Frary's Fresh Flowers

I've one more week left in Tripoli before I go home for my off break. My wife tells me that absolutely everything is blooming in the garden - Roses, Lilies, sweet peas, tomatoes, fuchsia - pratcially everything - and I miss it all by spending 8 weeks in Libya on the dry season... grrrrrr - kicking my heels trying to find ways to progress the flower business... reading websites, reading business books - dreaming instead of doing.

These aree again piccies from Mary Ellen madden Frary - nice pinks and a shasta daisy - from the back yard - and the shasta daisies have done really well this year - not bunny food at all - while the pinks are struggling a bit in the pots (over a year old now) as the rabbits seem to snip them all off everytime I try them in the garden - or it could be the slugs
Anyhow - 1 week - actually only 5 days- then I'm home again. Then when I'm back after 1 day to look round - any bets that it is raining hard and is grey and cold - so after one day we get to go to Tokyo for 2 weeks to see our No2 Daughter who has been teaching English there for about 6 or 7 years - how long has it been. And I'll take photos - lots of photos and put them on the blog.
We went two years ago and looked round a couple of nice gardens - in the centre of Tokyo and out to Fujiyama (where I changed my opinion of hydragenas from "hate them" to "love them" - I have to post those photos for sure). Unfortunately I deleted all my photos from this computer (work laptop) which I travel with so am really short of visuals to post and this makes some posts look really boring.
So what have I been doing this last week to marshall the dark forces of Frary's Fresh Flowers?
1) Resisting the urge to spend on seeds and plants on the internet - very difficult when T&M's website is so luscious and they keep sending me emails trying to tempt me into the bargain of a life time - I was almost tempted to get some morw hardy fuchsias - Alice Hoffman, Hawkbeard and Army nurse in particular - but resisted the final button click esp as I want to see how the cuttings have donee which i took just before i left for Tripoli 7 weeks ago - I've a stronge expectation that they will have either dried out or died out (with the damp in the heated incubator "Borrowed" from my Dad maybe fostering fungi." This is my first time at cuttings for fuchsia - and they are supposed to be dirt easy - I'll come back in and put in a link when i can find it - after T&M 'free' DVD (with the basket fuchsia collection) inspired me to give it a go - I adapted the technique - i.e. I went round and removed the tips from most of the growing branches, popped them in a bucket of water then sliced the cut clean (with the carving knife while my wife was at work - hello honey) and sliced off most of the big leaf dipped the sliced stem in rotting powder and donked it into pots of B&Q's best multipurpose in Dad's incubator - of the course the pots were recycled form the plants we'd bought from nurseries so all in all - with the rooting powder - the whole thing probably cost about a fiver and 2 hours time. I must have put in close to 50 clippings so I'm real keen to see how they have done - I'll be chuffed if any are still alive and absolutely ecstatic if there are anywhere close to half left. We'll see - we'll see...
Where was I - what have I done to further the career - well just tried not to get too depressed that I have to work so far away from home and convince myself that this is a viable project and not just another ofd the grandiose plans I come up with that never seems to materialise (although I have been banging out over 1000 words a night and this one I am real confident with - it suddenly struck me last night that I was writing a scene which I had dreamed up (literally in my sleep) at least five years ago and forgotten - now that - given the nature of my writing is spooky but strangely reassuring as many of the best novels come directly form dreams - or so I read - or made up just now - so for the last week I've been keeping my pecker up and the laptop open at night - in a clean way - you have such dirty minds at times - trying for one half of the ultimate plan - but which is mightier - the pollen or the pen...)

This is another nice one from Mary - a Calendula - also known as pot marigold or scotch marigold. This is a perennial version of the familiar French and African marigolds and ADYD - another damn yellow daisy. There are a wide variety of yellow and orange composite flowers - so many that it becomes hard to tell them apart.
Anyhow - Annual or Perennial - which to choose. I think most people - okay me - initally go for perennials because they seem to offer better value for money - you get years of flowers for just one purchase and so, once you've planted it, you can forget it and go on to fill another part of the garden. Then after a couple of years you notice that some of the nicest flowers are annuals and that growing from seeds is so much better than buying a plant - the nuturing instinct comes out - seeing a plant grow from a tiny seed (e.g. a lobelia seed) or even a huge seed like a bean or a sunflower all the way through to flowering is a true test in paitence.
I feel that annual seeds tend to give a better success rate which is logical as they only have a one-shot chance - the big bang of reproduction. Then once the seed is up and running the plants sprint ahead - they have to get to flowering size within that one growing season. Many perennials don't flower until their second or third year - so that can mean two or three times as many chances to kill them (cold winters, droughts, heavy rains, heavy frost) before you get the reward of a flower.
That means that perennials are not always the bargain they seem - e.g. I have lost so many lavendar plants that the remaining ones have cost a fortune - but that is a moan for another day.
So the other advantage is death - annuals die straight after flowering and that's it. You don't have to feel guilty about pulling up dead annual marigolds or dead sweet peas because - well - they're dead. However I always feel guilty about pulling up and trying to move any sort of perennial because they are still living - I am killing a perfectly good plant just for the sake of my vanity.
So - to sum - annuals seem easier to grow from seed and rush through to the money shot quicker - and then you feel less guilt afterwards.

Just to let you know I'll probably only be updating once (or possibly twice) a week. This is mainly because I'm trying to bang out 1000 words a night on my latest novel (The Princess and the Porpoise - but I think I'm going to change it to "Julia Islands") and that takes 2 to 3 hours a night - so that I can get it finished. It's the third draft so has taken around a year at the moment - which I know is too long which is why I'm banging it out to get it over, get it editted and then get it out into the wrold. I haven't had any of the novels published yet (though I did earn money from a play once) but it will fit in with the gardening. I read somewhere that many writers have great gardens because when they get stuck or blocked then they go and potter in the garden while they think - a distraction - that is where I want to get to. Either the gardening will be the main business and I will write late at night as a second string or the writing will take off (after 15 years how likely is that?) and the flower gardening becomes semi-professional.
One or the other would be the ideal.
So once or twice a week and I'll try to put more photos in to make it visually appealing.

This is a photo from my daughter-in-law - Mary Ellen Madden - from our garden - it looks like a cornflower to me - but (to be honest) I don't remember planting any cornflowers this year - the ones I put in the garden last year were cut down by... yeah you got - the effing rabbits. It's areally nice photo though.

Anyhow back to the main post
Which podcasts would I recommend?
I work in Tripoli, Libya for 3/4 of the year (after 3 1/2 years doing the same rotation in Angola) so don't get to listen to Radio 4 Gardeners question time very often or the other radio programmes I used to listen to - the 18:30 comedy on the drive home from work was always a highlight for the day and a great timer for the working day. Many a time I would arrive home early and still listen to the end of the programme till just before 19:00.
Regarding Gardeners Question Time - I find I can answer some of the questions which is great and always used to be amazed that the panel could name species and varieties off the top of their head - and then I found out that they get the questions before hand to research... hmmmmmmmm... that's a topic for another time as it isn't a podcast - don't know why but it isn't.

Anyhow which podcasts do I listen to?
For gardening there really are only two I regularly listen to and would recommend - the Alternative Kitchen Garden - discovered on itunes - I particularly like the AKG as Emma Cooper has got a very gentle voice and spends the whole programme on one topic. There is a supporting website http://coopette.com and she is writing a book so plenty of background if you find you do like her style.

Another podcast I usually listen to is Gardening with GLT's Dean of Green, - the Dean of Green is a biologist from the University of Illinois - but I can't give a link at the moment thanks to the Company's web policy - the GLT website is an "Internet TV and Radio site" - big no-no for us. Any how the format is usually a long answer to one (or sometimes two) questions emailed in. The Uni is up North so they have winters of zone 5a/5b so colder on average than ours - (sound like really hard winters compared to our winters in Aberdeen - US zone 8) so the plants are pretty relevant to us.

The Hedgerow (TM) for passionate Gardeners was okay but seems to have gone quiet over the last months and it can be a bit bitty.

Other aural podcasts: I have tried the Wriggly podcast but it wasn't for me - very chatty. I know a couple of people who subscribe to the Wriggly news.

For visuals - there are a couple of video podcasts I enjoy but neither are really useful because the video format means that they can only be a couple of minutes long. This makes them snippets so that they become pleasant asides rather than a good source of info.
Anyhow the two are:
"Flowerpossibilities.com" is a once-a-month flower arrangement podcast - nice for new ideas.
"Flower gardening - the anxiety cure" is a couple of minutes of video usually about perennials - interesting.

The other essential podcast is "Farming today" but I will leave that for another blog entry - it is such a great source of ideas.
Now there are a lot of business ones I listen to and also science ones which often include general background on either ecology or botany or pest control etc. - but that's for another post.

The first question has to be why?
Why do I want to grow flowers for a living ?
Why flowers - why not vegetables which everyone seems to be getting into at the moment.
Because - when it comes down to it - I enjoy growing flowers so much more than I enjoy growing vegetables. That's not totally true I love growing flowers and things that you can eat raw, herbs like fennel and chives, peas - which have nice flowers and which can be eaten straight from the plant - and berries particularly raspberries and brambles - I love eating raspberries and brambles from the bush. Basically I'm a grazer - forget being a hunter gatherer - I'm a grazer.
I grew up being taken bramble picking every autumn - almost every year with my mam (and granny too earlier I think) and we knew all the best local areas around old clee to pick brambles. And then I used to take the kids brambling around Seaton in Aberdeen - along the Don at Brig of Balgownie was the best palce by far - I loved it and I hope the kids did too - noithing beats eating the berries straight from a bramble bush. And then when you take them home and soak them overnight - and all the worms float out you think of how many worms you must have eaten yourself while picking - and you couldn't care less. Brambling is the highlight of any September - and it's a good few years since I've done it as the kids are now grown (youngest is twenty) and we don't live in Seaton. We haven't looked round for brambles in our new place yet. Have to try this year - although I'm overseas for most of September - that is the other main reason - I work overseas (8 weeks overseas 4 weeks home) and have done for the last 4 years. I kidded myself that everyone wanted the money more than they wanted me around so everyone was happy. Only I know that isn't true from my side at least. the 4 weeks off is great but how can I plant much when I'm away for 8 weeks at a time - I plant seeds and by the time I'm home the seeds have sprouted, grown and died again... I can't grow things, grow a business and work overseas something has to give and I've decided that it is the working overseas. The wee uns only have another couple of years at University so once they are finished and the banks paid off I'll be back to the UK. In the meantime I have 2 years to learn and think and plan and gain some expereience - two years is too long...
The other bery picking experience I have to write about sometime is strawberry picking - your Ma filling her handbag with berrys while you stuff as much down your own throat as you put into the baskets. I love berry picking. If I could make the kind of money I need for this life with just picking berries I think I could be very happy.
Pick your own - that's another possibility - pick your own berries and flowers...
And now I find that I haven't answered the question - why I want to grow flowers - I've answered the question - why I don't want to keep on working overseas. Next post will be why I want to grow flowers for a living - for sure.

Tied in with Sunday's note is my favourite gardening joke - I'm starting to sound like "thought for the day" - just filling in time while I wait for some more Photos from the Aberdeen contingent.
So - the joke...
A vicar is strolling along on a glorious sunny day. From the side of the road he spots a beautiful big garden. There are neat, close trimmed bushes, luscious red roses, white lilies and every kind of flower all arranged in intricate patterns forming wonderful shapes - a real show garden. He spots the gardener standing further the road gazing over the beautiful garden.
The vicar strolls along amazed at the blaze of glory and stops by the gardener.The gardener notices the vicar, smiles and nods.
The Vicar says and says, "Ahh what a beautiful garden, truly beautiful.
What a wonederous work of God is this."
"Aye," smiles the gardener, "But you should have seen it when he had it all to himself."

As on many Sundays when thinking about the garden I am reminded of my one of my favourite misquotes; namely "Closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth."
It's a misquote because the verse is actually the 4th verse from a poem by Dorothy Frances Gurney that goes a little something like this:
"The kiss of sun for pardon,
The song of the birds for mirth,
One is nearer God’s heart in a garden
Than anywhere else on earth."
Huh!
I prefer my misquote because that is how I remember from the stone plaque in my Grannie and Grandad's garden. Until I was about 14 I used to go to church most Sunday mornings (Park Congregationlist) then from there to my Grannies house - now I think about it it was always Granny's house though Granny and Grandad both lived there the enitre time I went there.
So I get to granny's house for Sunday lunch to watch the Sunday morning farming programmes with the adverts for herbicides (that's where the other ambition - to be a pig farmer - comes from) - pre-emergent herbicides I seem to remember - or something like "tumbleweed" - and then there would be something like Department S, the Baron, Jason King or Dangerman.
By then the roast would be ready - roast with roast potatoes, gravy and boiled carrots and cabbage. No TV while you ate. Then watch Grandad play paitence while I would read the "True Detective" or the sunday papers that were hidden under the cushions of the sofa in the front room. I rarely went in the front room and only went upstairs once in my entire my life. Smell of coal fire, outside toilet too. Where was I... oh yeah the garden - well outside there was a patch of grass - not a lawn by any stretch - at around twelve foot by four feet (doesn't seem right to use metres for a memory) with some shrubs around the edge. I remember a gooseberry bush - I never really liked gooseberries- and a lilac and, buried among the grass was the plaque, with the poem.
And bluebells - there were bluebells in my memory but probably not in reality - more likely a few daffodils. I definitely remember Queenie's wild cats that lived next door - under the shed - there were always a few kittens hanging about.
Anyhow that was Sunday - often one of my aunts or cousins would turn up in the afternoon or my Mam come round to pick us up. If we were lucky I was sent with a pudding bowl to the ice-cream factory at the end of Donnington Street for sixpence worth or a shillings worth of icecream with wafers and then a cold meat tea - why was Sunday evening always cold meat, cold potatoes and a salad (i.e. lettuce leaves, quartered tomatoes, cucumber slices - half boiled eggs - no dressing - though you could add salad cream if you can stand that muck), pork pie if you were lucky, sometimes scotch egg, very occasionally sausage roll and some sliced meat - haslet (love it,) brawn (alright), or tongue - hate sliced tongue (beef tongue rolled in gelatin and then sliced across the roll - I'm shuddering even now). I still prefer meat cold to reheated or refried (which annoys my wife and has only taken 20 years of insistance that I prefer cold meat to get her to leave some cold for me for Sunday tea). Now we have crinkle cut chips too - and mayonaise - for a traditional Sunday tea if there is plenty of roast left over which there rarely is.
Once I turned around 13 or 14 I rejected the church (following the insistence of a Sunday school teacher that you can't be a good person if you don't go to church - it was a congregationalist church after all) and soon rejected god too and have never felt the need to go back (apart from the occasional monkey urge to fit back into a heirachy and have someone take all responsibilty away from me - but more about Desmond Morris and the Naked Ape at another time.) Then a few years later it was me taking Granny or Grandad out - pushing them in a wheel chair to our house or to Cleethorpes.
But sometimes on a Sunday I remember that plaque in the garden - being "closer to God in a garden than anywhere else on earth" - and cold meat teas and I know why I like bluebells and gardens.

Over the last few months I've been reading entrpreneurship books, small business books and "starting a nursery book" along side the normal seed and plant catalogues and the flower books esp. Dr Hessayons "Expert" guides.
The latest is Donald Trump and Robert Kiyosaki - "Why we want you to be rich" - a Father's day pressie - thanks Jackie.
They are both seriously rich - Robert Kiyosaki is the writer of Rich Dad Poor Dad in case you hadn't heard the name (I know I hadn't heard the name). The book is basically about mindset - self belief and financial education - if we can do it so can you.
What I found the most interesting so far is their belief that basically my dad's generation could rely on the state or their ex-employers to look after them when they retire. My generation will need to look after themselves (because the state and employers won't be able to afford it) and the next few generations are totally on their own. Don't even bother with the state and getting a good job etc is totally out - you need to look after yourselves because no-one is going to look after you.
This is very depressing - probably true - and they have the stats to back it up, but still depressing. Schools prepare you for employee status - or specialist status if you're fortunate to be brainy. While it is possible to get rich as both of these (our ex-CEO was on around $5 million (plus share options)) you now need to be seriously rich - seriously, seriously rich - to ever hope to retire nicely. Simple ecomnomics show that to be true - if interest rates are around 5% then you need 500,000 quid in your pension fund to get £25,000 a year in pension., Now I know that this is a good income - but it is less than the national average. And once you retire the value of your pension is going to go down not up - likely.
In other words I have to try to save half a mill if I'm going to retire on less than I earn now. Now my kids are going to have to save a million - a million pounds!!!! by the time they retire - so they are going to have to get seriously rich.
Fortunately I think they may do it. Maybe I will do it if Frary's Fresh Flowers ever takes off. They're smart, good-looking and I'm trying to instill in them - they need to work for themselves.
I was raised with the previous generations mind set and it's only the last few years I even contemplated working for myself. It is not part of my (immediate) family's history. All of my brothers and sisters (and parents) were employees. My wife is an employee - in fact my kids are employees too at the moment. But I'm plugging away at them about the advantages of working for themselves and not being a wage slave so that, hopefully, they will not wait as long as I have before even thinking about striking out on their own.
Actually we did (me and my wife) have our own business for almost a year - a farm in Fiji - 7 acres - but a military cooup knocked that on the head - and I rack that up as the first failure. I'll write about this farm - with photos - in future posts.
But here comes the depressing part. They, or I, can only get that far ahead if the vast majority of the world's people are well below that level - there is only so much room for so many seriously rich people in the world. Most of the world - 99.999999% of the world are never going to be rich - hell, loads are never even going to be comfortable let alone rich. And that is depressing.
I always thought I was a socialist but maybe I was just poor - the politics of envy.
Anyhow the world has been running on permanent growth up to now - that is the delusion of win-win-win in that the size of the pie - the amount of money and things in the world - has been increasing each year - and maybe that can keep going for a few more years so that I, and the kids - can get rich while every one else gets more too - but that won't keep going indefinitely - of that I am sure.
Plus not everyone did have more - we in the UK and the West have had more and more each year by subsidizing ourselves with the wealth of others, mining the planet and - even worse - mining the soil. Others have less so that I can have more - I'm a consumerist not a socialist.
Seeing yourself as others see you - never a pretty sight.
So back to The Donald - there is an awful lot of back-slapping in the book each of the author telling us how good the other one is - but the basic tenet is kind of inspiring - We want you to be rich because, if you aren't, you're screwed.

By far and away my favourite link when thinking about the garden are the Thompson and Morgan websites.
http://plants.thompson-morgan.com/ for plants and http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/ for seeds. If I'm planning for the business I'll usually look at the commercial site too - http://wholesale.thompson-morgan.com/uk/en/?set-country=uk - for plug plants so that I can try to work out how much things cost and what they could be sold at. I have found Thompson and Morgan seeds to be the widest range and the most reliable giving me the highest percentage of seedlings so far. Overall I've tried Nicky's nurseries, Suttons, Unwins, Johnsons, Town and Country, Mr Fothergills and eBay.
I was, therefore, very pleased to see that an independent seed trial by Gardening Which agreed in the germination rate tests. This is T&M's own press release http://seeds.thompson-morgan.com/res/pdf/press/TMUK0810.33.All%20Round-1.pdf - but I also read the same in Gardening Monthly in their review of the Which trials.
Most disappointing of all the ones I've tried are eBay (various sellers) but that is mainly because of the lack of information that arrives with the different seeds compared to the information on the commercial seed packs.
That's not to say that T&M seeds give perfect results everytime but I think that this is more due to my lack of experience in applying the necessary conditions (wrong temperature usually - on top of the boiler in the outhouse just didn't work too well):
stuffing up the planting out (e.g. the pumpkins which have died everytime I have put them out)
the climate in NE Scotland (Sweet corn and french beans have never got higher than a few inches before the summer has finished and the cold has stunted them to face eventual death in autumn)
the damn slugs or rabbits have got to them because I haven't grown them to a decent maturity before shoving them in the ground in the main part of the garden (lupins - everytime the rabbits and or slugs get to any lupin that is under 2ft tall when I plant out first year seedlings)
rather than the seeds themselves. This is probably true for the other companies too - either not enough instructions or I haven't been rigorous enough - and, as I said - for ebay it is generally the lack of instructions that condemn them to death at my hands. So to sum - I recommend T&M seeds - and I haven't even had commercial sponsorship to say that - though i am open to bribes.
Plug plants - next post I think - JD Parker, T&M or Van Meuwens usually - and that is mainly because of the freebies - I am still a real sucker for giveaway and freebis - but that's another post.

A quick confession - I like looking at pictures of our flowers from the garden - but don't like taking them. And I've no idea why.
Now Jiurie takes lovely photos and I'l try to share some of hers (and mine) when I don't have much to say - a picture is worth a thousand words after all.
Here's tulips from the garden in April 08 - beautiful flowers and lit from one side - she gets them big and sharp. I try to be all arty and look for the 'interesting angle' whereas jiurie just takes the photo and gets on with the next one. Ask the kids about me taking photos - think I'm David Bailey and go for the high position or the low position - the sun behind etc - overthink it I reckon.
Anyhow tulips from the garden - first year of growth (naturally - they're big and bright) - because next year they won't be as big because we haven't force fed them artifical fertiliser - the steroids of the plant world. However we did leave the leaves on for as long as I could so the bulbs may have built themselves up naturally - we'll see.
I mean the black tulips (Queen of the Night) from last year also didn't receive any fertiliser but still managed to throw up a fair display this year - those that the slugs didn't nip out or the rabbits have a go at - the wild rabbit youngsters like to nip at young plants just to see if they are edible - tulips aren't but they won't know that until they've given them a go. Unfortunaely the wild rabbits where we live bring up a litter every year - sometimes twice a year... so cute the wee un's until they have a go at the tulips - drifting Neil - drifting - FOCUS, FOCUS - David Bailey - yeah - I'll put more details on t'others I can find.
These are tulips - a couple of white parrot tulips in there too - but barely open and didn't fluff up like they do in the pictures in the flower brochures - filled in nicely between the end of the daffs and the start of the Alliums in May.

I favour - psychadelic thistle.
Judy favors the sooo fresh approach
Jackie thinks "the logo needs completely changed. to do this best effectivly & to incorporate the the essence of the business, the business vaules and what it stands for need to be established so strong brand id can be created. ohhh exciting"
While Vika want to finger paint.
Bless.

Followup
Judy's future ex (okay - she said future son-in-law... shes says son-inlaw, I say ex, son-in-law, ex, let's call the whole thing off...) can't tell what the psychadelic thistle is so they've come up with the second thistle - nice but needs more colour I reckon - let's adapt

What do we need to do
1 Find some land - preferably close or next to our house
- how much price wise, how much area
- garden centre or nursery or grower
2 Where do we sell
- direct from field, farmers market, carboot - Thainstone
- to intermediary - flower shops, supermarkets, traders e.g. knowles
- Are me and Jiurie sellers?
3 Describe our current garden
- Aberdeenshire climate
4 Decide what will grow where we are and will be commercial and won't be undercut by imports
- acid soils - heathers, rhoderdendrons
- local plants - mulleins - verbascum - already ready good in garden
- old style flowers that won't travel well - violas, sweet peas,
- flowers that are already commercial - snapdragons, verbena
- flowers we like but can they be used for cut flowers - fuschia - I used to hate them and now I love them
- roses - can we compete with imported? doubt it.
- Decide what to specialise in -or whether to specialise.
--- Medicinal herbs,
--- Local plants
--- Hardy exotics
--- Alpines
--- Shady perennials - Ajuga (Bugle) doing really well
------- Need to look at market...
5. Get the logo - psycho thistle - working on
6. Get the direction - the unique selling point - carbon neutrality - cost of importing flowers - air travel - I read somewhere that a bunch of roses from Kenya produces the same ammount of carbon as using a light bulb for 8 hours - need to find that out.
Local flowers for local people - there's notheing for the likes of you here.
7. Display garden - become the equivalent of IKEA for gardens
The competition
8. The source of materials - propagation - bought in liners or produced ourselves, seed or vegetative.

Anyway - 2 days after this I decided to write a list of things (and pictures) I think I could write at least a couple of paragraphs about related to gardens and trying to set up a business.
I only got to 92 different topics (forget about the subtopics) so hopefully I should be able to get at least a couple of months into this blog eventually - which will help I think - FOCUS< FOCUS< FOCUS at least I think that's what Jiurie mutters under her breath when I tell her my big plans for world floricultural domination.

So me and Jiurie (my wife of 23 years - Rotuman - that is Polynesian from Fiji) are looking for ways to grow flowers for a living - one day soon. Awful lot of plans and ideas and not too much happening.
Why is it not happening - because we still both have to work - me full time overseas (Libya for the last 8 months after 3 years rotating to Angola) and Jiurie part time in Aberdeen. Therefore - thanks to the UK draconian tax laws I am only allowed back to Aberdeen 3 months a years before tax kicks in - 40% tax - not good.

Anyhow we want - okay I want - to grow flowers for a living. Jiurie - I think she's not so interested in the business aspects or the growing but in the garden maintenance (the onbly person i know who loves weeding!) and in the flowers in the house - cutting flowers really. losts of our email communication is reports from jiurie of what is coming up in the garden and what is blooming - while I reply asking her to water the tomatoies or check the onions or whatever.

So why a blog - I'm going to try to document the thought process and actions about trying to set up the business - and what flowers we are trying - create some content that will eventually form the archive for the commercial website. Don't know why anyone would want to - or whether anyone will read but a good way to keep focussed on the object - a life growing and selling flowers - we have plans - we have plans.