Meet the Farmer and Family
When we first moved to our farm in 2018 we weren't sure how we planned to utilize the barn and 2 fenced in pastures on the property that previously housed horses. Having grown up on a horse farm, my husband loved the idea of living on a farm, he just wasn't too interested in owning horses himself. I had tossed around the idea of bringing in goats but with young kids at my heels, I decided livestock could wait a few years. We did however know that we would build a large garden in one of those pastures.
I have been a vegetable gardener for almost 20 years, gradually growing my space with every home I lived in. So when we were looking for a farm for our family, my dream garden was always part of the plan. Two years after moving to Pigeon Creek we broke ground on my garden that included meticulously placed raised beds, in-ground areas for vining crops, corn and a few flowers here and there. The garden is absolutely beautiful and I am so very proud of it and so thankful I was able to build it. Although this was a fairly large garden, we didn't plan on selling anything we produced. It was more about having a place I could play in the dirt alongside my son and daughter while growing food for them and teaching them the joys of gardening. As previously mentioned, I did include some space for cut flowers in this plan, but they were just sort of an accent to the main act...the veggies. I wanted to attract the pollinators and have some flowers to cut and enjoy in our home. Well, as you can see by the fact that we are now calling ourselves a flower farm and that you are reading this on our website dedicated to the cut flowers we grow, that's not exactly what happened...
My Story
They are only little once.
I credit my children for leading me to Flower Farming which has become a passion of mine far exceeding any hobby or business that came before. So it is important that I don't show my appreciation by allowing flower farming to steal their summers. That means I have to establish boundaries and not overwhelm myself with the duties of the farm.
I want to continue to make the garden a place my children and I love to spend time together.
On this farm, that means being very upfront with our customers about our limitations, goals, and being very intentional about our offerings while our kids are still small. I am farming with and for my young children. The flowers will be here when they are older. In the meantime I will learn as much as I can, plant perennials, and grow the farm to prepare for when I have more time. Our hope is that we can provide our neighbors with fresh, locally grown flowers while we get to know one another. Supporting a local farm means you have the opportunity to learn where your flowers come from and the family who grows them.
That first season the flowers absolutely stole my heart. I had always loved arranging flowers and even created our own bouquets and centerpieces for our own wedding, but I never put much thought into the idea of growing them beyond our landscape beds and for personal enjoyment. The garden was to produce food! But what I discovered that first season was that the flowers produced much more. The vegetables are delicious, a lot of fun to grow and feed my family, but the flowers offer so much more than I ever expected.
Before moving to our farm and before we had two kids, I had a creative business painting furniture and creating home décor. While I had planned to continue this business when we moved to the farm, this became virtually impossible to maintain with my little helpers. I found very little time to actually break out the paint, and I was beginning to struggle without having this outlet. Imagine if you were a daily gym goer and then suddenly couldn't exercise anymore? It would be essential mentally and physically for you to get back out there. This is the same for creative people. We NEED to exercise those muscles for our overall well being. This is where the flowers came in. That first season growing actual cut flowers provided so many opportunities to be creative; from the ability to carefully curate and select the flowers to grow from seed, continuously designing the garden, photographing, and arranging and sharing the flowers with family and friends. This all brought me immense joy and really began to fill in that void. Growing flowers allowed me to be creative in a consistent and productive way and it became apparent to me that this was my version of "self-care". There are many parallels between my former business and flower farming that make sense for me, but the one major and essential difference is that I can do this alongside my kids, unlike painting furniture.
So in 2021 I decided to take it a step further by selling my flowers which allowed me to expand the garden and other aspects of the creative business that I enjoyed previously. Best of all, I am able to interact with customers and neighbors and share our love of flowers and the joy they bring.