As a flower farmer, I first honed my gardening skills by growing food. Why switch to growing flowers? And what do flowers represent to me? For me, growing flowers is a shift from consuming, achieving, and striving, toward contentment, quiet observation, and presence in the moment– the transcendent beauty of flowers an impenetrable thread to the divine. Blooming during a distinct season with roots in the soil of the place where we live, flowers connect me (us) to the particular place, time, and land that we inhabit, together. … keep reading
I was 21 years old in 2009. Arlene Dekam, the mother of 5 with kind eyes who drove me from clinical site to clinical site on snowy city streets and fed me zucchini from her garden, slid a battered copy of “Animal, Vegetable, Miracle” by Barbara Kingsolver across a desk at the GVSU College of Nursing in Grand Rapids, Michigan. “Keep it,” she whispered. “I read it every year.” <Thunderbolt> This is how my journey into gardening began. Gardeners. Sometimes we sift through the recycling … keep reading
So, what has changed with me in the past year? I no longer long for the fall in the Midwest, for one; California is my home. I’ve read 3 books on grammar and can finally place a comma, so that’s an improvement! I’ve read a lot more fiction this past year, my favorite escape from nihilism and the stress and feelings of . . . simply living. I went backpacking for the first time. I’m still an enneagram one, but adapting. I’m capable of running long distances … keep reading
It’s an electrifying time of year on the farm. There’s no holding the flowers back for much longer. 2024. HERE WE GO. 2024 will be my sixth growing season, and if the past years of farming have taught me anything, it’s this: I have absolutely no idea what this new growing season will hold. For example, I never would have dreamt that in March of 2020 all our flower shops would close and weddings would be cancelled. Or that last year we’d be visited by the LA … keep reading
Some months feel like an eternity, but January and February were over as soon as they started. We received a record amount of rain and captured it in the gardens. The first flowers of the year bloomed – flowers we planted no less than five months ago – which brought with them warm feelings of hope, optimism, and delight as they are always greatly missed. We pruned the roses, and we weeded the gardens for what felt like the millionth time. Our seven-month-long bouquet subscription … keep reading