Okay, okay, so I’m hardly a flower farmer, BUT I have started a farming business and I am growing a few flowers amongst our vegetables, so I’m on my way. Right?

From 2006 to 2009, I lived in Ottawa and had a great job as a policy analyst for a non-partisan lobbyist group. I got an up-close-and-personal look at Canadian politics, worked alongside amazing people from the government and non-profit world, and truly had one of the most interesting and unique experiences of my life. A couple of years into that experience, however, I started craving a lifestyle like the one I have now and used to love daydreaming with some girlfriends about one day becoming a flower farmer. Imagining myself living in the middle of a sea of flowers and spending my days caring for them just seemed so idyllic. 

So here I am now, a few years later, spending my mornings watering our vegetable beds and celebrating the flowers that are finally emerging after their late plantings, water-logged conditions and battles with slugs. My daydreams are materializing!

Now, if I were a true flower farmer, I’m sure I’d know the scientific names and detailed information about all of the flowers in these photos. That’s not the case yet – but it will be! In the meantime, here are some of the BEAUTIFUL blossoms that are finally popping up all over the garden. Hope you enjoy them as much as I do. x

Poppies! I LOVE the gorgeous pink poppy I posted above with it’s delicate, tissue-paper petals. Below is another poppy almost ready to open. *Sigh* I seriously love poppies. 

Sweet peas! So pretty and so fragrant and seriously popping out all over the garden now. 

This is what happens when you leave a raddish in the ground. It produces these flowers as it’s going to seed. A very lovely transition period.

An onion flowering and going to seed… 

Tatsoi (an asian green) going to seed…

Phacelia – a great cover crop flower for vegetable gardens that bees love! So glad Chris M. made a point of planting so many of these around the garden beds.

Nasturtiums (red & orange below) are edible and attract the attention of aphids and other bugs we don’t want on our veggies.

Blue Borage – a fully edible flower (and greens!) that attracts bees and provides a higher level of healthy fatty acids than Evening Primrose.

Zucchini flowers: a precurser to the arrival of the veggie – always a good sign! Also edible, although I have yet to try them. Adding zucchini flower recipe research to my to-do list as I type…

And finally, perennial lillies. I’ve got a variety of colours planted. Hopefully they’ll keep coming back every year…