Our story begins with a long, cold winter and a few simple twists of fate that led us to where we are now.  As a little girl and into adulthood, I loved working with my grandma in her garden. She knew exactly how to pick the right colors and the perfect height of plant for every spot in her garden.  It was an innate gift she had, and you could see her working it out in her mind.  I remember walking around plant nurseries with her, amazed at how she knew every name of every flower.  I thought to myself how amazing it would be to have that kind of knowledge and understanding of plants.  Gardening was not my first career choice, however, nor Jared’s.  

In the middle of my 10 year career as a professional hair stylist, Jared and I had bought our first home.  We had a beautiful backyard with tons of perennial plants, and lots of window boxes.  We had such a great time filling them with lots of colorful annuals, and using the knowledge my grandma had given me to create a “bouquet” type of look in each planter with different heights, textures, and colors.  We’d spent so much time enjoying working in our yard and reaping the rewards that when winter hit, it was especially hard to be stuck inside.  We decided maybe we could “bring on spring” a little faster if we tried starting some things indoors.  We headed to our local farm supply store and found ourselves a nice stand grow light, some seeds, starting mix and trays, and our love affair with growing our own plants began.

At this point in our careers, Jared (who was working in a factory) and I had both been looking for something more fulfilling.  We both had great jobs with great compensation, but something was lacking.  We both wanted to do something that would make an impact on people’s lives on a different level, and something that would benefit the planet, as well.  We decided our house was too big for the both of us as we began to shift our priorities.  We put our house up for sale and began looking for the perfect little cottage style house that had some land.  As these things tend to happen, our house did not sell immediately.  It was right after we listed our house that the housing market crashed.  2 years later, the house finally sold, and it was not long after that that we came across our perfect little cottage on 3/4 acre of land. 

It was almost as if it had been waiting for us.  It had been on the market for quite some time, and was in an area we had driven by everyday but never noticed.  Not only was it exactly what we wanted, but it even had a greenhouse out back.  We renovated the whole house before moving in with the help of my grandparents. It has been our dream home ever since and the perfect place to try our hand at farming on a small scale.  

Two years after moving in to our little dream home, we decided it was time to start a family.  I had been having severe health issues some they identified as Stage 4 endometriosis (the worst they had ever seen) and some were a mystery.  The doctor encouraged us to try to conceive while we were trying to get that under control.  Unfortunately, as my disease progressed, we were forced to seek out a fertility specialist.  During an exploratory surgery that was meant to last only 30 minutes and ended up taking 4 hours, my doctor discovered that I had an extremely rare type of appendix cancer and that the endometriosis had grown all over my internal organs and caused a blockage in my small intestine.  While I was lucky enough to not receive chemo, the treatment was still extremely invasive: a complete removal of 3/4 of my large intestine.  Recovery was tough, but I had motivation. Once I recovered from my major surgery we would be allowed to try IVF to attempt to conceive.   This was the only way possible because my ovaries had become completely detached and one was removed due to the extreme invasion of endometriosis. That same summer, we had decided to sell at our first farmer’s market.  I remember walking through the parking lot to our booth with a giant box full of flowers.  Two people stopped and bought every last one right out of my hands before I even made it to the booth.  That’s when I knew we had something special on our hands.

The time finally came when we were able to go through the process of IVF.  Multiple shots daily, blood work twice a week, constant ultrasounds.  We even got a photo of our fertilized embryo.  However, devastation soon followed. We found out on Christmas Eve that the embryo did not survive.  The next round would not be until April so that my body could heal again after all of the rigorous elements of the first treatment. 

The entire time we were going through this, we were still planning for next year’s garden. Pouring over seed catalogues and reading as much information as we could to make our next garden better than the year before.  We even planned to double our garden that year to bring more flowers to the farmer’s market as incentive to focus on something positive.

Mother’s Day rolled around, and our hopes were high.  We had planted our garden seeds and planted seeds of positivity that our patience and steadfastness would be rewarded.  The doctor called to tell me that Sunday that none of our embryos had fertilized.  This round had brought such a flare that I was in horrible pain daily. It turns out, my endometriosis was spreading so fast that it completely obliterated my ability to conceive, and he recommended that I have a complete hysterectomy to stop it from growing and reducing my risk for life threatening consequences. This was a crushing blow.  The fact that we knew our future was a bit of a relief after all of the waiting and anticipating, but we were heartbroken, none the less.  

Thankfully, after my surgery, I was able to get back into the garden.  Everyday I would walk a little further, looking at what a difference a day would make in the growth of our little plants.  Each new bud brought excitement, comfort, and hope.  As the summer started to end, my health started to go backwards instead of forwards as expected.  Suddenly, I was having to lay down in between every client (I was working from home at this point.) I was getting weaker and weaker, until I could no longer do hair, go to the store alone, or drive.  I had to start using a cane, and a scooter or wheelchair if I went anywhere and had dropped 30 pounds suddenly. None of my doctors could figure out what was happening.  We even went to Mayo Clinic a couple of times, but unfortunately I had been too sick to make the 8 hour journey to go back.  Each day was a challenge to get to my recliner from my bed.  Jared had to do everything I had been responsible for, all while worrying about my declining health.  All winter long, Jared would bring me a serving tray with soil and seeds and I would plant our flowers.  Sowing more seeds of hope and faith, and giving me a purpose, despite everything we had been handed.  After trial and error with many doctors, I finally got a good team.  I am now being treated for severe fibromyalgia, rheumatoid arthritis, hashimoto’s, and a handful of other autoimmune diseases.

This time in our life was the hardest by far, but also the most enlightening.  I still deal with this chronic illness everyday, and now Jared deals with chronic illness himself, but it is our garden that helps us get through it. It reminds us that when you plant and nurture seeds, whether they be for food or flowers, or figurative seeds of love and compassion, that nature and divine guidance will reward you.  This business has been an incredible gift to us.  Not only am I physically able to take part in the busy season when I feel better, or revel in the slower season when I feel worse during the cold months, but we are able to share something so special to us with so many others. We may have had a plan to create a family and share our love and values with the world, but there was a much bigger plan and outlet for that love in store.  When you experience one of our bouquets, you are becoming a piece of that larger tapestry that has woven all of these trials, tribulations, and experiences that have resulted in this beautiful work of pure unadulterated faith, hope, and compassion.  Each bouquet is quite literally a labor of intense love. It is our hope that each simple flower radiates this beautiful gift and that it will continue to be passed on and on.