Six years ago, right around this time of year, I planted my first dahlia tubers in our backyard vegetable garden. At this time, farming had already “found” me and taken so much from me, like an unrequited love. We were making a home for ourselves again in the city after two years of farming vegetables and raising animals, all of which had amounted to just a good story chock-full of mistakes and disappointments. The idea to grow flowers here in the city, in our neighborhood, … keep reading
October greetings from the farm, Our wall clock reads 6:25am, and I am tapping out this virtual letter to you, sweet reader, from my favorite spot on the couch. There’s a mug of lukewarm black coffee at a table within arm’s reach, which is beautifully illuminated by the soft, orange glow of my favorite lamp. It’s dark outside, only a dusky blanket of fog visible through our front window. My mildly febrile ten-year-old is cozied up next to me with a book and a blanket. … keep reading
Friends of the farm, Greetings from the late-March urban flower farm! It has been a few months since I’ve written; I can’t believe we’re already on the cusp of April. Life has been very full as of late with all good things: marathon training, an abundant tulip harvest, and week after week of steady rain. These seven words from author Sally Rooney in her book, Intermezzo, have been ringing true: “More life, more and more of life.” I feel the intense longing, vulnerability, overwhelm, brokenness, … keep reading
Finally! We’ve reached the point where the garden is pulsating and dripping with delicious food and beautiful flowers begging to be picked. When a flower stem is cut, it continues to respirate, depleting its internal carbohydrate stores and eventually leading to its (inevitable) senescence. Higher temps speed up these processes and result in faster carbohydrate loss and shortened vase life. Thus, flowers are ideally cut in the morning when plants have the highest water content and the plant tissue is the coolest. Exceptions are zinnias … 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
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
No cut-flower garden is complete without ranunculus flowers. Once blooming, each plant produces a handful of flowers, and your ranunculus bounty will make you feel like the richest gardener in the world. There is no better way to master growing this flower than to get out there, make mistakes, and get your hands dirty! Ranunculi are cool-season flowers, and in Southern California, it’s essential to start them in the fall. Soak and plant your ranunculus corms in mid-October to early-November, and you’ll have your first … keep reading
How to Prepare Your Garden for Plants: 1. Cut down any previous vegetable or flower crops, leaving the plants’ roots in the soil if possible (if they aren’t too massive). Leaving roots in the ground helps to build good soil structure, and is a wonderful source of organic matter for soil microbes, which feed on organic matter. You also keep more beneficial microbes in the garden this way, since they congregate in root zones! – 2. Remove any grass or weeds by their roots. 3. … 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
Friends of the farm, Happy New Year, and hello to 2025. I’m writing this letter while cramped on an airplane (middle seat). I’ll schedule this email to go out in the very early morning for all of you early birds, so it can be read and enjoyed with a cup of coffee or tea, in those quiet moments of a new day, the ones that ooze life and possibility. The words and pictures could unfold in tandem with the rising sun and blossoming level of … keep reading
Recently I finished the book Joyful, by Ingrid Fetell Lee. The book was mentioned in passing on a podcast, and it sounded like the perfect way to prepare for the launch of our 2025 Flower CSA. I’ve been reading exclusively fiction at the moment except for the occasional business-related selection, so a little sprinkle of nonfiction felt like a refreshing change of pace. I filled my book with small colorful sticky notes. I expected to acquire more language for speaking about flowers to my customers, … keep reading
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
It has been awhile, friends! I hope you’re enjoying a wonderful summer of fun and relaxation, and perhaps heaping bowls of panzanella fresh from the garden. The days seem to be passing as quickly as plants grow in the summer months, and I cannot fathom that it’s almost August. I’m going to attempt a full, but hopefully not too tedious, update on the past three months. This note has a more personal and pragmatic ring to it, and includes a lot of photos! So if … 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
Can we absorb the life force of plants by just being close in proximity to them? It was a question that I was seriously entertaining during a run in March through the canyon adjacent to our house. While pounding the trail or pavement, there is no thought too absurd, no mental rabbit trail too small, no hope or dream too unlikely, or memory too distant. The plants in the canyon were so vibrant this morning, intensely glowing with lush, verdant life. Water rose like smoke … keep reading