September has certainly felt like a long slog of being eternally busy. I wanted to sit down and write this diary entry to give a bit of a glimpse at the current reality, but also just to help get my thoughts in order whilst everything feels a little bit overwhelming. Don’t worry, I am LOVING this new life — I just wanted to share some more in-depth details of what’s been going on. Plus, so many people have asked for the ‘story’ of the farm, so here goes!
What’s happened?
It’s been 3 months since I left my stable full-time job to go it alone and ‘live my dreams’ and it has been an incredible experience. When I left the week of Hampton Court Palace, I’d been so busy I barely had time to make a plan for what I was going to do next — I just had enough work booked in for a couple of months and a small pot of savings to set up the farm and act as a safety net.
Since then, I’ve been working freelance doing copywriting and PR consultancy, we’ve got The Mini Gardeners Club into two schools in North Devon after running a trial summer program, I’ve been doing a few exciting side projects with various brands, and I launched the new podcast season. It has been BUSY but a lot of fun. The question people are always asking is: do I regret it? Honestly, I have no regrets — for the most part it feels as if I’m living my best life.
Aside from all that, I’ve been working hard with the support of family and friends to set up The Flower Farm of dreams — an incredible patch within a 56-acre farm that has a shepherds hut and bell tent on it. I’d been looking for land for around a year and when I came to see this one it just felt like ‘the one’, despite being much further away than I had hoped. The couple who run the farm have been super supportive.
We started off building the potting shed — with a lack of tools and no flat surfaces on the bumpy field, this ended up taking 3-4 days over the hottest weekend of the year, but completion day was just the best. Next, we got started on the no-dig beds after a 10-tonne compost delivery; there are currently 4 of the 10m x 1m stretches. Most recently, we started to build the polytunnel, which was so much harder than expected and certainly taught me a lesson in patience!
What’s next?
At the farm, the next few months are focused on getting the no-dig beds set up — I’ve planned for 30 but in reality it will probably be 20 at most. We’ll get the polytunnel staging up and ready for seedlings. The next big job is to get a fence in place as there are deer that roam around (very majestic), but for now I’m saving that as a problem for future Shan.
Anyway, that’s enough waffle from me this month — I may as well make ‘busy’ my middle name. We’ll see what October brings! Thank you for your support, and if you ever have any questions, feel free to drop me a DM or an email.
Shan — The Lady Gardener x