Heritage Farm Florals

04/16/2026

What IF Pests & plant diseases are Nature's way of dealing with sick plants, to get rid of them?

The quest becomes how do we increase the health of our plants?

Turns out healthy plants aren't attractive to pests; they can't use them for food. The higher nutrient density in healthy plants is indigestible to pests, so they move on.

I have mentioned before that we are a "proof of concept" farm. We are taking a different framework in agriculture and seeing what that means. You can find lots of theories online, but how do you back them up? Is there any "proof in the pudding"?

Basically, we are trialing a developing approach to agriculture, here on our small farm called "regenerative agriculture". And asking, does it really make any difference?

Does it change the pest & disease pressures that other local farms and gardens experience? Do the quality of the products grown on the farm using the Regen Ag approach (fruits, vegetables, blooms) show any identifiable difference?

WHAT IS THE PROCESS?

While we have always used organic principles in our landscaping and home food gardens, we took a deeper dive into the problems of industrial agriculture. Organic farming essentially says, "No artificial chemical pest controls".

Level 1: No artificial chemical pest control equals Organic. Eliminate the toxic chemical load poured onto crops that our animals or we eat. This led to the next step.

Level 2: If we strip nutrients/minerals and send them off-farm, we eventually exhaust the soil. We need to replenish the soil. Sustainable Farming.

Level 3: Regenerative Agriculture looks to the principles nature has developed over the last million years. Instead of fighting nature (pests/disease), look at how nature works the system for positive outcomes.

Research conducted over the last 20-30 years has begun to filter into the educational system, giving us better tools for agriculture. With the advent of Blogs, YouTube, podcasts, and webinars, we no longer have to wait for a book to be published to get the information.

Unlike historical studies in agriculture, most traditional research at the university level has been funded by agri-corporations since the 1980's.

We are now able to step outside the corporate model whose underlying interests are more along the line of 'how do I create products I can use to make more money'. A product that can be patented.

Instead, identify the principles that nature demonstrates.

Luckily, today's new scientific technologies allow researchers to conduct in-depth studies at the microcellular level, which we've never been able to do before. In essence, giving them the ability to validate nature's processes.

If you want to learn more, check out HeritageFarmFlorals.com, where I explore how to create healthy plants.

John Kempf podcasts: AEA brings in many different researchers & farmers who are implementing sustainable ag principles.

An excellent overview: https://advancingecoag.com/podcast/podcast-extra-market-differentiation-through-regenerative-agriculture-john-kempf-keynote/
https://advancingecoag.com/podcasts/

Jennie Love is a Regenerative Ag Flower Farmer who has brought in excellent speakers on her podcast: No-Till Flowers
https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/regenerative-flower-farming-with-jennie-love-a/id1545850888?i=1000684925080

https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-no-till-flowers-podcast/id1545850888

04/15/2026

Gopher protected bed; an 80’ long basket to protect my dahlias and other plants.

We do have 10 rolls left for purchasing. 6’ wide, 1/2”by 1/2” grids; life span 25 YEARS!
$4/linear foot
Cotati, CA

03/07/2026

Banana peels might look like trash… but on a homestead that is garden gold.

If you toss a whole peel into a hot, active compost pile, it usually takes about 3 to 4 weeks to break down. In a cooler pile or buried straight in soil, it can take 2 to 6 months depending on moisture and temperature. In winter, even longer.

Now compare that to dehydrating and powdering it.

Once fully dried and ground, banana peel powder starts breaking down almost immediately in moist soil. Because the surface area is so much greater, soil microbes get to work fast. In warm soil, nutrients begin becoming available within days, and most of it is processed in about 1 to 2 weeks. That is a big difference.

Banana peels are rich in potassium, along with phosphorus, calcium, and magnesium. That makes them especially helpful for fruiting and flowering crops like tomatoes, peppers, squash, roses, and fruit trees.

How I do it:

Let peels air dry a few days to reduce moisture.
Finish in the dehydrator until crisp.
Grind into a fine powder.

Now you have a faster acting soil amendment instead of waiting months.

5 Ways to Use Banana Peel Powder:

1️⃣ Sprinkle in planting holes for tomatoes, peppers, and roses.
2️⃣ Mix into compost to feed microbes quickly.
3️⃣ Scratch into the top inch of soil around heavy feeders.
4️⃣ Make a liquid feed, 1 tablespoon per gallon, steep 24 hours.
5️⃣ Add to worm bins in small amounts.

Pro Tip
It is not a complete fertilizer. Think of it mainly as a potassium boost. Balance still matters.

Around here, nothing leaves without asking, Can the garden use it?

What other kitchen scraps are you turning into something useful?

03/01/2026

Sonoma county and surrounding area - Time to wake those Dahlia tubers up if you want to take cuttings to increase your stock for free.

And to learn about getting optimum blooms!
CAL tubers included in workshop

https://mailchi.mp/heritagefarmflorals/dahlia-ws
March 7, April 17, May 2 : Sat 10-12

Invitation to attend a workshop: waking up Dahlia tubers and learn how to get stunning blooms this season, in YOUR garden.

02/17/2026

02/17/2026

Come Join ME on the Farm. Have an educational couple of hours with like-minded folks to learn more about growing your own stunning dahlias. Locally Santa Rosa, CA area, on our 4-acre farm.

12/24/2025

“So shines a good deed in a weary world.”

Travel writer Rick Steves said he takes the verse ‘love thy neighbor’ seriously and paid more than $2 million to save the facility in Washington state.

12/10/2025

Who knew that Dahlias were Gopher CANDY?
Certainly not me.

Gopher protection is a number one issue for gardeners in California, but I see posts about it in other states as well. We lost between 80-85% of my dahlia crop my first year, just as they were kicking into production. Chop! Chop! Plants would fall over or start to wither up and die. (DUH, no roots).

Other plants (tomatoes, garlic, potatoes) were just as susceptible to the scourge! After trial & error over 5 years, we finally figured out a long-term solution.

No chicken wire, no hardware cloth as they disintegrate with prolonged contact with soil. We do have cats who patrol, and we put up an owl box, and traps, but that doesn't begin to deal with the overpopulation of gophers. As soon as you take out one gopher three more seem to move right on in.

We switched to CritterFence, a commercial product that claims a 25-30 year lifespan.
https://www.critterfence.com/wire-fence-galvanization-comparison Chicken wire disintegrated after 3 years.

We opted to go the raised bed route by creating a basket, basically, as long as we wanted it. Took a 6ft wide by however long we wanted, and bent it: 2 ft high sides by 2ft wide bed (or 18" high sides and 3 ft wide beds). We put in side supports (wood stakes, rebar) to support the sides when we did a raised bed. 1/2" by 1/2" openings prevent gopher intrusions, )even the baby gophers).

IN GROUND:
We've also dug a trench and settled the shaped wire into the bed with only 6" raised up above ground. Unless we had prolonged flooding (which would allow gophers to swim over the barrier) that was enough above ground height to protect the bed.

If you have a wooden frame, you could staple/attach it to the base of your block for protection. You do need to be thoughtful of how the wood might begin to disintegrate over time and allow gaps.

We wanted the longer lifespan of 25-30 years, so we did NOT do wood. I take rice straw or cardboard to line the sides of the raised beds, so weeds don't take hold. Or plant a shallow-rooted cover that will fill in the exposed edges.

Another advantage of the raised wire bed is that the soil warms up earlier, giving plant roots better access to air.

For trees or shrubs, Jim would create 3 ft-wide cylinders to bury 30" in the ground (with 6-8" of wire exposed above ground). The 1/2" by 1/2" openings allowed root growth, and the open base let the main root system develop below the gopher access.

We are getting ready to create some more planting beds. We have to order it in and would prefer to order a pallet (14 rolls).
If you are interested in a roll (6' x 100', 1/2 x 1/2" spacing), including shipping, tax, etc., it will be roughly $350-375/roll.

LOCAL ONLY; must pick up.

DM me or email me at [email protected]

11/01/2025

For the nerdy gardener: Auxins (Rooting Hormones)

It sounds like sci-fi but it’s not! As we delve deeper into the plant world, Auxins take the center stage. Want more blooms?

Isolating this natural plant hormone allows gardners to utilize it to encourage root development and stem development in plant propagation.

Auxins are plant hormones that play a huge role in regulating plant growth and development. They control processes such as cell elongation, root formation, and fruit development.

Auxins are typically produced in the tips of stems and roots, and they can move to other parts of the plant to coordinate growth responses.

For example, when you pinch a starter plant, like dahlias, you are removing the auxin in the growing tip. This tells the plant to push lateral buds to compensate for the loss of that growing tip.

Think of a deer browsing through your garden taking bits of fresh “salad” growth. It’s the plants survival instinct to push those dormant buds, to survive. We get a bushier plant with more blooms and/or stems.

You can actually take those “pinched” tips and propagate them. The auxins are active in that tip!

By promoting or inhibiting certain cellular activities, auxins help plants adapt to their environment and respond to things such as light and gravity.

Auxins are the reason plants reach toward a sunny window! Directing their growth to maximize photosynthesis.

It’s why certain plants (stock, snapdragons ) even when harvested, still respond by bending towards the light. Must keep those stems straight upright or you’ll have permanent bent stems (they don’t ‘un-bend’) easily.