From our 2009 archives. It all started with a dog. In 1992 I was a happy single girl employed as the office manager at the Denbigh Animal Hospital. Just loving my job and minding my own business. Then this guy walked in with his yellow Labrador Retriever—without an...
Acting out—a sign of future greatness? Now I see it. My acting out in school was a result of so much good stuff bottled up inside that I couldn’t handle it. This is the image I see as I look back through elementary to my high school years. College? Are you kidding...
Suzanne and I had the wonderful opportunity to visit this magical place called Flower Camp back in 2005. Flower Camp was owned and created by Nancy Ross Hugo, an author, amazing flower arranger, and was the longtime garden writer for the Richmond-Times Dispatch....
The gardening love story that began in Cool Flowers and continues... Excerpts from Cool Flowers: My journey to flower farming reads almost like a gardening love story. Growing flowers and living what I consider "the good life" of faith, family, and farming leaves...
In the fall of 2015 we installed a 550 foot border of native plants on the west side of our cut-flower farm. It’s intention was to screen the coming housing development that would soon surround us and to welcome displaced wildlife and provide what they needed to...
As I was rooting around in my garden today, I was struck by just how much my gardening cup overflows. There are so many plants on my farm that have been gifted to me over the years and they each brought along their own stories. I am ever so thankful for each and every...
This isn't about farming, but a life experience that all should be ready for. Do you know where your house water supply cutoff is? I do. Everyone should know where it is for your home. Be sure you can get to it and how to turn it off. Pictured above is our cutoff in...
A story from my past: Celosia “Amazon” is a flower that I have grown for several years. It is one of those great staple flowers in the garden that is so reliable and uniform I just plain take it for granted. It is tall, growing over 8 feet in our garden. A single...
I walked the farm this morning. My sunrise Sunday morning strolls with Babs tagging along have been my time in the garden when I know no work will commence, it’s just looking and listening—stopping to smell the roses you might say. I have missed this ritual for the...
I have a secret: dyslexia. I know now, that I owe my amazing, challenging and satisfying life and career to it. I want others in my boat to share in making lemonade out of lemons too! Most folk’s associate dyslexia with writing letters and numbers backwards, but it is...
