From the Ground Up: Preparing the Next Chapter

Welcome back to The Petal Press and to the very first entry in a new series I’m calling From the Ground Up. You’ll also see me using the hashtag #fromthegroundup to share updates as I document what it takes to build a flower farm, bed by bed and season by season.

Starting something new often feels like equal parts planning, digging, and dreaming—and right now, all three are happening here at Roots & Rescues Blooms.

So let’s dig in.

The Work Beneath the Blooms

Before there can be flowers, there must be soil. And not just any soil—the kind that can sustain healthy roots, drain properly, and support thousands of stems season after season. Right now, that’s where most of the work (and let’s be honest, most of the money) is going.

Four new beds and over 10,000 square feet are in the works. That’s a lot of ground to cover—literally and figuratively. These new spaces have been hayfields for years, corn before that, and likely something else when this land was first the homestead. This fall, each will be tilled, amended with compost, layered with high-quality topsoil blended with river sand, tilled again, and finally graded for proper drainage. Basically, the flowers are getting the soil equivalent of a luxury spa treatment.

On Graveyard Hill (more on that below), we’ve already tilled and laid a 5-mil silage tarp. It’s not glamorous, but it’s quietly effective: coaxing weeds to germinate and then snuffing them out, while inviting earthworms to the surface to do their slow, steady work of enriching the soil.

To set the stage properly, I’ll also run another soil test—nearly every experienced flower farmer’s number-one piece of advice. The results will continue to help me understand exactly what the soil needs, allowing me to supplement organically and bring it into balance. Healthy soil is the single most important investment I can make right now, because it’s the foundation for every bloom that follows.

The New Beds in the Making

The Dahlia Patch
A dedicated 2,300-square-foot Dahlia Patch, with room to expand, is in the works. This will allow space for a little over 450 plants. Yes, 450—each making new tubers so I can double or triple the patch year-over-year. That’s a lot of divas, each expecting water, compost (the horses better get busy), and my undivided attention. They’ll keep me busy, but the payoff will be worth it, especially if I can snag a few of Floret’s originals in a rare seed sale next week.

The Patchwork
What began in Phase 1 as four 40-foot rows is now growing into a 6,250-square-foot, four-quadrant design, with each quadrant featuring four rows of its own. I’ve started calling it Patchwork, because the layout feels like stitched pieces forming a bigger whole.

Patchwork

This stretch will be the home of Patchwork with the Dahlia patch extending along the back and off to the right.

Graveyard Hill
This 2,000-square-foot bed comes with stories. My grandmother used to say there was a graveyard somewhere along this hill, though the evidence has long since faded. For years, it’s been an extension of the hayfield. It’s also near where a big multipurpose barn once stood—a barn Mamaw spoke of with pride. Since the dogs can’t wander over to Graveyard Hill on their own, it’s the perfect home for the “poisonous but pretty” crowd—like larkspur and poppies.

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Graveyard Hill

Hedgerows
Two new hedgerows of perennials are also underway—an investment in flowers that will return year after year. I’ve also planned a hedgerow of flowering crab apples, arriving any day now, whose branches should someday add both beauty to arrangements and more structure to the farm itself.

Allen’s Wildflower Field
Over at Allen’s, a wildflower field is also part of Phase 2. The ground is tilled, fertilizer is on the way, and it’ll soon be sown—a cheerful blend to balance the more structured beds. Beginning in summer 2026, I plan to expand this area to include sunflowers as a cover crop, to help build and break down the soil further while providing some early fall blooms. Since this section is about a hundred yards down the road and not directly connected to the main farm, I intentionally chose flowers that mostly just do their thing. We’ll see how that goes.

A Few More Firsts

This month, 20 peony roots will arrive, and the beds are already tilled with compost and fertilizer, so they’re ready to go. The peonies will take a couple of years to establish, which feels like forever, but patience is apparently part of the deal.

Meanwhile, the original four rows are still in play and earmarked for an attempt at “Cool Flowers.” I’ve started some seeds indoors and will direct sow others in a couple of weeks, hoping they have time to settle in before frost so they can establish their roots over winter. To stretch the root-building season a bit, I’ll be building low tunnels and covering each row—and Graveyard Hill—with frost cloth. Think of it as cozying up the flowers with their own set of blankets.

Looking Ahead

All of this is Phase 2 for Roots & Rescues Blooms. Phase 3? Well, that’s still a dream—bigger, bolder, and filled with even more gardens and possibly another greenhouse by the pond—but I’ll save that story for another day.

For now, the focus is here: the ground we’re prepping, the beds we’re shaping, and the flowers that will come of it. In my next post, I’ll share more about the cool-season flowers going in this fall, and more photos as things begin to take form.

One step, one plot, one season at a time—we’re building from the ground up. And if all goes well, I’ll still have a back that works.😉