You’re just like me. You dream of walking out into your yard and coming back with a handful (or more) of flowers, freshly cut and homegrown. You want to enjoy the sunshine and take advantage of what the warmer weather has to offer.
You have tons of thoughts and questions. “What can I grow? My seedlings never make it. I have a brown thumb. Do I have to buy raised beds? What do I do with all the grass in my yard? Where do I buy flowers? What flowers actually work as ‘cut flowers’? Maybe I’ll just try chaos gardening instead.”
These are real things running through your head. I get it.
I can tell you from experience I once cried over a dead basil plant. I 100% believed that I would never be able to be a great gardener like my parents because I just didn’t understand how to grow plants and keep them alive.
I was right.
I didn’t understand.
Instead of wallowing in my inability, I took charge and started reading everything I could about growing flowers. I practiced; I made mistakes; I learned a lot. Now, I get to grow beautiful healthy flowering plants every year to arrange and sell. Let me help you!
There are many parts to getting a functioning cutting garden, but today I wanted to show you an example of what my summer plan looks like.
Why plan?
It might not seem like a big deal to plan ahead of time.
I mean, they’re flowers. They’ll grow, right?
They will. But planning makes sure you get the flowers you want, when you want them, and the amount you want to have.
Each flower has its own bloom time. Some are quick to flower (sunflowers) and some take a year from seeding (cone flowers).
You can plant a handful of Sunflowers but if you want to have 20 sunflowers to gift a friend for her birthday… you’ll want to make sure you have them planted 56 days beforehand!
I know you’ll want to get the most out of your flower patch, because who doesn’t love fresh flowers?? Have a strong start with a little bit of planning!
This is my summer field plan for my 2025 garden.
I take notes in varying ways throughout the growing season- handwritten notes, video notes, photos, etc. These all inform my planning for the next season.
I’ve adapted this field plan from the year before based off of these factors:
What grew well in what row? (some of my beds get more shade than others)
What didn’t grow well?
What got left in the field most? (aka what flowers did I not enjoy using)
What sold well?
What new flowers do I want to try?
I’ll start out by saying my field is a little…wonky. We’ve added to it each year (thinking I wouldn't outgrow it) so the rows are not all the same length.
Here’s a written form of what the row lengths are now (left to right):
Row 1- 3x19
Row 2- 3x29
Row 3- 3x42
Row 4- 3x42
Row 5- 3x44
Row 6- 3x44
Row 7- 3x46
Row 8- 3x54
Row 9- 3x80
Row 10- 3x80
Row 11- 3x80
Row 12- 3x20
Row 13- 3x20
Row 14- 3x20
Raised beds
Box 1- 3x10
Box 2- 3x10
Box 3- 2x6
Why are the measurements important?
If you like to get the most bang for your buck, knowing your garden bed measurements helps you to plant as closely together without causing disease or ‘sad’ plants as I like to call them.
Being a micro urban flower farm, we do not have unlimited space for flowers. I must find creative ways to get more flowers in the space each year as our demand grows.
Many times the measurements on the plant tag (if you’re buying from a local nursery) or the seed packet (if you’re bravely starting them at home) will give you a spacing measurement (eg. space 9” apart).
When farming for flowers (note: different than gardening), these spacing measurements provided can usually be adjusted to be even closer together.
Gardeners are looking for beautiful plants to enhance their landscape.
Flower farmers are growing for the purpose of selling stems.
Farmers can plant flowers (a little) closer together because we are growing for production and long stems.
I’ll give you my spacing measurements for the summer varieties I’ll be growing this year.
My Summer Crop Spacing:
Amaranth- 12” apart
Astilbe- 18” apart
Bells of Ireland (cooler crop)- 12” apart
Celosia- 12” apart
Cosmos- 12” apart
Dahlias- 12” apart
Eucalyptus- 18” apart
Feverfew- 9” apart
Gomphrena- 9” apart
Marigolds- 12” apart
Snapdragons- 9” apart
Strawflower- 9” apart
Sunflowers- 6” apart
Yarrow- 9” apart
Zinnias- 9” apart
Once I’ve finalized my summer crop planning, I can use these spacing measurements to determine how many plants I can fit in the bed to which I’ve assigned it. I will then work out the color variations within that flower variety.
Planned Field:
Row 1- 3x19– Half Yarrow, Half Astilbe (already established)
Row 2- 3x29– Marigolds – 87 plants
Row 3- 3x42– Dahlias – 63 plants
Row 4- 3x42– Sunflowers – 441 plants
Row 5- 3x44– Sunflowers – 462 -plants
Row 6- 3x44– Zinnias – 215 plants
Row 7- 3x46– Zinnias – 225 plants
Row 8- 3x54– Snapdragons – 264 plants
Row 9- 3x80– Half Celosia, Half Cosmos – 120 plants each
Row 10- 3x80– ⅓ Amaranth, ⅓ Strawflower, ⅓ undecided – 60 Amaranth, 98 Strawflower
Raised beds
Box 2- 3x10– Feverfew – 49 plants
Box 3- 2x6– Sweet Peas – 8 plants
*some of the beds not listed here are still being decided on :)
Example
Row 7 is 3’ wide x 46’ long.
If I plant Zinnias at 9” apart here, I can fit 225 plants in this row.
If I planted them instead at 12” apart (9-12” is on the seed package), I would only get 138 plants. That’s a 87 plant difference! Not to mention the amount of stems produced from one plant.
If I split this row (at 9” spacing and 225 plants total) into 4 different color variations of Zinnias, I can get 56 plants of each color (e.g. 56 Queeny Lime Blush, 56 Alpenglow, 56 Ballerina, 56 Zinderella Peach).
Now, I also succession plant my flowers. This is a fancy way of saying I don’t plant all 225 zinnia plants all at once. I will break each color variation up into 3 different sowings (56/3=19 plants per sowing for each color).
In this example, I would sow 20-25 seeds of Queeny Lime Blush, 20-25 seeds of Alpenglow, 20-25 seeds of Ballerina, 20-25 seeds of Zinderella Peach every 3.5 weeks from April to June to have a beautiful long lasting zinnia crop.
Note the extra seeds sown are just for a safety barrier if some seeds don’t take. Zinnias do germinate very easily but just in case!
This will ensure my flower production doesn’t slow down when I really need another bucket full.
Zinnias will not continuously pump out flowers from one sowing all summer. They are a workhorse variety, but because we are cutting from them so often, they will lose their energy to produce before the frost (at least in my zone!).
Zinnia plants are also prone to powdery mildew by the end of their life cycle. They will produce stems towards the end of their life, but not as beautiful as the ones they first create. When my first planting of zinnias starts to show signs of decline, I can pull those out and plant the next set of plugs from my basement. Succession planting is a major help on a production farm to maintain products throughout the season.
Hopefully getting a sneak peek at my summer field plan will help you in your planning! Whether it is a small patch of a 6x6 bed or part of your landscaping, you can use these examples to bring you a beautiful cutting garden all summer!
Kate
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