MY STORY

I wrote these two things on the first page of a new journal when it was time to figure out my next career. I left a job I worked hard to get; a job that took preparing for years and Master’s degree; a job that used a ton of my gifts. It required early mornings, late nights and weekends. I was giving 100 percent and time and time again I felt unsupported. I thought one changed a system by working in it,  with it, through the system.

 

Then I realized the system not only didn’t care about me it actively colluded with people doing harm to me and to the communities I served.

 

My journal pages filled with ideas of what I could be, learn and become. I went to the library and checked out every book on my personality types. (I had taken quite a few personality tests in my 1st career.) What are people like me good at? What gets us excited? What makes us recoil? Where do I find energy and contentment?

 

Eventually I made a list. In general people like me need: like to be creative, need space to think things through, must have a good reason for any action or decision, are good leaders, need purpose-driven jobs, are excellent entrepreneurs, are high energy and need exercise.

 

It didn’t take long after making this list that I stumbled upon flower farming. How, I have absolutely NO clue!! But I did and it clicked. It made sense and my decision was made.

 

Six years ago my husband and I moved our young family close to our beloved college and literally planted ourselves. With severance (karma!) from my last horrid position, I started this farm.

 

Turning a Georgia hay field into a thriving flower farm is a serious challenge. Thankfully, those first few years of manual labor proved to be just the way to work out tons of anger and pain.

 

I also tilled up quite a large amount of beauty. I discovered a true love of watching something bloom. I will never not be amazed at a tiny seed turning into a literal tree (eucalyptus) or a similarly tiny seed thrive in the summer Georgia sun and become a brain-shaped bloom (celosia.) Started by me, tended by me, created by something much bigger.

 

I have learned more than I can imagine along the way…how to: grow 100 different flowers and plants, drive an excavator, use an impact wrench, thread a weed eater, make a 100 foot bed by hand, harvest flowers, wedding flowers, social media (sort of), create a website, get a business license and so much more.

 

Did you know snapdragons grow better closer together? They actually grow stronger and taller when placed right next to each other.

 

And peonies, highly prized and expensive, get cut to the literal ground each fall and will grow back sturdier with more blooms every spring?

 

Sunflowers—they really do follow the sun! Their heads will turn as the sun moves throughout the day.

 

Grow close, pruning makes us stronger, follow the light.

Fun flower facts or life lessons? There is much to be gleaned from flower farming.

 

I tell people all the time that this farm started because I needed more joy and less patriarchy. That’s true. So true. It’s also true that I desperately missed beauty.  

 

Undoubtedly beauty saved me… the birds greeting me in the early mornings, my 7 year-old son grabbing the 1st daffodil our 2nd year saying he was running to the house to put it in water, tossed away bulbs blooming in the compost pile, sunsets over the flower field, morning fog parting enough for me to see a kitty squeezing through the fence, sweet sentiments left on sticky notes in the flower farm stand, the hawks that return every fall, a smile on the face of a customer.

 

If you value joy, beauty, creativity, individuality, respect for one another, appreciation for nature then you are in the right place. Follow this journey as it continues to unfold in our newsletter or on social media. I’m glad you are here. – Kedron