Flowers and the final fine-our backstory

Intention and clarity don’t always lead the way. Sometimes, they show up through the process of trying, failing, rethinking, rebuilding, and trying again. Years before we were here on the farm, we were living in a typical “cookie cutter” neighborhood with a small backyard and lots of ideas about how to turn our newly built house into a home. We were also living under the regulations of an HOA—something we couldn’t have imagined ever being an issue when we picked out that new neighborhood development to build in and call our home. But as years passed and our family grew, so did our ideas of what we wanted for ourselves and for our children. With our growing intentions around teaching the boys and practicing skills such as keeping backyard poultry and beekeeping, which both happened to be non compliant with the HOA laws, our values started to shift. The growing importance of real food, and the desire to create slowly started to make the four minute drive to Target and the two minutes it took to get to the nearest fast food chain a bottom rung on our priority ladder. While our boys were only toddlers at the time, we still noted the fact that despite there being children in homes up and down both sides of the street. . . We never saw children getting together to play outside even if we took to the front yard instead of the backyard to play. We knew we wanted our kids to have the freedom to enjoy the outdoors in ways that aren’t always possible in typical neighborhoods. Running through the yard without risks that come along with playing ball 15 feet from the road… riding 4-wheelers and raising livestock, growing food, having a connection with nature and seasonality beyond the holiday clothing and decor changeover that happens in stores each season. We also wanted the ability to explore our own interests and skills without the fines we were now getting despite our immediate neighbors enjoying what we were able to share of the eggs, veggies, and honey we were harvesting. Sometimes being the change you want to see won’t be enough to make that change happen in its entirety at that exact moment, but hopefully we were able to share with others all that is still very possible on a small acreage or in a smaller backyard. There is still so much room to grow and produce in a small space. Our final fine came after a planting of native coreopsis in the front flower bed, which the HOA deemed “weeds” and requested we cut down. After a fairly quick sit down (given the magnitude of the decision) we decided that we were definitely not going to be able to bloom where we were planted, and that our time there was up. Fast forward through many property searches, nearly 3 years of RV living with 2 toddlers, and another house built from the ground up. . . we are so grateful to call our farm home now. With trial and error, and at times blatant defiance, and a lot of trusting ourselves to figure it out along the way, we were able to find a place and a purpose that led us to more flowers (and actual weeds) than I could have ever imagined growing! I think about that final HOA fine yearly when the flowers start to bloom; more specifically the row of wild and toppling coreopsis speckling warm gold and maroon fall-like hues in the easter basket of pastel petals in the spring garden.

We are now heading into our fourth season of farming flowers, and the fact that we’ve decided on flowers as our first crop of choice always brings a smile to my face. We chose flowers because despite the idea that flowers are non essential; we do believe that joy, art, connection to nature, and beauty are some of the sweetest parts of life. Those things are exactly what fresh flowers have to offer us, and what we have committed to as a farm and a family.