24/10/2025
Here at Marsh Farm Flowers we started our journey wanting to be as environmentally friendly as possible.
And today, that is no different, in fact sustainability is one of our main business aims.
The word sustainability is thrown around quite a lot at the moment and I think people interpret this differently.
So what does sustainability mean to us?
It means looking after our soil, which will lead to good plant health, which in turn means we don't need to use pesticides and fungicides, because our plants are healthy.
It means following a reduce, reuse, recycle ethos - do we need to buy something new, or can we pick it up second hand? What have we got that we could repurpose? How many times is it possible to use a second hand plastic seed tray before we finally agree it's falling apart?
It means working with mother nature, not against her, and hoping to leave our little corner of the earth more enriched rather than depleted, for generations to come.
At the moment we follow a no-dig method for creating or replenishing our flower beds, as you can see from the pics this involves placing a good 4-6inches of compost on top of a thick layer of cardboard.
It is a method we have used since our first beds and has worked really well, it suppresses the weeds and creates rich environments for our flowers to grow.
Is this the best method? I genuinely don't know, it's worked well for us so far but I also know there are other ways, for example using cover crops, so that will be something we explore more next year.
They say it takes an army to move a mountain... This is my little army, Mummy and Daddy Slimming, the best army anyone could wish for, and I couldn't do this without them.
In the next 12 months we're aiming to increase the number of flower beds to accommodate more perennials, make our current beds more efficient and continue to research the most environmentally friendly approaches to cut flower production.
And how lucky am I that I get to do this with my favourite people ๐
