SUMMER WEEK 6

BOUQUET INGREDIENTS

zinnias, sunflowers, eucalyptus, amaranth, cosmos, celosia

For the past three years we’ve lived in and operated our farm from a 600 square foot studio apartment. Living in this small space with its affordable rent enabled Spencer and I to start our farm, but it also created significant challenges for running a business with a physical product that requires many tools to produce. Despite getting creative with storage and tolerating a constant level of disarray, we’ve been feeling that our space has been completely maxed out, and with plans to grow even more flowers next season we knew we had to look for something new. Gratefully, we stumbled upon the perfect spot and Spencer and I spent last weekend moving into our new home.

Our new home has almost double the space and we’ll be using a spare bedroom for all of our indoor farm activities. Our new flower studio will be where we start all our seeds (which we’ve been doing in our bathroom), make bouquets (which we’ve been doing in our living room), and dry flowers (which we’ve been doing wherever we could find space) — all behind a closed door to keep out our three cats, who have been the most unhelpful helpers all this time.

We’re excited for the possibilities this new space brings but we’re also finding it hard to say goodbye. We started our farm on a leased plot sharing the same land as our apartment, so by leaving our home behind we’re also saying goodbye to our first allotment. This allotment is where we sharpened our teeth as growers, learned how to collaborate with each other, and finally, this season, have created something we both feel so proud of.

(These photos of our late summer garden were captured by our friend Rebekah Stewart. You can see more of her work on her Instagram.)

Next season we’ll be moving our growing operation primarily to our allotment at the Common Ground Incubator Farm north of town — this is where we planted our overwintering flowers last week. It will bring new challenges, mostly related to farming remotely, but this, too, will expand the possibilities for our little farm.

My deepest gratitude to each of you for sharing this season with us, our best yet.

Enjoy your blooms,