't wait to share each stage of the journey with you.

Next on Our Journey: Preparing the Field for Planting