REAL GARDENER
A Kapiti flower farm
Alison Watts is passionate about building a business whose impact on the environment is purely positive. Her passion for nature began early. As a little girl growing up in England she spent many happy hours in her grandmother’s huge and beautiful flower garden.
Now, as a professional florist, it’s the special power flowers have to make people happy that fuels her passion.
“The best part is the look on people’s faces when they see their flowers.”
But while training as a florist Alison also realised she wanted no part of any enterprise that depended on foams, plastic wrapping and other toxic conventions. “Early on, I decided I wanted to bring beautiful, fresh flowers to people - flowers that would be sprayfree with no air miles and zero plastic.” Alison’s business name, ‘Bee and Bloom’ proudly supports her environmentfriendly ethos. “Without bees there would be no food, flowers or life,” she explains.
Key to Alison’s business vision was the need to grow her own flowers. Work began on her little flower farm as soon as she and her husband Brodie moved from Wellington to their home on the Kapiti Coast. Their little boy, Toby was just one. “Every
nap time I’d race to put on my wellies, grab my spade and start digging. I had to work fast!” Alison recalls.
The first task she set herself was to clear her planting space - a pair of long narrow raised beds - of overgrown shrubs and weeds. “It took me about a month to get it all cleared and ready for planting with compost and weed mat.” That first spring she planted annuals and dahlias and sold her first bouquet to a neighbour the week before Christmas.
“Word soon spread and I was in business before I knew it! I was surprised to find how much demand there was for freshly cut flowers.”
She has learned a lot in the two years since. Not least that her very sandy soil would need constant attention. Happily, her garden beds had been well mulched over the years, resulting in a good build up of soil organic matter. Alison has plans to extend her growing space but for now, the kikuyu lawn is a much used play space for a very active preschooler.
“I work hard to amend my soil, and give back what I take away,” says Alison. “It’s a real labour of love but I'm getting there!” She plies her soil with lots of compost, and feeds it with blood and bone and worm tea. She also makes her own ‘comfrey tea’ fertiliser, which is high in potassium and good for flowering plants. “I also get alpaca poo from my friends at Five Gates Farm in Te Horo. It’s very mild and great for the garden when buried.”
To control weed growth she plants her annuals into weed mat, which is reusable and will last for many years. In her dahlia beds, pea straw forms a thick mat that blocks weeds for most of the season. “It’s important to leave space around each crown to prevent rot. Don't let mulch pile up around the stems.” she advises.
Asked how she keeps her flowers healthy without spraying, Alison says, “Mainly I just look after them - watering and feeding properly. I stake and net plants so they’re not wind stressed and susceptible to bug attacks.”
Earwigs on dahlias are a pain but scrunched up newspaper works a treat. “The earwigs crawl in and you can then dispose of them as you see fit! I check on my flowers several times a day during summer. It’s time consuming but worth it. The best quality takes care and attention,” she says.
Brodie helped to install a trickle irrigation system throughout all of
"Early on, I decided I wanted to bring beautiful fresh flowers to people - flowers that would be spray-free
with no air miles and zero plastic."
Alison’s flower beds, and a rainwater tank connected to the roof of her studio is a future proofing measure. Alison is delighted with her new flower studio. Well-lit with a skylight, it doubles as a greenhouse for her seed sowing.
Alison’s little flower farm is surprisingly small. “People often assume I have paddocks of space, but my main growing space is only 25 square metres,” she says.
To make the most of her space she plants intensively and plans carefully. Around the perimeter of the section she has kept any useful shrubs and foliage plants that were planted by previous gardeners, adding her own favourite foliage plants to provide a base for her bouquets. For winter picking she is planting shrubs like protea and leucadendron, which are very drought tolerant. These shrubs also contribute to her reserve of beautiful dried flowers, especially useful between seasons.
“I also grow some things in pots. Right now I have some tulips in pots and some hardy annuals which will give me a head start on spring. You don’t need a big section to grow flowers, you just need to get growing!
Seeing things flourishing brings me such satisfaction. I love filling buckets with fresh seasonal flowers and taking them to my studio to create bouquets that will make someone’s day.”
Alison grows all her own flowers for her main florist season, which extends from September to March. This winter she closed her business temporarily. “Covid halted my business as it did for everyone, but the flowers kept blooming. I put buckets and buckets of them out for my neighbours who passed them on to elderly family and friends. It was amazing and meant people could enjoy flowers and hopefully smile a little.”
Bee and Bloom is all about keeping things local and Alison says she is truly humbled and grateful for the support she has received from her community. “I’m lucky that I get to do what I’m passionate about and share it with people. It’s an amazing feeling to gather armloads of fresh flowers and make a huge bouquet knowing that it’s all from my own garden!”