Why Flowers?
An old photo; some of my first, tiny backyard arrangements
From Rachel’s Desk 7/16/25
Starting a farm wasn’t always the most obvious path for me. I remember growing up in the suburbs and helping my dad in his tomato garden and feeling practically unable to go inside most of the time. I remember years later sitting in Horticulture 101 at University of Georgia next to my friend Addie and she looked over at me and said something along the lines of “You’re really into this aren’t you?” I didn’t want to admit it at the time, but I was. I was very into the class all about plants, and deep into wrapping up a major in marketing that I was absolutely not into but determined to finish.
A few years after that I was working a couple different retail and restaurant jobs as one does when living in the latest boomtown, and becoming increasingly disillusioned with the urban lifestyle I found myself in. I started gobbling up any book I could find at the library on gardening, farming, permaculture, you name it. Long story short, I was swept up into the endlessly fascinating world of horticulture and made it my goal to figure out how on earth I was going to ever make a living in this field. I few months later I found myself working quite literally in a field alongside my now-friend Mary-Martin, who was my manager at my very first farming job. She had a lot more experience under her belt, and I remember us laughing at my quite obvious naiveté surrounding the farming lifestyle. Against all odds and the Georgia heat, I still knew I wanted to be a farmer. I remember telling my Grandma Sally in Ohio of my new plans, a little sheepishly I’ll admit. She was, honest as ever, a mix of surprised and supportive. The surprise came from, as she put it, the fact that Grandpa got his education so that he and his family wouldn’t have to farm! (Recently she and I were chatting on the phone about my latest battle with bamboo and other invasive species on our land, and she quipped “Well, I guess you really are a county girl!” I was over the moon.)
Over the next several years I kept my hands in the dirt as much as I could while working in retail and sales, volunteering at local community gardens and tending small plots at rented houses that my partner Dylan and I shared. He built me my first ever raised-beds at our house in Nashville, and I’ll never forget how special I felt coming home to that surprise. I pulled in the driveway after work and there he was in the side yard, just grinning and gesturing to those perfectly level and square cinder block borders, and a new, nicer trowel because I had broken several cheap ones. He’s thoughtful like that, and still listens to me patiently as I wax poetic about my latest succession planting scheme or fertilizer recipe.
When the pandemic shutdown happened, we were, like everybody, in a pickle job-wise and had to make some quick changes. Dylan took a traveling job in construction, and I got my real estate license, and we tried to re-root back in the college town where we met. I started a new garden and showed houses from a safe 6-foot distance. Dylan was only home a few days a month, so to avoid becoming a complete crazy-dog-lady or forgetting how to communicate with non-photosynthesizing lifeforms, I decided to volunteer for Meals on Wheels. Those Wednesday afternoon routes were some of the most fun I had all week! The clients on my route were hilarious, friendly, interesting, and kept me company during a time that I needed it. So, I started bringing along with the frozen meals tiny flower arrangements from my garden, just whatever I had blooming. I did not think at the time that a handful of flowers in an old peanut butter jar was a big deal, but let me tell ya’ll, it was. The first time I brought the flowers, every person that received them either got a little misty-eyed (as did I) or had a specific, strong memory tied to one type of blossom. One gentleman mused over a hellebore bloom, “My mother always grew these in her garden, what are they?” Needless to say, the flowers were expected as part of the delivery from then on out, which was fine by me. The whole experience drove home for me the fact that people need beauty.
I think that experiencing beauty reminds people that they are loved. Certainly everyone needs that reminder at least daily. I got into growing for a lot of reasons; I wanted to be a part of fixing our broken food system and helping restore our environment to its pre-suburbanization glory. Maybe I also had more selfish reasons. Maybe I wanted to experience more beauty. Either way, I’m proud to say that the gardens are finally pumping out some serious beauty this Summer, and I’m grateful for the abundance and the opportunities to share it.
I’m wishing for everyone a gorgeous summer and enough downtime to soak it up. Thank you as always for following along.
Love, Rachel
July Field Notes
The garden is blooming uproariously with sunflowers, zinnias, and cosmos. The heat-loving celosia and gomphrena are starting to take off, and we are hoping to have enough to dry to add some color and drama to winter arrangements. The uptick in growth is so encouraging, as the garden is still very young. Only a year ago the areas we are cultivating now were either compacted lawn or bamboo forest, a far cry from the soft, plantable beds that are starting to take shape. Generally, we try to disturb the soil as little as possible, and let the earthworms and microbiology do the tilling for us. In this case, we have had to do more damage than this farmer typically likes to the topsoil in order to get out, or at least slow down, the aggressive bamboo and privet roots. By using lots of mulch and some helpful cover crops, though, it seems we are doing more good than harm to the local ecosystem, as we’ve seen an incredible diversity of birds, reptiles, and bugs hanging out in the garden. We’ve even partnered with a local mushroom grower to recycle their used growing substrate, or “mushroom blocks”, which we compost and add to our beds. The blocks break down quickly and can even be broken up and simply laid on the soil as mulch, so they are great for composting in the city. If you have a mushroom grower in your community, try asking them for their spent blocks for your garden. Odds are, they will be happy to give them to you, as the substrate is typically only good for 1-2 mushroom grow cycles. You get free compost, they have less waste to deal with, everybody wins!
