And so it Begins.
It started with some land and a new house. The original plan was to simply fill the 3 acres of fields with native wildflowers and grasses. Then I found you could buy fruit trees cheap through the county so five apple trees and five pear trees staked their claim to a little bit of the land. Then, if I’m going to have some apple trees and pear trees, I better add some plum trees, blueberry bushes and raspberry bushes which will soon be joined by strawberries and rhubarb.
But, that was it! The rest was going to be all wildflowers and grasses. A small haven for the stunning red fox, majestic pheasant couple, the shy snakes as well as all the other critters that live or visit our land. Even the deer and the ground squirrels, that will one day come to haunt me, are welcome to come by and nibble on the American Hazelnuts.
As things tend to do, though, things quickly escalated. See, I next decided that the new garden next to the new house needed extra special flowers. Lavender, sweet peas, dahlias, zinnias and others were just what my manicured bumble bee garden needed.
The side garden last summer before we started prepping it for a future garden….
Plans for the future side garden with over 20 varieties of flowering plants because go big or go home.
And if I’m going to grow fancy dahlias and zinnias I better take a course on it.
Enter Floret Flower Farm and their online workshop. Now I think I can transition from corporate to independent organic flower farmer. Obviously I’ve been completely inspired and, if I’m being honest, it feels as though my heart has finally found its purpose. Other than the small orchard much of the rest of land will remain wildflowers and grasses, but less than an acre will now be a cut flower garden. One day it will bloom from the daffodils in the spring through the summer dahlias and zinnias and end with the October sunflowers. Rounding out each bouquet will be herbs and native wildflowers that I hope will move others to plant their own native gardens.
It will be a hell of a journey and one that will force me to acknowledge and accept that not everything can be done right now. Maybe I won’t retire early from corporate America or maybe I will. Either way I will slowly build a small, organic flower farm that brings beauty to the communities around me and hopefully inspires others to live more consciously and sustainably.
Welcome aboard. I hope you enjoy this journey with me.
Sonya
A rainbow over the future home of Fox & Dove Flowers.
