They say all publicity is good publicity...

First of all, Happy New Year, to all followers of the Blooming Green blog. Like many of you we were nestling under a blanket of snow for a week or so... It was very beautiful, but it's nice to think that Spring may now be on the way.

Last week Bek and I went up to London to see a preview of our episode of My Dream Farm. (Thursday 25 February at 8.00 on Channel 4). Actually it was Bek, Erika, baby Rowan and me, and we were all equally excited -- though Erika was mostly excited about going in a 'texi' and well, Rowan, was excited about milk.

Obviously we can't tell you too much about the programme, as that would ruin the surprise... but Betty, the production company, has done a wonderful job. There's a bit of creative licence of course, but it works to our advantage most of the time. For example, my sponge cake looks worthy of an Oscar. At Betty's offices in central London we had tea and cake and watched the whole episode, with 4-minute ad breaks in which we could ooh and ahh about what we'd seen. There were some giggles too.

Also, today we appeared in the Daily Mail's Weekend section. The less said the better. You know you're in for a bumpy ride when a paper doesn't even get your names right... and then paints a picture of two air-heads with no farming experience, whose business was rescued by Monty. A big pinch of salt is required... and an ability to laugh at yourself. Or, people who look like you, but sound like totally different people.

On more important matters, we now have a lovely little office area in the lean-to next to our shed, so we're better prepared for a busy 2010. Our polytunnel is repaired, tightened up (like an aging Hollywood starlet's face) and tidied up, ready for use... and our plants are looking relatively unscathed by the snow.

On Thursday I visited nearby East Sutton Park, which is famed for its sausages, pork... and also its plants, to see if they might help us propagate some seedlings. I also bought some ornamental cabbages, which I am intending on using in some funky Valentine's bouquets. The green-fingered staff are going to leave them to bolt, so in a couple of weeks' time they should be just right for cutting.

Will tell you more about East Sutton Park's great work, and also our Valentine's bouquets, next time.

Winter wreaths: much more than the sum of their parts

We're almost out of winter wreaths for Christmas 2009. Although it's a relief to think we are one step closer to putting our feet up, we'll both miss the days spent twining willow into bases, gathering materials and then concocting individual wreaths to sell to friends, family and through various Christmas markets. (One of our favourite markets is the Yalding Yuletide Market, where Auntie Mary inevitably does a roaring trade in mulled pear juice, mistletoe and walnuts)

Last year we used a lot of fir cones, gathered from various forests in Kent, as well as teasels and berries. This year our wreaths look rather different. We've used fewer cones, plenty of lovely teasels, a little wool from my mum's sheep as well as the piece de resistance - hops from Little Scotney Farm, near Lamberhurst.

If we haven't mentioned Little Scotney Farm before, then we should have. It is one of the few remaining hop farms (made up of hop gardens) which still uses a traditional oast house for drying. Once the hops have been dried, many of them go to the Westerham Brewery to be made into Little Scotney Ale. Might have to get some of that for Christmas...

Anyway, the number of people who have remarked on the hops - and stopped to sniff the wreaths - shows the nostalgia associated with this plant. It's truly a symbol of the Garden of England - Kent and Sussex - as well as a poignant reminder of an historic industry and 'hopping' culture.

Hopefully people will enjoy the various elements entwined in their wreath - and if they want to know more, it's all listed on the label.

Merry Christmas, from Jen and Bek... It looks like 2010 is going to be pretty lively!

High winds and flood warnings... the life of a florist!

Over the last few weeks I have rapidly learnt why farmers, like my parents and uncles and aunts, are so affected by the weather.

In the past I've huddled indoors, in a warm house or office and marvelled at the drama and gloom of stormy weather. Now that our livelihood depends on the elements, it's not quite the same experience, listening to the rain lashing against my bedroom window and the wind rattling the tiles. Our new wind break has been partly flattened and out polytunnel is coming apart at the seams... I can hardly bear to look. And just when you think the worst has passed, it comes back with a vengeance.

On the funny side... The other day I was out in the dark, gathering foliage whilst wearing a head torch and Gore-tex jacket. Now how many florists get that involved? This time of year makes creating a bouquet all the more challenging - although putting together a totally luscious winter arrangement, which has involved tramping through brambles, shimmying up trees and fighting with branches makes the whole experience more satisfying, and amusing. A bouquet we made this week contained: Spindle berry (Euonymous europeus), rosemary, dark red hydrangea, teazels, ivy leaves and berries as well as some viburnum fragrans.

This week we're making more of our willow-based Christmas wreaths, to sell at the Yalding Christmas Fair. Will update you with pics and information later in the week.

Keep your fingers crossed for our polytunnel -- and a break in the weather.

Tulips... and a few 'mentions'

In the last few days we've planted nearly 1000 tulip bulbs - by hand - and a fair few Allium bulbs as well.

Highest priority this week were the alliums, which needed to go in earlier than the tulips and were also starting to go a little moldy. We've left our Allium 'Sphaerocephalon' in from last year and planted another 100 'Purple Sensation' and also some of the funky 'Hair' variety. We'd admired the latter in various catalogues, but were convinced when our wonderful neighbour - who's a Dutch gardener and retired florist -- brought round some of the flower/seed heads from her garden. They are so wonderful and wacky that we just had to get some.

When it comes to tulips we've gone for a mix of luscious colours and also some of the more fashionable Viridiflora and Parrot styles. My fantastic Auntie Mary and Uncle Alan (Bek's parents) came up for the morning, to help plant tulip bulbs and demonstrate the most efficient technique, with one 'dibbing' and the other placing the bulb. It sounds obvious, but when you've got 1000 bulbs to plant, it's worth getting your technique sorted. Once we'd had our masterclass Gary and I spent the afternoon planting the next few hundred. Gary lives in a yurt, not far from our plot, and is a general good egg who helps us with the donkey work when we need an extra pair of hands. It's nice to have good company when you've got a laborious task like this to do, and it turned out to be a very pleasant and productive afternoon.

The other person who deserves a mention is Pip, or Philip, as he is actually called. Pip helped me water-in the Achillea I transplanted the other day, and also helps to keep an eye on our hens... when he's not climbing over, or digging holes, in our huge pile of compost. We may well have to train him up over the coming years to be our gardener's apprentice!

Pip's not the only one digging holes in our plot. Eek. Something has been trying to dig its way out, under the rabbit fence and there were also paw prints all along one of our freshly mulched beds. Could it be a fox? It's a safe bet that where there are chickens, there are also hungry foxes. Thank goodness I remembered to shut up my hens this evening.

All change

The season of mellow fruitfulness continues to be just that. The most exciting fruit in the last couple of weeks was Bek (an Jon'!) baby Rowan... all 8lb14oz of him. He is currently doing his best to make Bek's maternity leave anything but restful.

We have also had a rather fruitful article in The Times weekend section
property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/gardens/article6838802.ece which has brought about some very exciting leads. The first of these was a email from a young entrepreneur called Pete Thompson, who runs Lowhub, an eco-friendly flower delivery service from New Covent Garden and Borough Market. I almost fell off my chair when I read his email. First meeting, over tea and biscuits, looks very promising and could be just the ticket for getting our bouquets out to our urban friends.

Today we ripped out a couple of rows of sunflowers and cosmos, tilled and mulched. Tomorrow a gang of us, lead by Auntie Mary, will be up at the plot, planting bulbs while the soil is still warm and welcoming. It's also just the time to be splitting, dividing and consolidating what we've got. It can be enjoyable wandering around the plot, looking for a specific flower, but for efficiency and simplicity it's good to have things growing together -- either according to species or according to its purpose ie. fillers, main flowers, or colourful foliage.

Yesterday I treated myself to some Erisimum 'Harlequin' while visiting a lovely family-run nursery at Staple near Canterbury. Layham Garden Centre is know for it's roses -- but also its freshly dug -- or 'dug to order' --Erisimums (Wallflowers). We need a few more flowers for early summer and these could work well planted in between the tulip bulbs.

All the latest seed catalogues have arrived, to tantalise us over the winter and there seem to be some fantastic new varieties specifically for cutting. Having just come back from a trip to New England, I'm extremely tempted to get a few chrysanthemums. I never thought I'd say it, as I', not generally a fan of 'mums', but there are some lovely, subtle looking varieties available. They're also perfect for autumn and last well in a bouquet. The Americans seem to be big fans of hydrangeas too. So far we haven't had the best result with our hydrangea plants... but we'll give them another year or two, before they get grubbed up.

Other news: our polytunnel is full of green tomatoes, so tonight turned into a chutney extravaganza. I made so much I ran out of jars...maybe a good excuse to eat it as a fresh 'relish'.

Will let you know how we get on with our planting...

Tiger moths, compost - and family

Autumn was always our grandmother Harriet's favourite time of year. As a Norwegian, who moved to this farm in 1939, she associated it with foraging. Foraging for berries, nuts and mushrooms -- and here we are doing a similar thing, collecting interesting things from the hedgerows to go in our bouquets.

A couple of weeks ago we put together bouquets for Brixton Farmers' market, and added a few blackberries, just to give our urban customers a taste -- quite literally -- of the countryside. Feedback on the bouquets, oh dear, another unintentional pun, was that the blackberries 'made' them. Both the guys and the 'ladies' thought they were a really nice touch. Pretty thorny for me to pick, but I may have to grit my teeth and pick another batch for this weekend's market, back in Brixton.

Although the nights are getting quite cool, we've had glorious warm Autumn days this week. Yesterday I was out on the plot, picking zinnias, dahlias and bits and bobs (see pic) in the sunshine, when I heard a buzzing overhead. I know from an environmental point of view, I shouldn't really enjoy watching a little Tiger Moth bi-plane circling over our flowers, but when it's your big brother taking someone for a birthday flight, I couldn't help but smile. I jumped up and down by my wheelbarrow, waving my arms and calling out like a loony. It did a couple more circles, waggled its wings and was off along the Greensand Ridge, buffeted by the breeze.

The other great excitement on the plot this week was the delivery of 27 tonnes of organic, green waste compost. You got it. Not 27 bags, but 27 tonnes. I convinced Bek that it was cheaper this way, and we would just sell some off to cover our costs. As we're based on a fruit farm, we're used to some fairly big lorries coming to pick up the apples and pears, but this lorry was even bigger. Adrian, who works on the farm, came walking across the yard, huge grin on his face, saying " Do you know what you've done!?" "Have you seen this lorry!?" It took up almost half the side of the plot when it reversed on to tip out the compost. We now have a snake-like pile running the length of the plot. It's already being spread on our beds, and looks wonderful and dark as well as making the place look tidy and well-tended.

Hope you like the pic of the wheelbarrow and flowers. The 'bushel box' has got our great uncle's name on it and is over 100 years old. They make perfect temporary shelving at farmers' markets, and also give us a bit of a nostalgia trip every time we use them.

Good to see we've got another follower of our blog. He looks very much like our cousin Matt from Oz.

Last date with Monty

Filming is over -- at least the main stuff with Monty Don -- and Bek and I can breathe a sigh of relief. The TV experience has been an eye-opener and brought us a few perks, such as our visit to Wiggly Wigglers, but I think we'll both be happy getting back to what's important to us -- growing and selling amazing, different and inspiring flowers.

Autumn is nearly here, and there's a lovely sense of winding down as the plants send out their last flowers and we start to prepare the beds for next year. This week we planted Sweet Williams, so we should have blooms by May/June. Dianthus, the genus to which Sweet Williams belong, have such a glorious scent, a cross between talc and cloves. Some people find them a little old fashioned but the majority of people we talk to like their informal, cottage garden quality and also the nostalgia they induce. We're also putting up a permanent support for our everlasting Sweet Peas. Can you think of anything better than a Sweet Pea that lasts?!

Our new wind break -- or T-Rex fence as our friend Gary described it -- is doing a sterling job protecting the plants, and we're paying for the labour with flowers! Nick Gaskin, just down the road in Marden, has done a brilliant job... and the ladies in his family won't be short of flowers over the coming months.

The farmers markets have been going pretty well, although it seems that everyone is away on holiday -- or just visiting. We got a fantastic reception at Wye Farmers' Market earlier in the month, and have been to Tunbridge Wells twice. This weekend, it's the first ever Brixton Farmers' Market, which should be interesting. Will keep you posted on how it goes.