The Floral Notes Index

All past posts categorised by seasons, months, tasks & ideas

Easy to navigate index with years worth of posts listed

All posts are paid unless followed by * meaning a free post

Categories

Garden Tasks

• Seed Sowing Cheat

• Transplanting

• Mulching (or why I don’t)

• Chelsea Chop

• Planting out and slug deterrents that actually work

• Preparing beds (a new idea)

• Feeding plants

• Lifting & splitting dahlias & lessons on growing dahlias

• Saving Seed

By Month

January

• Tasks & harvesting*

• On Wintering*

• Shrubs for Cutting

February

• Tasks & harvesting*

• 2024 review and 2025 plans

• Lessons from a damp winter

March

• Unlocking*

• Tasks & harvesting*

• March Tour*

• Growing without a greenhouse

• Everything I am growing this year

• The most optimistic month of the year*

• March arranging recipe

  April

• Tasks & harvesting and here and here

• Sowing Indoors or Out

• Transplanting

• Urn arrangements & bud vases

  May

• Tasks & harvesting*

• Large Urn Arrangement

• May Tour pt 1* (new planting)

• May Tour pt 2 (planting out & tender plants)

• Failsafe Spring Flowering Plants

• Planting out & slug deterrents that actually work

• Bridal Bouquet recipe

June

• Sowing Biennials

• Preparing a garden for a Holiday

• Tasks & harvesting*

• Chelsea Chop

• On Midsummer*

July

• July 2025 half way review

• July 2024 half way review

• Tasks & harvesting* and here*

  August

• Tasks & harvesting* & here*

• August Bridal Bouquet

September

• Tasks & harvesting*

• Large Urn Arrangement Recipe

• Late Summer Foliage

October

• Tasks & harvesting 2024*

• Seasonal Tasks 2025*

• On Locking

• Dahlia arranging

  November

• Tasks & harvesting* and here

• Why I no longer mulch or weed winter beds

• Late Chrysanthemums

• To lift or not to lift Dahlias*

December

• Tasks & Harvesting* and more*

• How to make plans & setting goals*

• Christmas Gift List for growers*

• Christmas Decorating*

Flowers

• Biennials and here

• Spring Shrubs

• Favourite Spring Bulbs

• Christmas

• Chrysanthemums (Late)

• Ranunculus

• Dahlias (Choosing ones you actually want to cut) & arranging them (recipe) & lessons on growing & whether or not to lift the tubers*

• Narcissus

• Sweet Peas

• Accent Material

• Half Hardy Annuals

• A perennial for every month

Cutting & Conditioning

• From the Manifesto (notes on conditioning)

• Spring flowers

• Late Summer flowers

Arranging Flowers

• Large Urn Recipe May

• Dahlias & Bud vases in autumn

• Large Urn Recipe September

• Extra elements to finish an arrangement

• Bridal Bouquet in August

• Wedding or large installation July

• Urn and bud vases for a celebration April

• Bridal Bouquet & vase in May

• Is it floral design or floral art?

• March

Planning Course (with all downloadable resources)

Introduction*

How to plan your arrangements (& ingredient types)

1. Where to start planning cut flowers

2. Which seasons to cut from & filling in the gaps*

3. Plant types and why you need to know.

4. How long do flowers flower for?

5. Sowing indoors or out?

Reviewing the year before & making plans

Making plans & setting goals*

Growing a business

From 2023

1. Finding Land*

2. Designing your plot*

3. Preparing your soil

4. Making Compost

5. Choosing what to plant (shrubs)

6. Choosing what plants to grow cont. (perennials)

Subjects

Politics of cut flowers

On the Flower Industry

• Why Flowers Matter #1 - Are flowers important?

• Why Flowers Matter #2 - Where do they come from?

• Why Flowers Matter #3 - How are they grown?

• Why Flowers Matter #4 - Who grows them?

• Why Flowers Matter #5 - On Connection - why they are important

• Why Flowers Matter #6 - My pledge - why grow them yourself & a Manifesto

• Getting involved in change

• Cost of business 10 years on (with numbers)

• Inspiration* (Kettles Yard)

Manifesto

• Why a manifesto

• Introduction to

1. Only grow what you love (and what to grow)*

2. First know what you love

3. Don't start too early in the year… not written yet

4. Start the year before (Biennials)

5. Make your own Composts

6. Apply composts to your ground - I no longer subscribe to this. I will come back to this.

7. Make your own liquid feeds

8. Two things to do before planting out

9. Sow Successionally - not written, it’s a beast. But the winter planning series will help you with this.

10. Stake plants before they need it

11. Allow some flowers to produce seed and collect

12. Water first thing in the morning

13. Cut Flowers deep into the plant & condition well

How Agroecology can help your garden grow Series

• How agroecology can help your garden grow*

• How I made the list*

• Defining Agroecology*

A partially written course. I am halfway through a series, and counting down the top 10 agroecological practises to help your growing.

1. This will be the no.1 best thing you can do to help your growing

2. 2nd best thing

3. 3rd

4. 4th

5. 5th

6. 6th

7. Using teas to fertilise

8. Agroforestry

9. Meadows*

10. No Till or Low Till (No Dig)

11. Allow some to set seed & collect

(How)*

Regenerative Growing

• Green Manures

• Composting (from manifesto)

• Bokashi composting

• Watering

• Manifesto (13 elements of growing flowers)

• Why I no longer mulch winter beds

• Preparing beds (a new idea)

• Saving Seed

• Growing food & flowers

• Low maintenance perennial planting

• My Tool Basket

Garden Tours

• March Tour*

• May - pt 1* & pt 2

• 10 years of Business (How much gardens cost)

• Braybrooke Garden*

• Renovating the Walled Garden

• Replanting the terrace

Essays

• On fast fashion & flowers

• Visiting Sussex & Kent Gardens

• The few tools you actually need to garden

• Why I am not ready for Spring yet

• On procrastination (& renovating the walled garden design)

• Plans for 2024

• On consumption (around Black Friday) & doing business

• On growing business & measuring success

• On inspiration, finding it and flow

• On Creativity during challenging personal times

• Why I need to grow and on tending a growing space

• Lessons learnt & EBI (Even Better If)

• On Summering

• How to trust your instincts (& I write a poem!)

• Exploring how a plant knows when to grow

• On being brave, getting involved and turning up

• The goal is the process not the result (on growing cut flowers as a business)*

• Making a change (& growing connection)

• How to decide what’s important (values) & get things done*

• On Midsummer*

• Floral design or art?*

• Lessons from a damp winter and follow up 2 years later on replanting

• Where did it all begin? (what made you love flowers?)*

• My Favourite Flower growing and cutting books for summer reading

• On Summer Challenges*