Gnarled hands, cracked thumbs and a crinkly smile reveal how much of my life I have spent tilling the soil. Toiling in all weathers, digging, weeding and planting might sound arduous, but for those of us who love gardening it is a short cut to serenity and bliss. It starts as I pull on my wellington boots and stomp out into the garden. For wrestling with deep-rooted, pernicious weeds seems to help with the de-tangling of troublesome thoughts and worries. And the scattering of seeds in the soil and seeing them sprout and grow has an effect which is positively transformational.
I too have gone through a bit of a metamorphosis and have slowly, over the past few years changed my way of life and garden. I am now a small scale Flower Farmer. And I sell bunches of cut flowers at my garden gate. I have called this little venture
The Dartmoor Flower Shed.
I sell the flowers from a little blue shed with a zinc roof which is attached to a vintage cart. The shed helps protect the precious blooms from the wind, rain and hot sun. The red mailbox is my ‘honesty box’ where customers place their payment. In addition to the flowers I sell plants, homemade chutney and cards.
Villagers, passers by and people of all ages have been united in their love of the shed and its flowers. It is becoming a little land mark and a place where people find cheer in an unexpected place. It has brought me closer still to my community, helped me to meet new friends and has engaged me in doing something I love. I feel that I am one of the luckiest people on Dartmoor. I may be the only one with a shed full of flowers on wheels. I am certainly the only one who can’t steer it!
I would like to share with you some of my flowers….here…please take a bunch x x
Dartmoor Flower Shed 
Beautiful post Karen, lovely to hear about your gorgeous new project. Lots and lots of good luck with it. As ever wish I could just pop over to see you! xxx
Hello Corrine! How perfectly lovely to hear from you! I seem to have got out of touch with people because I got locked out of my fb pages when Orange closed down their email accounts. How on earth are we supposed to keep on top of all this stuff?! How are you doing? And are you on instagram? I do love connecting with people on there too. I do hope we can meet one day x x x
Those are such beautiful flowers, Karen! I love this, your flower shed is absolutely charming!
Thank you so much 🤗 It has taken me so long to find somewhere to place heart and soul (apart from the cats of course). How are you? I must catch up with your blog. X X.
Oh, Karen, that is so beautiful. I’m glad to see that you have found your way. I have found some happyness, too, by a soulmate. Have a nice Sunday, kind regards Mitza
Dear Mitza….I am so pleased for you! You deserve happiness. I hope the move went well?
I am so glad that you like the Dartmoor Flower Shed 💚Thank you so much. Love Karen x X
Hi Karen, what a wonderful idea The Dartmoor Flower Shed is. It is so pretty and so helpful to be able to buy a lovely bunch of country flowers , delicious chutney and a card for friends birthdays or just all for myself to enjoy in my home.
Hello Tina, how lovely to hear from you 💚 So glad you like my new idea.
So lovely to see this post from you and your beautiful, environmentally friendly cut flowers. We were only talking about you today, noting that a whole year has gone by since we spent that delightful day with you.
Your flower cart looks stunning and your flowers could tempt even me to buy a bunch! I really hope this venture goes well and that it’s not another year before we see you again!
Hello there and thank you for your lovely comment. This reply is late because I have hit the busiest time in the gardening year. I am not sure where the time goes and owe you several letters and cards. I have been selling flowers like this for quite some time now. It’s a lovely thing to do. Hope you are both well. I regularly post on FB and Instagram but am still struggling to keep up with my blog.
I will track you down on FB…
Oh, good! You’re back and you sound so happy! It all looks beautiful, Karen!
Thank you so much Kerry. It has been helpful to have found a focus and purpose and something which is mine. I will try very hard to keep on top of my blog as well as Instagram, Facebook, and my massive garden 😵
Wow it has been a while since I have seen a post from you. I am glad to see that you are posting again. I really love your beautiful flowers. Good luck with the flower shed
Honey
Thank you so much Honey. I have thought of you often and wondered how you both are. I lost your email address and contact details when my service provider closed down all their email accounts. I was not well at the time and did not save everything as I should have.
I am so glad you like the flowers 🌺Karen x
I am glad to hear that you are well . I am sorry to hear about your service provider closed down. You look wonderful in your new photo.
Honey
The photo was taken a couple of years ago. I feel I am quite a bit older now 🙃
Aren´’t we all
LOL
Honey
Wonderful! As always, your artistic talent and warm touch are at work. Hope your summer goes well.