Mill Pond Flower Farm

22/02/2023

Hanging on to the idea that this future bee palace will be a nicer place to visit on a warm sunny day. Muddy foundation work on a grotty day is enough to test commitment.

03/01/2023

Our new bee space is being planned.

A purpose built space for teaching and learning about 🐝. A place for stress free beekeeping, learning and development. So looking forward to making this happen in 2023. A bee shed powered by hydropower with a cracking view of the millpond.

02/01/2023

Happy New Year from Paula & Ray at Mill Pond Flower Farm 🌼

We're looking forward to 2023, hoping for blue skies, gentle nighttime rain & lots & lots of flowers. Today has been a good start, glorious sunshine & frosty ground, perfect for moving manure.

Thanks to all our customers for your support over the past few years. It makes a huge difference and we really appreciate our small business being a part of our local community. Hope to see you all in 2023!

10/11/2022

Ray has been writing an article on teaching Beekeeping to young people, how it's often different to the traditional approach and why we need young beekeepers 🐝

https://m.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=1253974471836392&id=100016715522077

22/08/2022

Lovely article in the Berwickshire News about our relationship with artists Ann Oram & Jenny Matthews. They both really love flowers & it's a delight to see what they do with our blooms.

Their exhibition 'In the Company of Flowers' is showing at Union Gallery in Edinburgh for another week. Stunning paintings, it's well worth a visit!

08/08/2022

We're taking a summer break, downing tools & switching off

The flowers are well prepared to get on & grow for a couple of weeks & there's a hammock waiting to be filled.

See you all soon 👋

31/07/2022

Our flowers in art 🎨

It's been a day of appreciating other people's visions of our flowers. First .oram popped along for some flowers to paint & left us invitations for the joint exhibition with 'In the Company of Flowers' which opens at in Edinburgh this week. It all looks glorious!

Then came to cut herself some blooms. Emily came to a Cut Your Own flowers session last year & brought us a print of her beautiful paintings. Just lovely & can't wait to see what she does with the big bucket of flowers she took away this morning 😍

30/07/2022

Fancy doing some snipping in our flower field?
We have Cut Your Own flowers session tomorrow 10-12 and 2-4 if youre in the mood for wandering about choosing your own blooms to take away. It's high summer & we have so many flowers...

After next week we'll be taking a break for a few weeks, so come & get some gorgeous flowers 🌼🌸🌻🌹🌷🌺

Book via our website, link in biog 👆

19/07/2022

I went out to take some photos but got distracted by dragonflies and they move far too fast for photos.

Here's a lovely cooling Sweet Sultan, a relative of cornflowers, Centaurea moschata I think. I've grown it on & off for years & sometimes it does well, other times very badly. This is a good year & they'll be featuring in bouquets & buttonholes from here on 😀

04/07/2022

Beautiful bridesmaid bouquet
All grown here, cut here & arranged by
Tied with

Last weeks wedding flowers were for our neighbour, they travelled a total of 3 miles, along the road to the
Perfect.

20/06/2022

Outdoor work is healthy, right? Lots of fresh air, sunshine and vitamin D

Well, it's not that simple. A while ago I was diagnosed with a significant lack of vitamin D. My conversation with the nurse giving me the news went like this
Me: But I work outside
Nurse: Yes, but we don't get much sunlight in the winter
Me: and I wear sunscreen all summer
Nurse: you can't do right for doing wrong 🙄

I've always been very aware of the dangers of the sun, I'd put on moisturiser then waterproof factor 50 sunscreen every day, wear long sleeves, a hat, long trousers (for nettle protection) and hopefully it's protected.me from skin cancer. But the lack of sunshine on my skin has given me soft, painful bones, muscle weakness & tiredness. Thankfully it's reversible & after a couple of months of high dose Vitamin D, I'm a lot better & can get to the end of the day without pain.

I'm just sharing this to raise awareness that if you work outside you can't assume you're getting enough vitamin D. Don't throw away the sunscreen, but maybe think about taking a supplement. According to the NHS, everyone.in the UK is advised to take a supplement as our winter light levels are so poor, even if we work outside. The reality is that in winter, flower farmers are so well wrapped up against the weather, we probably only have a few square inches of face showing!

Alternative post
If I was starting again, I'd be a Philadelphus farmer...

12/06/2022

If only catching swarms was always this easy

12/06/2022

Every stem, bloom & leaf grown on our windy hillside in Foulden. Cut by myself & & tied with

There are lots of options for people who need flowers but I'm so grateful that Katy & Matt chose to celebrate their wedding with our flowers. Congratulations & all good wishes for a long & happy life together 🎊

10/06/2022

Butterfly in a jar 🦋

A few weeks ago I was cutting senecio for orders & found a small green chrysalis attached to the underside of a leaf. I popped the leaf into a big jar with a few drops of water & some extra greenery & covered the top with a napkin. Every day I've looked at it & thought nothing was happening but his morning there was a fluttering in the jar. The most incredible, beautiful Speckled Wood butterfly had emerged. Just amazing!

Release video on stories 🦋🦋🦋

04/06/2022

A peaceful Saturday morning with an artist in the polytunnel, what could be nicer!

Delighted to have painting the poppies on site for her exhibition with .oram this summer.

'In the Company of Flowers' opens at the beginning of August.

03/06/2022

Early June in the flower field 💫

My favourite time of the flower farming year is when the last summer annuals go into the ground. It's usually the last week of June, but this year I'm growing many fewer annuals & there's only one tray of China asters still to go in, so I'm celebrating with an ice-cream on the veranda.

We've got a busy weekend ahead with lots of lovely people coming to visit on Sunday. Rumour has it there's a bank holiday somewhere, but we never seem to get in synch with those. Just taking each day as it comes & enjoying the quiet moments, planting out amaranthus* watched by geese & with swallows whizzing overhead.

* Seed donated by our lovely pal a few years ago & still germinating 👌

02/06/2022

There were 6 Poplar Hawkmoths in the trap this morning so just think how many must be out there 👀

27/05/2022

Weighing grass clippings
That's definitely not something I thought I'd ever be doing!

On Monday we were visited by Tiffany, a Carbon Auditor, to assess how our flower growing impacts on climate change. We've always been very aware that what we do on our patch of land & in our lives has a broader effect on the planet but we've never had it measured. I've got a list of other things to quantify & Tiffany's doing calculations based on the random collection of data we gathered, then she'll provide a report with a list of improvements we can make.

Grass clippings are 'good' for us because they stay on site and are used as a mulch to protect soil & reduce degradation & evaporation. They rot down to improve our soil. We have a battery powered mower & a green energy tariff so fossil fuels aren't used in their collection.

If you're a farmer, smallholder or crofter in Scotland you can get a fully funded carbon audit through the Farming Advisory Service

26/05/2022

Flowers for a florist, an artist and a friend so far today. A whole load of summer blooms in soft, warm colours for our florist pals
A big bucket of the spikiest thistles & scented roses for
Pink & white scented Happy Anniversary blooms for .arnott

And then for me, a beautiful colourful bouquet of my favourite lupins, aquilegia, a painted ranunculus & burgundy leaf from the garden of
Thanks so much, I love getting flowers 😘

22/05/2022

If you've been here to visit, you'll know that Ray keeps bees. He loves them. They aren't kept primarily for honey however, but for teaching. The hives are managed very much for the health of the bees, with a low stress, low intervention approach, because according to Ray, happy bees are healthy bees 🐝

For the past 6 years, Ray's been teaching beekeeping in schools to young people. He was the first teacher to deliver a new Scottish qualification in beekeeping & has been supporting groups of teachers & young people to work with Edinburgh University & The Royal Society on bee research. We've had a beehive in our garden over the past few weeks, connected to a raspberry pie computer & sensors, collecting data on temperatures, sound & activity as a new queen was hatched, was mated & started laying eggs. It's lovely to watch the bees going back & forwards from a safe distance on the veranda, but gardening has to be done before the sun hits the hive & they get busy!

Yesterday he came back with some frames of honey, & wanted a photo of the different colours. It might make its way into jars for the winter, but there are always a few frames put aside to give back to the hives in case they need it. He really loves those bees 🍯

16/05/2022

We're featured on the BBC website today!!

Great article that talks to documentary photographer Joanne Coates about her work leading up to the exhibition 'Daughters of the Soil' at the Gymnasium Gallery in Berwick. It's on till early June ☺️

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/in-pictures-60985943.amp

A new portrait exhibition features female farmers across Northumberland and the Scottish Borders.

14/05/2022

Is it summer already?
The flowers are changing, from sturdy spring to delicate, paler early summer colours. Once we're underway there's no stopping it 💫

13/05/2022

Peak blossom

We've already had cherry plum, blackthorn, amelanchier, flowering cherry & bird cherry blossom. Now the apple blossom is in full bloom & the field looks like a big sugary cake.

It's been 12 years of growing & planting to get to this stage & it's worth every minute. Plant a flowering tree, you won't regret it 😊

07/05/2022

Pond-power update.

Adapting this secondhand £20 hoverboard wheel is the next step in our power project. The next part of pond power is to re-engineer this motor and attach to the propellor shaft that is now spinning at 1000rpm. Hopefully, we will soon be generating a little electrical energy.

29/04/2022

Another step nearer pond power! Prototype Testing Day !!

The principal of making electricity is a very simple one. All that needs to happen is that magnets need to be spun inside lots of copper wire and voila! Making that happen using renewable resources is much more of a challenge. Today was testing day, The propeller has been fabricated from PVC pipe. We are delighted that it is running so smoothly. We will leaving running for a few days and look for improvements. All looking good so far.

24/04/2022

The first poppy 🌠

I've been missing Icelandic poppies (lost in the storm ☹️) so it was fantastic to see this poppy blooming away in the tunnel this morning. It's Papaver rupifragum, a perennial poppy that thrives here both under cover & outside, blooming from April to September. Properly orange, not a hint of any other colour & flouncy without overdoing it.

22/04/2022

A winged flower for your Friday

Every year we grow something new & see how it does. This is a pink dandelion & it's showing promise. Nice tall stems, pretty sturdy & it survived the storms of our winter. More new things to come as the season moves along 😃

18/04/2022

Gold ranunculus
So many shades in these frilly flowers. I've been trying to get a good photo of the bright pink ones all day without success. The yellow ones are more cooperative 🌞🌞🌞

16/04/2022

Happy Spring everyone 🐰

If this is your first year growing flowers for sale or you're thinking if giving it a go, were running our
flower Farming in Practice workshop here at Mill Pond Flower Farm next Saturday 23 April. It's an outdoor session that looks at how we grow our crops, what we grow when, how it's all started off.

You get the chance to ask lots of questions & have a good old nosey about. I can recommend a tunnel wander, it's where I've been all afternoon, sowing seeds & potting plants on before whizzing up the last of the week's flowers into a bowl for the house.

There's more info on our website, link in biog 👆

15/04/2022

Flowers for the weekend?

I'll be cutting lots of lovely spring blooms this morning if you fancy a bunch or a bouquet this weekend.

We've been away for a few days seeing our family in the south, so Friday delivery is on Saturday this week. Just the very freshest of flowers & blossom, snipped & wrapped to give as a gift or to bring spring into your home.

We deliver locally, within 10 miles of Foulden, from Berwick to Duns & all the lovely places in between 🚐

Order via our website
https://millpondflowerfarm.co.uk/order-flowers

04/04/2022

Ring-a-ding-ding
The bells are in
Pealing for spring

03/04/2022

One of this winter's mysteries. Label gone in the storm, broken pot, but the plants have emerged over the last week. I've worked this one out though.

In the autumn I sowed some apple pips from our trees, with a plan to grow them on & plant out in the pond field. They'll be hybrids so might be quite interesting & will provide extra blossom for cutting & for pollinators. As you can see I oversowed, thinking they wouldn't germinate so one of today's jobs is to pot these on. A nice job for a sunny spring Sunday 😃

02/04/2022

A pot unearthed from the flower field, filled with fancy narcissus grown in the same ground. Quite appropriate for the Daughters of the Soil exhibition opening today!

I've walked past these daffodils all week, dismissing them because the stems were really short. Really should have paid more attention 🙄

30/03/2022

Snow
I'm just pleased it wasn't yesterday. I've been helping my Mam move house, from Sunderland where she's lived her whole life, to Northumberland & yesterday was moving day. She's now settling in to her new home, I have a van full of cardboard, a list of seeds that need sowing & jobs to get done.

There will be flowers for sale this week if you fancy a bunch or bouquet to brighten up a windowsill & bring some delicious scent inside. We've got lots to pick, including the first tulips. I'm just about to add them to our website shop.Spring is lovely, though we know it comes & goes for a while 😄

28/03/2022

In 2020 I was part of a documentary art project by photographer looking at women in agriculture in North Northumberland & the Scottish borders. It's now being shared in an exhibition starting this Saturday at the Gymnasium Gallery in Berwick upon Tweed, plus a book.

The project started just as we were all thrown into lockdowns & pandemic measures & Jo had to negotiate travelling, staying away from home & working out how to make it all work despite the restrictions. It's a testament to her commitment, adaptability & tenacity that the project has been such a success. I'm totally delighted that I was able to be involved, though slightly surprised to keep coming across myself on social media!

26/03/2022

When your working day includes creating an outdoor arch & being serenaded by peacocks. All our blossom, narcissi & hyacinths creating a temporary pollinator buffet in the lovely rose garden

24/03/2022

Tunnel toad
As opposed to pond toad, flowerbed toad, garden toad...
So many toads & don't get me started in frogs, they're everywhere 🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸🐸

I'll be out cutting flowers for our first wedding of the year, plus some bouquets & bunches. Our order book is full for this week but we'll have lots more flowers next week and from here on. The season is underway 🎉

23/03/2022

More hydro fun.

After loads of hard sums and getting wet wearing leaky waders, we have bought a 400w permanent magnet generator. The hope is to generate 3kwh per day using pond power. Today was propellor testing day. We improvised using a cooling fan from a PC. This one didn’t last long 😂. The pull of the syphon in the pipe ripped it from my hand and broke a fin. Conclusion - we need a metal propellor. Also trying to work whether the top or the bottom of the pipe is the best place to put the turbine. To help answer that question I’ve put my full arm down and up the pipe to try to feel what’s going on. Seems like a lot of pull and push in the syphon, but won’t know until we get some actual readings. On balance we think the top of the pipe is the preferred option as it will allow a direct drive to the motor and help make efficiency savings. Only problem is we now need to make a sturdy pier to place the generator .

14/03/2022

It's goose time!!

If you've followed me for a while you'll know how much I love geese, they're amazing big birds & brilliant parents. We've had geese nesting on the pond since we came here but the past few years were made difficult by an aggressive pair of swans. This year we have no swans & 2 pairs of geese, one Greylag pair & one Canada pair, getting in nicely As far as we can tell, the same birds return every year & it's an absolute joy to see them. Yes, I do talk to them, welcome them back & say hello when they swim past. Such lovely creatures ❤️❤️❤️

13/03/2022

Storm survivors 🌱

In the autumn I sowed a whole load of trays with fresh perennial seed, all the tricky, fussy germinators. They were labelled & carefully popped in the shelter of our polytunnel. Until storm Arwen blew it away...and then they were thrown about, tipped up & blasted by arctic winds. The ones that weren't upended were stacked up & left to the elements until we had the cover back on. 6 weeks under cover & the trays are turning green with seedlings and the only problem is I don't know what they are 🤔