Building a Bouquet from the Ground Up
{Adapted from our piece in the Traverse City Record Eagle}
When we first moved to our flower farm last January, we would’ve never imagined how much hard work would go into making each bouquet of flowers we bring to the Sara Hardy downtown farmers’ market. We’ve been hard workers our whole lives — whether it was making our way through law school or training and qualifying for the Boston Marathon — and we knew we would put our all into this new endeavor, too. But as we looked out over our empty field, now our annual cut flower garden, there’s no way we could’ve fully appreciated all of the steps that go into each amazing flower.
Over the winter months, we mapped out where and when to plant our flower seeds. We started seeds indoors, growing them under heat mats and lamps. Eventually, those seedlings grew and the snow melted, which meant it was time to “harden them off,” getting them used to cooler weather and direct sunshine before planting them in the ground. We spent a lot of time studying each variety, learning how to make sure we got them the right amount of water and sun. We tilled our field and tested our soil in order to compile the right organic compost and fertilizer techniques for our flowers. We installed an irrigation system, which we are now so grateful for during this dry summer. Not to mention innovating ways to try to prevent pesky animals or weeds from taking over the space! We didn’t expect to harvest flowers two- to three times a day during peak times of peony season and sunflower season, waking up before our toddler to harvest flowers and wearing a headlamp after he goes to bed to harvest again. And did we mention pruning and weeding? These behind-the-scenes tasks are crucial to maximizing the growth of our beautiful blooms.
Despite this extensive list of tasks and the countless hours of sleep we’ve lost to build each bouquet, we could not be happier. We’ve always dreamed of working together but that didn’t seem possible as a nurse and a lawyer. After first laying eyes on what we now call Moondance Flower Farm, we instantly fell in love and knew that instead of our traditional career paths aligning, this was the path to working together. Most days we wake up before our alarm and don’t hit the snooze button, because we’re so eager to check on the flowers.
We could definitely use some more sleep, but we often stay up late to dream about ways to make the flower farm even more accessible so we can share our space with the community.
Prepping for the farmers market is a lot of work on top of growing the flowers: Harvesting them and arranging them takes a lot of extra time, too. But it’s all worth it when we give flowers to our new friend Roberta, who visits us weekly at the market and often uses her blooms to decorate her mom’s grave. Or after meeting our new friend Jordyn, who needed last-minute flowers for her wedding and visited the farm to pick her own bouquet and table arrangements for her special day after seeing our display at the farmers’ market.
Farming is so much harder than we could’ve ever imagined, but it’s also more rewarding than we’d ever hoped. Thank you so much for welcoming us as part of the community, as neighbors, farmers, and a new family business. We seriously pinch ourselves every day how lucky we are to live in the most amazing place alongside the most amazing people, while we get to work together and bring you joy from our beautiful flowers every day.
