How Much Land Do You Need to Start Flower Farming?
Holistic Living and Preparedness in the Blue Ridge Mountains
Have you thought about growing flowers for profit on your homestead? Check out our beginner’s guide to flower farming to help you get started!
Vegetables and fruits aren’t the only things that can be grown in the homestead garden and sold for profit. In fact, cut flowers are one of the most profitable crops per acre, with an estimated gross of $55,00 per acre or more on a good year.
Of course, you’ll need to deduct your labor and expenses from that figure to determine how much you can actually make. If you start out small and build your cut flower business slowly, you can avoid debt. And, by adding on services like floral design, wedding flowers, and dried flowers, you can increase your income even more.
Keep in mind that flower farming is still farming, so it’s hard work that involves physical labor and long hours. But the rewards are many… being your own boss, providing valuable habitat for bees and pollinators, and working outdoors instead of behind a desk. Not to mention being surrounded by gorgeous flowers and making your living doing something you love.
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Some of the most successful cut flower farms are making a significant profit and full-time income on only two or three acres of land. However, if you were considering flower farming simply as an additional side income stream from your homestead, just a few rows of the right varieties in your existing vegetable garden might be enough to put a little extra cash in your pocket.
If your dream is to own a profitable micro-farm, flowers just might be the crop for you. Typical crops like grains, fruits, and vegetables (or livestock raised for eggs and meat) require more land and machinery for adequate production. With flowers, they can be planted, cultivated, and even harvested entirely by hand.
In fact, limits of time and labor often play a more important role in flower farming profits than the amount of available land. Flower farming is totally scalable. You can grow a little or a lot, depending on how much land and time you want to invest.
In order to achieve profitability with flower farming on a small acreage, high-intensity production will be required. Here’s a list of basic tools and supplies you will need to get started. If you already have a market garden for growing vegetables, you’ll be happy to see that you probably have most of what you need on hand already.
We use our hoop house for salad greens in the winter, seedlings in the early spring and fall, and for growing delicate flowers and pest sensitive crops in the summer. We overwinter many plants in it, too.
Our little greenhouse gets used every spring for seed starting and protecting seedlings from frost until it’s time to put them in the garden. Then we throw a shade cloth over it to start our fall seedlings in late August/early September. We don’t heat it, so it just gets used for storing garden tools through the winter.
At the end of the day, whether you really need these things or not will depend on your climate, the types of crops you want to grow, and how much production you’re shooting for.
Obviously, this is just a very basic list of the absolute minimum equipment you’ll need to get started with flower farming. In my opinion, starting out with the basics is the way to go with any business until you know if there’s good potential for growth in your area.
Over time as your business grows, you’ll find tools and develop processes that will make your market garden more productive and reduce labor. Do consider paying cash for what you need as you go. Going into debt is never good advice… especially in these times.
There are certain flower farming skills that the beginning flower farmer should learn before getting started.
Most importantly, you’ll need to have an excellent succession-planting plan so that you can get your next crop in the ground within days of when one stops blooming. Mastering this technique will allow you to harvest two or more crops from the same space each season. Devote a significant amount of time to learning about succession planting before you get started.
You’ll also need to learn about the ideal germination and growing conditions, planting times, harvest times, and post-harvest handling for each variety you want to grow. If you’re going to grow flowers for drying, research the best varieties and drying methods before you order your seeds.
Of course, the only way to master these skills is with hands-on experience. That’s why I recommend starting out small. But you should still take the time to research these things thoroughly before you jump in. I’ve listed a few books at the end of this blog post that will be extremely helpful.
Certain varieties stand out as being easy to grow from seed in a variety of climates. What you want are long-stemmed varieties with abundant blooms. Browsing through seed catalogs and reading seed packets can help you figure out if a particular variety is suitable for cutting or drying. Here are some suggestions to help you get started.
Don’t forget to think outside the box, too. Everything from herbs like basil and dill to wildflowers and pine cones can be incorporated into your arrangements. I’ve even added branches of tiny currant tomatoes and ornamental peppers to my arrangements and my customers loved them!
If you’ve got forsythia, jasmine, lilacs, and other ornamentals already growing on your property, you’ve got a great head start for early spring arrangements. And, don’t underestimate the value of grapevines, ferns, hostas, and other fillers for the flower farmer, too.
My point is, don’t limit yourself to what you can grow in your garden. Most of the year, there are all sorts of ornamentals and wild plants that can be incorporated into your arrangements to make them more unique and beautiful. And, of course, increase your profits!
You also need to consider if you have a good outlet for selling cut flowers in your area. The amount of money you can charge for your flowers will vary significantly by your location, too. I advise starting small to allow for that learning curve.
Where you’re going to sell your flowers matters when you’re choosing varieties, too. For example, you probably won’t be selling the same varieties at the farmer’s market that you sell to your neighborhood wedding florist. If you want to grow flowers for drying to sell online, you’ll need to thank about that before you order your seeds, too.
Here are some potential markets to consider:
If you want to learn more about flower farming on your homestead, here are some of the books that helped me get started. I still refer to them regularly throughout the growing season, so they are definitely worth the investment if you are serious about selling flowers for profit.
If you only invest in one book, it should be this one. It covers everything you need to know, from seed starting and succession planting to harvesting and keeping your flowers fresh for market. It’s an indispensable guide for anyone who’s serious about flower farming.
If you haven’t done any type of market gardening or farming before, this book will be incredibly helpful. It explains the basics of succession planting, amending the soil, marketing your product, and much more.
The Flower Farmer’s Year
Whether you decide to grow a few rows of flowers to sell alongside your produce at the local market, or you grow enough to get the wholesalers interested, flower farming can be a fun and profitable endeavor for your homestead. Remember to start small and give yourself time to learn what grows and sells well in your area. And, if you live in a rural area without a good market for flowers, consider growing dried flowers and turning them into beautiful arrangements to sell online.
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How Much Land Do You Need to Start Flower Farming?
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