How we apply the permaculture principles on our flower farm

Today, I want to talk about how I'm using permaculture in my everyday flower farming.

I have been studying and working through a Permaculture Design Certificate over this past year, which is thought by Trish Allan and Guenther Andraschko here in Matakana, at this legendary permaculture property called Rainbow Valley Farm. Rainbow Valley Farm used to be is one of the first and best-known permaculture properties in the world. People from near and far came to work and learn alongside its founders, Trish Allan and Joe Polaischer.

When Joe passed away in 2008, the farm passed through a series of different owners with different focuses and energy levels for the farm. And when new owners, Waveney and Matthew, took over in 2018, the orchards were overgrown, and the native bush was overrun with invasive pest plants and predators.

Over the past two years or so, Wave and Matthew have been doing an amazing job, together with others, to restore the farm, the native bush and the connection with the community. I interviewed these guys for Junction Magazine last year, and was blown away by how much they had achieved and their vision for the farm.

So for me, it's been really cool to be a small part of that journey, of learning at Rainbow Valley, and by being there and participating in all the activities, also help to restore it and gently bringing it back and into its next season.

In permaculture, you always start with observation, and making what we call a base map. This is the first lesson in any PDC, or the first chapter in most permaculture design books. So we establish where we get the sun, the water, the wind, and all the other relevant energies, or elements - like where do you enter and exit? Where is the property in relation to houses and roads? Is there any annoying noise, or nice views?

In my case, there were several things that made me drawn to this piece of land. To start with, it sits on a north-facing slope. And for those of you who might be reading in the northern hemisphere - north is the warm side here in New Zealand.

I feel incredibly lucky, because we have good windbreaks around us, a bore for watering, and we also lease the land from a fantastic ice-cream cafe called Charlies Gelato. Not only do we have coffee and ice cream available for ourselves and our visitors, we also work with owners of the land whose values are very well aligned to permaculture. For example, there have been no nasty sprays used on the land for many years, and we run on solar power!

We removed five rows of grapevines to start with, and created flower beds in their place. Our lease actually includes all ten rows, but there's a permaculture principle about starting small and slow, so we decided to begin with half the space we were offered, to expand later as we naturally grow.

There's another permaculture principle called Produce No Waste and here at Slow Blooms, we re-use, re-purpose and upcycle whenever we can. I was obviously more than happy to keep the posts from the grape espaliers and re-purpose them into flower supports.

Another thing we do is, instead of using plastic weed mat, our worm-friendly option is putting down cardboard boxes instead. You might think that those would be better off getting recycled - but did you know that most of New Zealand's cardboard is sent to India for recycling? And a lot of it gets contaminated by other dirty recycling and ends up in landfill anyway, so I rather use it to feed my soil - getting carbon back into the ground where it belongs. Plus the worms love it.

We get a lot of compliments for our flower markers, which look pretty neat if I may say so myself. I'll let you in on a secret. These markers are actually free "filet" boards, which are usually thrown away after being used ONCE at the timber yards. So for the first ones, I did the first dumpster dive of my life outside the local DIY shop. Then I realised I could just ask for them, and they were happy for me to have them. We had some leftover black house paint, and voila!

All of our large signs are upcycled too. I go to the former Snells Beach tip, which is now transformed by Wastebusters into this awesome local re-use centre (not refuse) and buy cut-off plywood sheets which probably some builders dropped off, and I get them at a ridiculously good price, about a quarter of what they cost in the store, and again I paint them black and take them to our local sign makers to have them printed. Which saves me money and saves resources from going into the landfill at the same time.

Something else we do is we grow most of our flowers from seed - so I like using soil blockers to start seedlings without plastic pots or peat.

So zero waste is something we're pretty passionate about here. It also applies to our customers. I try not to use plastics, so I prefer letting people pick their flowers into baskets or metal buckets. And I definitely don't want to be handing out anything which is not home compostable - so there's no fancy cellophane wrapping, there's no tinfoil or bags around the wet feet of the flowers, we just use this home compostable string and paper gift wrap, and we wet some newspaper to put around the bottom to keep them moist until people get home.

It's a bit of a learning curve, but most people seem to appreciate that when I explain the reasoning behind it. 

Some other permaculture principles that we have taken on board are the ones called Use and value diversity and also Integrate don't segregate

The basic idea is that biodiversity creates a stronger system, which is naturally more resilient to pests and disease. As you can see, the plants here at Slow Blooms are often mixed up, with a front and a back row of different plants, and yes that's on purpose! Just as in nature, we try to grow in several layers - annual cut flowers in between shrubs which will need a few years to start producing, vines and other climbers going up the posts.

This makes for a stronger ecosystem - and it also means our visitors can pick many different sorts of flowers at different times of the year!  

Caring for the soil is another biggie. On one side of the spectrum, we have the practice of killing off all the living beings in the soil by using pesticides and herbicides, and then having to rely on bought in fertilisers to feed the plant roots in that dead soil - which effectively is just there as something to hold plants upright.

On the other side, and what we're trying to achieve, is to feed and look after the beneficial microorganisms and fungus that live in the soil. We do this by using things like compost, mulching, and EM (effective microorganisms). So if you see us spraying anything on our plants, it’s probably going to be EM. This is a certified organic probiotic for plants and soil, which enhances the soil’s natural biology. It stimulates the good bacteria and fungi in the soil, which in turn helps unlock nutrients and create a living nurturing soil to grow strong healthy plants in. 

We do not believe in "clearing out" flower beds, leaving soil naked and open for erosion while waiting for the next growing season. Instead, we either mulch between seasons, or preferably plant a beneficial and useful cover crop like lupin, phacelia, buckwheat or just wildflowers for our pollinators.

Another widely debated permaculture principle is the one called Obtain a Yield. We charge our flowers by weight, and there is no question that our flowers cost more than some of the ones you can find elsewhere. We could easily grow a much larger amount of flowers in this space, with less work, by growing monocultures and using chemical sprays, weed mats, inorganic fertilisers, etc.

But by growing flowers true to our ethics, we are both creating this nurturing place for our visitors to experience our flowers in a natural way, and we also over time aim to build up a sustainable business where we’ll be able to pay ourselves and our staff a decent wage.

Catch and store energy is another principle. So for example, we don't "get rid of" old plants and other organic material - we compost it or mulch in situ. I try to tell our pickers that they can drop any excess leaves off the flower stems right back onto the flower beds as they go - that it will just feed the worms and the other soil workers, and give some of the nutrients we've taken out back to the ground. By planting the right plant in the right place at the right time, we catch and utilise the energies from sun and water as best as we can.

So these are just some examples of how we use permaculture principles, and by doing so, we look after our people and our land.

Also, we choose not to grow flowers that are really picky and cannot be grown naturally. We grow a lot of flowers and other plants that are edible and beneficial for your health. And above all, by providing fresh local flowers to local people, there is no need to fly flowers from foreign lands - where we don't know under which conditions they might have been grown, or how the people have been treated that grew them.  

We are Slow Blooms, and our flowers are grown - not flown.