In this video, Kelly visits Pressly Williams at her flower farm in North
Carolina, Renfrow Farms. Pressly gives a tour of her farm and shares advice
to new growers. She's unearthing her secret ingredient in growing flowers,
and talking about her experience with growing flowers from seed as well as
growing flowers from plugs.
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Video transcript:
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- Hey, it's Kelly here with Team Flower. I'm here with my friend Pressly
Williams of Renfrow Flower Farm. And we're here in Matthews, North
Carolina. Pressly, tell us a little bit about the farm and what was here
before and just a little bit about you and your story. - Okay, so this
property that we're on is about nine acres and it used to be a farm back in
the early 1900's when Matthews was kind of first growing as a little, teeny
weeny town out in the outskirts of Charlotte. And the Renfrow family, which
is what our farm is named after, lived here and every one of these houses
along here had deep lots with big gardens, so this was a big garden, or a
small farm, or whatever you want to call it. And then they owned a hardware
store in the downtown strip of Matthews, which my family now owns, but come
to the mid-1900's-- - So, not your family but, kind of caring on the name.
- No, exactly. - And all that. Okay, great. - So, the Renfrow family died
out. There was no one left of them in their direct line, so my dad bought
the business from the last one in the 80's. And so come to the 1940's or
so, this land had grown up, it was all in trees and when we got the land in
2010, we decided to turn it back into a farm. When the last member of the
Renfrow's passed away, he left this property to the hardware store, which
is what my dad owns and where I work. So, I work both here and there. - And
that's just right down the road. - Yep, walking distance right down here.
And so we do a whole lot of gardening, so I knew I wanted to be gardener,
always, we had a big garden at my parent's house and I was not interested
in flowers at all when I started this farm, but got into it when I designed
my own flowers for my wedding. - Oh, okay, yeah. - Basically, we have just
worked really hard to get this back to what it used to be, which was a
farm, even with taking out the trees and doing the drainage and putting up
a seven foot tall deer fence around the whole property 'cause there are a
lot of deer here. - Yeah. - And yeah, so. - Yeah. - That's where we are
now. It's year five. - Okay, that's awesome. So this did back in day used
to be used for farming. Did you have to do a lot, once you got into it and
you started liked digging in the soil, did you have to do a lot of
amendments to it? Was the texture of the soil nice? What kind of nutrients
did you need to put back into it? - Yeah, certain ones, we could tell had
been farmed years and years ago, but it had been a long time. - How can you
tell? - It was not just hard clay completely. - Okay. - So partly that and
partly back in the back, we could still see the terracing that farms used
to be naturally terraced around the property, so that-- - Now was that for
water? - Drainage. - Drainage, okay. - So that it would not pool up and
just, yeah for water stuff, so we could see that and the ground had just
enough organic matter in it still, so what we do though is we use composted
leaves, so a lot of this is composted leaves that we put on top of the soil
and mix in and that is our secret weapon. - That's the secret ingredient. -
Secret ingredient. - Yeah, it's so fun talking with all the different
farmers that we've been interviewing. Everybody has their own special
secret weapon. - And that's ours, free leaves from landscapers in the town
that suck them up in different places and dump 'em in big piles at the back
of the farm. And we let them rot down and mix them in. - Yeah. - And free
compost. - Yeah, that's awesome. - So that would probably help keep down on
some of the weeds like we were talking. - Weeds. - Mmhm. - Mmhm. - We were
talking - It's a good - the other day about it - weed suppressant. Yeah, we
do that, we mulch with it in the rows and in between the rows and then when
we pull up the zinnias or something, then we'll till those leaves in -
Those leaves in. - And so then they're as compost for the next year and
then we just re-mulch the next year. - Yeah, that's awesome. And a lot of
the things, now this, this area, we're just standing in one of four places.
So, there's like another area over here and then across the road, there's
like two more behind us, two big kind of larger fields. And most of them,
they all look like they're in full sun. So, you've got a lot of plants in
here that love to be in sun all the time. - Yes, yes. - Tell us a little
bit though, we have had a very, hot year, lots of sun, very little rain.
What are some things that you tried to grow this year that didn't go so
well? - So, I did not know, just being my second year growing dahlias that
they like a lot of water and not so much heat and we had almost no rain and
we don't have a well here yet so we could not irrigate. It was just not
something that I could do on city water very easily, or just the time it
would take without having an irrigation system set up. It just was too
much, so they have just now started blooming and here we are, early to
mid-October, - It's like time for, yeah, frost is ready to hit. - they're
almost finished. So that is one thing that needs a whole lot more water
than I could supply. - Yeah, they love that swing between like warm and
cool and kind of going back and forth and we just didn't have that, - We
were - we didn't have that this year. - 95 plus every day for three months.
- Was there anything like, vegetables included, that really thrived in that
environment? - We had really good soil for tomatoes, so our tomatoes were
wonderful this year and sunflowers have done really well, but there were
even some vegetables that didn't like the heat. - Yeah. - Like green beans
don't make when it's that hot. - Right. - So we just had plenty of losses,
but plenty of successes as well to balance it out. - Yeah. - Yeah, that's
good and tomatoes are your faves, so, - They're my favorite. - that was
good, it would have been really sad if the tomatoes. - Yes, tomatoes are my
favorite and my customer's favorite. - Yeah. - So, that's our biggest crop.
- Yeah, tell everybody about your fun tomato day that you have here. -
Yeah, once a year, in August, we will be hosting a tomato sandwich day
where people come and we just provide the tomatoes and the white bread and
both kinds of mayonnaise, so they don't have - Both kinds. - to choose
between Duke's and Hellmann's. They get the choice, they don't have to just
have one of them and we just let them make a sandwich and hang out on the
farm. - Yeah. - We did the first one this year and people just loved it, so
it's going to be our annual tradition from now on. - Yeah, that awesome and
it's great way too that whenever there's people who want to come and visit
the farm, but you have to, there's a lot of work to do on a farm. - Yes. -
So, if you can kind of consolidate and make efficient the time that you get
to spend with the customers and they get to actually come and experience
what you do on a daily basis, it helps to keep your schedule clean so that
you can keep moving through with all your things, - Exactly. - which is
awesome. - Exactly. - I think that's such a super fun idea and who doesn't
love a tomato and mayonnaise white bread sandwich? - Nobody doesn't. Yeah.
- Yeah, that's fantastic. - We had some people who had never had one
before. - Oh, really? - And it was their first experience. - Oh, wow. - It
was great. - Yeah, I think they're great. Tomatoes are wonderful. You'll
have to tell me a couple of varieties. I grew a couple this year, but mmm,
I didn't like fall in love with the varieties that I had. - Oh, yeah. - So
I need to pick some like, better varieties. - Okay, I can, I can help you
with that. - You'll help me with that, cool. - Okay, what are some other
things, What zone are we in? - This is kind of zone 7b, or 8a, I'm not
totally sure which one it is, I think it has changed recently, but zone
seven or eight. - Okay, seven or eight. - We typically have our last frost
around tax day and then our first frost around Halloween, so that's a
pretty long growing season. - Yeah, April through October, that's awesome.
Are you, a lot of the things that you're growing, since you do have a
longer growing season, you can probably start a lot more from seed than
someone who's in like a more northern climate with a shorter growing
season, so is most of what you have here things that you start from seed
early in the spring or are you going to try to over winter anything this
year? What are you, since you do have like a lighter winter, are you going
to try to over winter anything? - Great question. So, so far everything
I've done is pretty much been from seed, but excuse me, I am trying some
plugs this fall and in the spring. I've realized some things from seed are
just way too hard and may take, grow too slowly and are just not really
worth the time. I'd rather pay to have all 200 of them come in a plug tray
and all be ready - And they're all germinating - rather than having so few
germinate. - Sure. - So, I'm definitely still learning the seed growing,
but certain things like zinnias and stuff, I can direct seed those, I don't
need a plug for them because they grow so fast, I can do four, five, or six
plantings if I feel like it of zinnias. - Yeah. - So certain hot weather
things are easy. - Tell me, tell me about that succession planting with the
zinnias 'cause I've thought about that too. Would it be good to part way
through, like pull some things out and redo - Yes. - 'cause I have just a
very limited amount of space. - Yeah, so if you want to have more blooms.
These were probably, I think these were my fourth or fifth planting right
here. - Okay. - So my first three are already long gone. - Gone. - There's
already broccoli heading up in the same spot where some of those were. -
Oh, okay, okay. - So, I just, when they start, stop producing large enough
quantity, I just mow 'em down and start over - Start over. - And then these
are just here 'cause frost is coming and they look pretty and not really
harvesting these specific ones any more much, - But don't want to get rid
of those, just 'cause I'm about to not have flowers for the winter. - Yeah.
They're there to, for the birds and-- - Yes. - The birds and the
butterflies. - Yes. - Oh, that's awesome, so what's the latest date, if you
want to do late planting of zinnias, like how close to that last frost
date, can you do to actually have something that's worth? - I'd say
probably 70 to 75 days. - Okay. - Typically, so these might have been early
August, but yeah, I think you could do it all the way to mid-August, and
last year we didn't really have a real frost until Thanksgiving so, totally
depends on the year. - Yeah, got it. - That's awesome. - Well, it's
obviously, it's fall here right now. What are some of the, what's your, are
there anything, are there any like showstoppers for fall? Vegetables,
fruits included, you can count them all. - Oh okay, so I've got them
heirloom mums planted for the first time, so those are budding up. I've
never grown them before, so those will be blooming soon. - Oh, fun. -
There's a few back there and a whole lot in the next field, so those even
if it frosts, I'll cover those and see, see how they do. - See how they do.
- But, broccoli and collards are our two main vegetable crops. - Oh, okay.
- People stand in line waiting for our brocolli and then there's several
barbecue places in town that buy our collards in large quantities, so I
can't grow enough of either of them. Not possible. - Yeah, that's awesome.
What about in springtime? - So, I just got my anemones and ranunculus corms
in, so I'm going to pre-sprout those and plant those within a month. And
last year they started, some of them started blooming around Christmas, so
that was a little early, 'cause it was so warm, but I'll be excited to grow
them. - Yeah, well they come up super early, so whenever it's been like,
it's kind of like exciting thing to go out there and see what you've got
out there. Do you have any hellebores here? I know, that's more of like -
Not yet. - a perennial kind of thing and it's a big investment to get
started with those, but-- - I'm working towards those. My grandmother and
my aunt have a bunch in their yard, so I do pick those and sell those, but
I haven't made my shade garden here yet. - Okay. - I've got some spots laid
out, but it's a matter of getting the time. - Yeah, of course. Mom and dad
got some. It's been, it was right around the time, I want to say it's been
about four years now, but mom and dad just got a couple of plants and it's
been amazing to see how, once you get them in, they're very low maintenance
and they really take off and you know, it takes a while for the seeds each
year to germinate, but now they have lots and lots and lots and lots of
babies. Yeah. - Yeah. - It's a big initial investment, but they do, they
kind of do their thing. - It's worth it. - They don't take a whole lot of,
they come up so early, like Christmas to January, depending on what zone
you're in, - Yes, so fun. - so that's always fun. - I know. - And they last
for so long throughout the spring, they still had them when I went up to
visit in April. - Really? - Yeah. - Nice, yeah. - Yeah, so that's a fun
plant. - They're on my, on my to-plant list, for sure. - On the wish list.
- Yes. - Okay, what about summer? - Oh, sunflowers are probably-- - Your
fave? - My fave. In a way, just because my customers get so excited about
them. - That's one of those things that people just really, there's
something nostalgic about it. I don't know if like grandma always had
sunflowers or what, but it - I don't know what it is. - just makes people
really happy. That's awesome. - So I like to grow a lot of different
things, feverfew is one of my other favorites, but probably, the
showstopper that gets people really excited are the sunflowers, even if
mixed in with all sorts of other, other stuff. - Yeah. - That's awesome.
Well, Pressly was telling me that she takes a lot of her, this building
that you see just over here to our left, is a little farm stand that she
has that's open just on Tuesday's, - Tuesday's. - So, she cuts, cuts, cuts,
fills everything up and it runs, I mean just a really sweet space, runs
like a store in there on Tuesday's. And then on the other days of the week,
you said do you take some things up to the hardware store? - Up to the
hardware store. Vegetables and flowers. - Yeah, that's awesome. And then
she has some really awesome visitors coming to the farm here pretty soon,
the big outdoor table, farm-to-table folks that travel all over. Do you
know what it's called specifically? - Outstanding in the field. -
Outstanding in the field. So they do farm-to-table dinners all over, so
they one that's going to be happening here on Pressly's farm this fall,
which is really fun, that we're excited about. - We're excited. - And she's
going to supply them with all kinds of, probably, are collards on the menu?
- Yes, they are. Collards and broccoli and tomatoes and a few other farm
items. - Okay, fantastic, that's awesome. - I'm excited. - So, I had asked
Pressly about maybe some things that she was over wintering, so we've
popped over here to the black-eyed Susan patch and she's showing me some--
- Just various different black-eyed Susan Rudbeckia's, there's a whole row
of 'em, they're really small still, but, you know, they'll make it through
the winter without really much coverage and look pretty rough but in the
spring, they will come back to life. - They'll kind of shed those leaves
and come back. What is the earliest, you know, you over winter so you have
an earlier bloom, right? - Mmhm. - So about when are you going to start
seeing these bud up and produce? - That's a good question. I'm thinking
early June. I'm not a hundred percent sure. - Yeah, 'cause usually this is
kind of fall, late summer, fall, so now just - I'll be doing some more of
these same ones in the spring, so that I have two different plantings to
stagger the harvest. - So, then you've got it going all season long. That's
awesome. Let's walk over and take a peak at the sweet peas as well. - Yeah.
- So, yeah this is our cooler. We keep our flowers or things like our
pomegranates in here. - Where are those coming from? - My parents have a
few trees that made about 100 pounds of pomegranates. - Oh my goodness,
that's awesome. - Oh these are so beautiful. What's the variety? - This is
moulin rouge, which is one of my favorites. - Oh, guys, look at these. -
This is really, like, this is really black. - Yeah, let's see. - And of
course they're all a little bit different. Oh, okay, so branching - And
that's one all. - Yeah, look at this one. How fun is that? Mmm, love it.
Nice, thanks for saving those for us. Anyway, we're over here by the sweet
peas. Both Pressly and I, was this your first year for trying sweet peas? -
Yeah. - Yeah, it was my first year too, we both had a similar experience
where we got a few awesome blooms that smelled so good that we were just
like, yes more of this, but didn't quite have it, I didn't quite have it
nailed down. - Oh no, me neither, that's okay. - So we're trying again, and
so she's got these. - I have some teeny ones right here. - She's got the
little babies in the ground and when I went to go see Linda the other day,
she had hers in the ground too. And Pressly has them growing, this is
called cattle fencing over from the hardware store, so she was telling me
that they had them, the smaller holes are for goats, and you know all those
kinds of things, so us girls that didn't grow up anywhere near a farm are
like, we just need this metal stuff It has squares, so it's really helpful
to know that it's called cattle fencing. That's what she has everything
growing up, and then just attached to the zip ties here, I had an arbor
that I had up this year that they were growing up, and I just took, I was
trying to just use stuff that I had you know, so I had chicken wire from
all of the weddings, so I just ran chickenwire the whole way up, and I was
attaching them to that. But I think this would work so much better, because
you just have a lot more spaces, with sweet peas you really have to keep
on, they don't naturally really want to attach to this in the same way that
other vines do, you kind of have to like. - Weave them in a little bit. -
Coax them in, but they really do need a place to climb, but cup and saucer
vine, have you ever seen that? - I haven't seen that. - Oh it's so pretty,
it reminds me of this that you have going on over there, but it has real
sticky fingers, but the sweet peas don't have that quite as much. Anyway
that's our little tidbit about sweet peas, we're trying again. - Yeah try
again, who knows. - Okay we are back, Pressly is going to show was her, the
dismal dahlia patch she called it, the dismal dahlia patch. - Yes I don't
know how to grow everything yet, as is obvious by my fairly short and very
slow blooming dahlias. - Yeah it was a real hard year to try and figure it
out for sure. - There's a lot of beautiful new weave growth on them now
that we have gotten cooler temperatures and rain in the past three weeks,
but before that they sat there without changing size for about three
months, and I didn't have a way to water them, so I just had to let them--
- Had to let them go. - So next year, trying again. - So mine are coming,
but I water them a lot, I water them a lot. - I can't, I don't have time or
resources. - You don't have it up here yet, no, no. Well she has them all,
like at the other form that we visited, she has the conduit types with the
re-bar underneath, and so a precautionary measure, well not a precautionary
measure, but a purposeful measure, whenever it frosts, to see if we can get
something out of the dahlia patch, - Yeah I'll let them out a little longer
and cover them with plastic. - See how the weather shapes up in a month or
two. - And I'll end up putting early spring bloomers in this spot, I will
dig the dahlia and put them in a new spot next year, and put my anemones
and ranunculus here later this fall. - Yeah awesome, Let's see, I wanted to
know, what advice would you give to somebody who is kind of starting out
new to growing, like what's the most important thing? - Okay to start slow
and small would probably be what I would recommend, if you're not a
fulltime farmer, and able to just mix the flour crops into your regular
job, it's hard to come home from a 40 hour work week and be able to attend
a field this size, so I would say if you're looking to start into flour
farming to just start small and grow a few rows of something, or a small
patch of sunflowers, and a few zinnias and just start with the annuals
because those are the cheaper seeds-- - Right to see if you like it. -
Smaller investment, see if you like what they do, and just build on that,
rather than getting in way over your head and buying all the expensive
tulip bulbs and all sorts of stuff that you're not able to justify yet. -
Yeah and I feel like plants take a while to get to know them, like when we
started planting the garden at home, now that first year, I knew I wasn't
in tune enough with them to know that they were maybe planted in a place
that had too much sun and not enough water, and then once you know to get
to know your plants a little bit more, they start to tell you things, like
hey mom over here, I need to move, and plants can't move themselves,
especially like I have a lot of perennials, so once they're in there there
really in there, and it was so interesting to me how this year I could kind
of start to know them a little bit more, so starting small with a low
investment, that you can just really start to observe things, like we
visited a place where the soil was more alkaline in a particular area,
that's not something that I would notice my first year in, but after you
kind of do it for a while, you start to notice things, so you can become
smarter with your choices, and smarter with growing things that are very
well suited for where you are, you might see some really beautiful flower
that you're just like I really want to have that, but if it's not well
suited for where you are, it's going to be a frustrating process, and their
is really, they are truly, in all the different places, there are really
special localized things. - You can grow something special everywhere,
don't be afraid to mess up, because you will mess up and have failures, and
just learn from them, don't be discouraged. - I love making mistakes, I
don't like making them more than once. - No but I learn well when I make
one. - Yes exactly, me too, I love that. Well is there anything, Pressly
next year, she's expanding a little bit more on the flower front, and she's
selling to designers more next year, which I'm really excited about, any
plans for, I know you've got your sweet peas over here, which designers are
going to love those to be able to have, because when we grow, or when we
have the sweet peas that come in that are cut from wholesale in a box or
whatever, you will get the long stems, particularly when they come from
Japan, that's really high tide sweet pea season for somebody like me, but
what's so beautiful, and what I love so much about whenever I had my little
sweet pea patch, is that you had the whole vine with it, and the scent, and
just the whole experience, it was just so nice. So that's something that
I'm really excited about for you and for the designers who live nearby. So
anything else that you have going on that you would like to share with the
viewers? - Just growing a lot of new things, I'm always adding new
varieties to the list, and at least doubling the quantity every year so
far. - Just double, double, double, double until you get to your optimum
size. - Yeah till I've decided I've had enough, max out at a certain point
but I'm not there yet. - Yeah that's good, so your website is renfrow-- -
R-E-N-F-R-O-W farms, with an S, .com. - .com, okay perfect, so we'll follow
along, and do you have little Instagram handle or something? - Yeah it's
@Renfrowfarms. - @Renfrowfarms, okay perfect so you can follow along with
Pressly's growing adventures. So all right, thank you.