The Beginning of it all.

I had this crazy idea.... it all started with my own struggles as a stay-at-home mom, I didn't want to leave my baby girl to go back to work but I'm also not the kind of person that feels fully fulfilled as a stay at home mom.... just typing that makes me feel guilty. But...Hey, everyone is different and while I can't imagine being away from my kiddo (soon to be kiddos) I just needed something more.

I started researching things online, I just searched things like "ways to make money as a stay at home mom" or "hobbies for stay at home moms" and while I don't remember exactly how I got there, I found this book and started studying flower farming.

I ordered this book by Erin Benzakein with Floret Farm and I was very overwhelmed and somewhat confused with all of the information so I put the book aside and didn't pick it up again for over a year.

Eventually I got desperate again, for something more and this time I must have been more motivated to make something happen because I read the book again and I really took the time to read it. I understood it and I was excited about it.

After a lot of thought, prayer, and convincing my husband that it could work (he has always believed in me and supported me but he is not the kind of person that is excited when it comes to change or taking risks, but that's what keeps us grounded as a couple since I'm the opposite haha) we came up with a plan and started our "trial year" where we would spend the least amount of money possible to buy the bare minimum it took to grow and try my hand at selling cut flower bouquets. I couldn't spend all of my time and money on this idea when I didn't know how successful it would be or if I would even like doing it.

I ended up loving it, even though it felt like I made mistake after mistake after mistake, that didn't matter, I loved it so much that I was willing to roll with the punches. I started my seeds inside of my house with seed trays I bought from walmart, I checked on them every 5 seconds to see if anything was growing yet, I bugged my husband half to death because I was so worried the seeds wouldn't sprout, and I prayed about 16 times a day that they would grow. Once they sprouted, I was so excited and I put them under shop lights in my basement to grow and my seedlings weren't very strong because my lights were to far away. I bought a $60 greenhouse from amazon to help finish out my plants, not all of my plants fit in it because it was so small, I had to use an electric space heater to keep it warm on the cold nights, and the wind blew it to pieces. A lot of things went wrong and I worried non-stop, I planted some of my plants to close together, others were to far apart, I didn't use any pest control and the deer ate every single one of my snapdragons, and I didn't have any plans to take care of the weeds so they were out of control.

Even with all those mistakes and problems I was still able to grow and sell (thanks to our amazing and supportive community) some beautiful flowers. I'm still learning and have a lot.... I MEAN A LOT of improvements to make and while it's a lot of back breaking work, it has been the best thing for my family and I. I have always had a passion for agriculture ever since I was a kid and I started showing animals at the fair, I didn't ever think growing plants would be my thing but here we are.

If anything I hope that this will encourage you to follow your passion and your desires. That through the doubts and mistakes that you'll pick yourself up and keep working your hardest to get to where you want to be. Set goals and achieve them, give it a shot.... trust me, it feels soooo good.

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