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Ep.47: Helen Skiba on Balancing Motherhood & Sustainable Flower Farming at Artemis Flower Farm
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From her time as a Peace Corps agriculture volunteer in Ecuador to becoming a passionate flower farmer in Colorado, Helen Skiba's story is a beautiful reminder of how life can take us on unexpected paths, like how a visit to a friend’s farm can change everything!
Helen from Artemis Farm dives deep into her commitment to organic farming practices and soil health, sharing how she practices limited tillage and cover cropping. If you’re curious about how to cultivate a thriving garden while also nurturing the earth, you won’t want to miss her insights!
And guess what? Helen is also a new mom! 🎉 She opens up about the joys and challenges of balancing motherhood with running a flower farm. Her daughter, born two months early, has brought a whole new perspective to her life and business. It’s a heartwarming journey that you’ll definitely want to hear!
Perhaps one of the most unique aspects of Helen’s story is her collaborative approach to farming. She shares her leased land with other local farmers, creating a vibrant community that supports one another.
Helen's story is a testament to the resilience and adaptability required in the world of agriculture, and her passion for flowers and community shines through in every aspect of her work. Be sure to tune in for the full conversation with Helen from Artemis Farm.
Show Notes: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/2025/01/28/ep-47-artemis-flower-farm/
Learn More About Artemis Flower Farm:
- Website: https://www.artemisflowerfarm.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/artemisflowerfarm/
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Transcript
Introduction to Backyard Bouquet Podcast
00:00:02
Speaker
Welcome to the Backyard Bouquet podcast, where stories bloom from local flower fields and home gardens. I'm your host, Jennifer Galitzia of the Flowering Farmhouse. I'm a backyard gardener turned flower farmer located in Hood River, Oregon. Join us for heartfelt journeys shared by flower farmers and backyard gardeners. Each episode is like a vibrant garden, cultivating wisdom and joy through flowers. From growing your own backyard garden to supporting your local flower farmer,
00:00:32
Speaker
The backyard bouquet is your fertile ground for heartwarming tales and expert cut flower growing advice. All right flower friends, grab your gardening gloves, garden snips, or your favorite vase because it's time to let your backyard bloom.
Meet Helen Skiba of Artemis Flower Farm
00:00:54
Speaker
Today, I'm thrilled to welcome Helen Skiba from Artemis Flower Farm. Helen and her team are redefining what it means to be young, innovative farmers by focusing intensely on the health of the soil and sharing their land collaboratively with other local farmers. Artemis Flower Farm, located along the Colorado Front Range, is known for its unique and exquisite flower varieties and is deeply committed to organic farming practices.
00:01:22
Speaker
They seek out new ways to bring health to the soil through limited tillage, cover crops, and animal integration. As a dedicated grower and tender of soil, Helen brings a background in soil science and poetry to her fieldwork, as well as a passion for intricate color and texture in her designs. I'm so excited to dive into Helen's story and learn more about where she blooms. Helen, thanks so much for joining us today.
00:01:50
Speaker
Oh, I'm so excited to be here. Thanks for having me, Jennifer. Absolutely. It's such an honor to get to chat with you today. So let's just dive in. If you can start by telling us about your journey into flower farming, what inspired you to start Artemis Flower Farm?
Helen's Journey into Flower Farming
00:02:06
Speaker
oh Great question. i um I don't know that I was really inspired to start a farm so much as I fell into it, which is great. And it was really an interesting journey. So I came back from Peace Corps in Ecuador. So I was a um agriculture volunteer there. I worked with growers there who were farming all kinds of things for subsistence like yuca and corn and other staple crops. And then they were cash farming cacao and um and also coffee. So I learned a lot there just about being in the land and growing. And then when I got back, I really wanted to work in sex education, but I just couldn't get a job like with Planned Parenthood or any other kind of ah organization.
00:02:55
Speaker
So I went and visited a friend of mine who was farming in a town nearby and just like really loved what he was doing. And the land felt really peaceful and gentle and I felt like a place where I wanted to be. So I said, hey, I'm going to be your intern next year, just FYI. And then, you know, from there, just sort of grew into a business so the person who had been doing flowers there before me left and they said hey would you like to take on you know we've got ten weddings or something booked for the next season would you like to take on this job so yeah sure you know how ah how hard can it be and then it was you know just this
00:03:37
Speaker
very ah the you know Just sort of the cover came off and you could see this deep well of ah learning that was available in Flowers and this long career kind of opened up before me. um so It was really exciting. so I started there. um It was a wedding venue and so I had a really captive audience, um captive customer base.
00:04:03
Speaker
And ah so worked there for five years, um grew the business, became the owner of the business. And then I left there and I started working. I worked two seasons at a farm um nearby that was a big vegetable farm, but I was their flower manager. So, you know, that was really great experience. Lots of tractor work and irrigation and big CSA and going to farmers market.
00:04:28
Speaker
um And then when I was finished there, I was able to find this really awesome situation that we're in now, um where I am farming on leased land, ah but it has you know a huge greenhouse. It has underground irrigation system and a pond and a pump.
00:04:48
Speaker
um it's It's beautiful, and we are you know we have a lot of space and infrastructure that's really supporting us. and um and I'm doing that with another grower couple, Cody and Melissa of Speedwell Farm and Gardens, and they're vegetable growers and they're just incredible. um We also have a pharma composting person um who does that on-site, and then we house the tool library, which is a business.
00:05:17
Speaker
run by another farmer that um rents and leases equipment to farmers at less than um commercial rates, which is really a huge service. um So it's dynamic. We have a lot going on. and But it really was a winding path getting here. But what I found throughout The whole thing was that I continued to just really be inspired by the huge diversity of flowers, the um amount there is to learn about cultivating them, about selling them, about cutting them, about designing with them. I mean, it's just this world that um continues to inspire me. And I just feel really lucky to have found that in my life.
00:06:03
Speaker
That sounds like an amazing journey that you have been on. Can I ask, how many years ago did that first internship start?
Adopting Regenerative Practices
00:06:10
Speaker
Yeah, so that was 2014 was my first season. So this is, I guess that makes this my 11th season, 2025, which is, yeah, it's a good long run. That's awesome. Over a decade, which I know a lot of our listeners are newer into their careers as flower farmers or cut flower growers. So there's so much wisdom that I know we can gain from you today. And my mind is just swirling with questions.
00:06:39
Speaker
because I love your background. So you started in Ecuador, which had to be quite an eye-opening experience. Did you go there to learn about the soil health? Because I know from reading a little bit about your bio online and knowing who you are through the ACS, ah now I'm going to butcher it. it's The acronym always gets me, the Association of Specially Cut Flower Growers. um I know a little bit about you and I know that soil health is super important for you. Yeah.
00:07:07
Speaker
um Well, Ecuador was really just the Peace Corps experience, which is really ah diverse and varied and doesn't always have a focus. um But I did while I was there, I was actually working on my master's degree as well. So I combined my Peace Corps service with my masters from CSU and that was in soil and crop sciences. um So I wasn't really working on soil health but I was working on a biological fertilizer so we used fermented cow manure to make a solution that was sprayed on the cacao trees. um It was a crazy experience because the plot that I chose to do my research on was
00:07:52
Speaker
out in the middle of the river on an island. um So I had to cross the river with this backpack sprayer on full of this basically poop. And then I was out in the middle of these cacao fields and um being chased by wasps. I can't tell you how many wasp stings I got while I was It was really it was crazy. It was a crazy research project that I chose to ah design in the way that I did. But but yeah, it was that So that part.
00:08:23
Speaker
Definitely, um you know that research was more on plant health, really than soil health. But um after that, um it just when i was when I was working in lions, I was working on this soil that was really pretty sandy, and which was actually great. It was easy to grow in, easy to irrigate, all of that. um But what I started to notice was that if I was able to do some cover cropping, if I was able to do a little tarping,
00:08:52
Speaker
um In our climate, it was much better than just spreading compost on the roads, which is also important, but having the living roots in the ground and also um having you know the tarp over top really helps speed up decomposition because our climate is so dry.
00:09:11
Speaker
and so without Without, unless you're like watering all the time, you just don't get the same decomposition and the same soil improvement that you would in a place that's a little bit wetter where you could put down compost, have it decompose, and have it start integrating into the soil in a much faster way. like It's still possible to do um no-till and regenerative farming here, but it just the results take so much longer because of the pace of decomposition here, and just then that's just due to the moisture levels. So um yeah but so I would say that my soil health interests really started at that first farm where I was working. um And then after that, when I was at the large farm, you know they were doing intensive tillage. They were doing you know
00:10:02
Speaker
passes with um a moldboard plow, and then with a disc, and then with a tiller, or maybe a harrow, and then a tiller. you know So it was like multiple, multiple passes with the tractor disturbing the soil. And they grew good crops. They did a lot of compost. They put a lot of compost down. um But you could tell that the soil was really it was getting tired. um And they did some cover cropping, but you know not not in a sort of a regimented way, I guess I would say, i'm not a planful way. and um so You could see kind of the effects that that tillage was having on this wall. and then so When I was able to get this property, um I came in with the intention of not doing a lot of tillage. um When we first got here, we did one pass with a Power Harrow,
00:11:00
Speaker
And then we built our beds with a rotary plow on our BCS. And um yeah, and then since then, we've really just been doing a little bit of tillage with our BCS. And um we do a lot of broad forking. We do a lot of cover cropping. And we do a lot of tarping and compost and mulching with leaves. I mean, you name it. We do what we we really try to integrate all of the strategies. so um you know But it it was has been challenging. Our soil is clay, it's um quite dense, and so getting enough tilts to plant transplants or especially seeds, it can be almost impossible.
00:11:45
Speaker
um And especially like later in the season so we'll have let's say a moist spring and then it will start to dry out and even though we're irrigating with drip and everything we're not you're getting with overhead which means that the soil doesn't get. You know moist all the time and so if we don't have rain for a long period or we have very little rain the soil gets really tight.
00:12:07
Speaker
um and can be quite difficult. So we do use tillage you know here and there as a way to just get more crops in the ground because at this point for me what I see is that having roots in the ground is more important than like having healthy good roots in the ground is more important than like strictly saying we're gonna do no tillage whatsoever. Um so getting making sure the bacteria and other biology is really happy with the carbon it's receiving from the roots And then the roots themselves doing physical work in the in the soil, like that's really important. So we try to keep things planted as much as possible. And that's kind of that's where we're at right now with the soil health stuff.
Challenges with Soil and Solutions
00:12:49
Speaker
I love that. That is such a great way to farm and something that I am personally trying to do at my new farm.
00:12:57
Speaker
But I'm curious, you went from a very traditional heavy tillage farm to now a more regenerative approach. What inspired you to make that shift in your own farm? yeah so definitely um Just observing, just observing what that practice was doing to the soil at that farm was, it wasn't like that soil was dead or dying or anything, but it did feel like it was really extractive, that we weren't giving enough back to that soil so that it would be a long-term investment on the part of those farmers.
00:13:35
Speaker
um And also just the expense and time and carbon of running a tractor that many times over the same bed just didn't feel right to me. And so that's why I came at this new farm with the idea of you know being as no-till as possible, which is to say, like when it's when it's possible tillage is a tool in the toolbox and so we do it when we need to but we try to avoid it but sometimes it's just the thing that has to be done especially when we're like starting a new um plot or if we've got a lot of things um some really thick roots in the ground like I grow broom corn for example and that stuff does not
00:14:27
Speaker
leave the soil like the roots stay in there like these crazy little mangrove roots. um I mean over the whole winter sunflower stems will rot but broom corn will not rot so we just we till it. um You know and then we recently got a grant to buy a tractor and implements just amazing we have an amazing county where um you know the taxpayers actually support um farmers in various ways but one of the ways is through grants through the county um and also by purchasing open space so there's a lot of great things um ah that our taxpayers do for us farmers but um we were we able to get one of those grants and so now we have a power harrow four foot wide on our and on our tractor we have an undercutter we have a
00:15:17
Speaker
ah ah We have a flail mower and then we also have a compost spreader which is gonna make our lives so much easier and make it a lot faster and better way for us to get compost out onto the bed so um that said you know we now have this sort of.
00:15:37
Speaker
swiss army knife tractor that we can use to promote soil health not just through tillage but through being able to plants ah plant more cover crops put more compost out you know all kinds of ways that we're really able to support our soil health here on the farm and at a larger scale and with less um less effect on our bodies because we are, you know, getting up there and have a baby now. And so it's been really, you know, we have to save our bodies and save our time. Absolutely. Well, that is really exciting. And in a little bit, I do want to ask you about motherhood. Congratulations. I understand you just had a baby this year.
00:16:17
Speaker
Yeah, she was born in August, late August. um She was two months early, so she spent a little bit of time in the NICU. um But, you know, it's really amazing. It's just, people say having a kid is a miracle, and I don't think I really ever understood the definition of miracle until I had a baby, you know? I don't think you get it until it happens to you, so.
00:16:46
Speaker
It's amazing. it's ah You grew a human. like we watch As flower farmers, we're constantly growing things, yeah but here you grow this true human being that really is a miracle. so Absolutely. and So your daughter is, we're recording this in January, so she's what, about four, five? She's about four months old, yeah. Four months old. Yeah, she just had her own checkup.
00:17:09
Speaker
at the end of December. um But you know, and then it's weird with Prene, so like, you could either say that she's four months old or that she's two months old, you know, so she seems to be developmentally like somewhere between those two places. but um she's doing really really well um you know she she just was early she didn't really have any problems the problem you know the problems we had were it was like my body and like my placenta and uterus stuff so um she uh she's great she just was in the nick you to she had a little bit of oxygen and she had to learn how to eat and she had to grow you know but other than that she's
00:17:50
Speaker
Really wonderful and she's been at home now with us for three months which is crazy cuz it feels like a I mean it feels like a really long time um but it hasn't it hasn't been that long it just feels like before she was born with a different life so um you know it's been.
00:18:10
Speaker
Really good and really challenging. I mean, it really puts um some boundaries around what you're able to do as with work on the farm.
Balancing Motherhood and Farming
00:18:20
Speaker
um So, you know, thankfully we're in a slow season, but we're definitely looking at how are we going to get childcare so that we can actually do our jobs because I don't know.
00:18:32
Speaker
and Have you seen this new book? It's um ah Farm Raised Kids by Katie Kula. It's great. It's a really great new book by Katie Kula. She writes for Growing for Market, and she does the Growing for Market podcast. um But yeah, so she just came out with this book, and there's some really great you know ideas and tips in there about how to integrate kids into your farm life. um So I felt really lucky because um that book came out this year. And I was like, oh, well, perfect.
00:19:01
Speaker
so it was um it was really fun to be reading about other people's experiences having their kids on the farm but it's kind of like you think sure like we'll just bring the kid to work you know we'll just still just hang out in a carrier or whatever but that you know it's just No. like They really really need so much attention. and um It's great to have her on the farm. like It provides so much stimulation and so much you know cool things for her to do and look at and be around. um But you know I can't like finish feeding a flat of snapdragons. Totally. It's challenging. but so Having her wrapped around you and covering her in dirt as you're like poking little holes in a seed tray. Yeah.
00:19:48
Speaker
I'm really excited that you shared about the book, Farm Raise Kids. I will have to check that out because I have a 10-year-old. and I'd like to say it gets easier and it does in some ways. like They're no longer strapped to you. But parenting, well, I should say farming while having children,
00:20:06
Speaker
It's not necessarily this glorious, like you see some of the social media, the kids are playing in the flowers and running through the fields. That's not the case for our family. The case for us is, mom, I'm done digging in the dirt, can I go home now? right right and so It creates a whole new level of challenges on the farm. and You had your baby in August, which I imagine was prime season for you.
00:20:31
Speaker
Yeah, it's been um a really tough time so I went I um Went to the hospital on August 1st because I was having some bleeding and then ah by that afternoon I had been helicoptered to Denver. Oh my gosh. Yeah, they wanted me to be in a ah higher level NICU in case she needed to be delivered um So that was a crazy experience. I actually like had adrenaline shakes when I got off the helicopter. and you know it was It was crazy. It was really crazy. And what was also very interesting was that they billed insurance $86,000 for the helicopter ride, which is like, wow, like our health care system. Anyway. but Yes. um
00:21:24
Speaker
It was wild and then you know they just kept me under observation for that month so and then august 24 if i had the last time they were gonna let me bleed so i had another bleeding they were like you know what it's time to get this baby out she's you know developed enough she's had enough time that.
00:21:43
Speaker
We know her outcome will be really good, but it's too unsafe for her to you know stay inside. So so I had a C-section and then she was in the NICU for a month. So um again, yeah, she was just on oxygen and um for she's on oxygen for a couple of weeks, but just you know at a nasal cannula. And then she was ah getting gavage feeding, so feeding through the nose for most of the time she was there and just learning how to eat. So doing breastfeeding, doing bottle feeding to help her learn how to eat on her own. And then by the time she was able to do that, we were could take her home. so um And then that was
00:22:27
Speaker
ah Completely, it was like having the baby all over again because when you're in the NICU, you've got, you know, a team of 12 nurses around the clock helping you um take care of this baby and then you're at home and you're like, Oh, no.
00:22:41
Speaker
now I can't see what her heart rate is all the time or her temperature or you know they're not going to weigh her every day you know so um and then also of course I'm awake all the time where before I had been going you know it was great actually because I was able to recover from my c-section at home going to sleep you know for most of the night other than pumping and um But yeah, so that was another ah adjustment, bringing her home. and but we're And you know, with kids, it's every day seems really different, especially at this age, I think. Every kind of week, it's something new that's happening. Schedules are changing. and so
00:23:23
Speaker
Just like with farming, it's adaptability, adaptability, flexibility, um just like allowing plans to shift and change. And that's hard for me. um I'm a very like, I don't know, I'm a very analytical person. I really like to have a plan. I really like to um you know, I plan out the whole season week by week and what we're going to seed and all of that and where it's going to go. And most of the time we stick to the seeding schedule, but kind of like everything else sort of goes out the window at some point. It's still a good exercise, I think, to do the planning, but um but it often just, it often just is that a plan that isn't executed. um But I, yeah. um
00:24:09
Speaker
It's been great to be a farmer and to learn that flexibility in myself and not to be a parent and to learn even further deeper flexibility um like emotionally and with my partner and yeah so it's been a.
00:24:24
Speaker
Really cool. Really, I don't know, I feel like everything has sort of like prepared me now to be a mom and a farmer. um And I've been able to learn so much. um Really good life lessons throughout that about everything, really.
00:24:39
Speaker
I love that because my story is opposite of yours. ah But I'm a planner also, I'm very much a planner. So when my daughter came, everything was very planned and regimented. and Then I became a flower farmer after the fact, and now I've learned to let things go and be a little bit more flexible and resilient. um But I had never thought about that, that but farmers who are farmers prior to having kids are way better parents.
00:25:06
Speaker
than someone like me who was so regimented and and wasn't didn't have that adaptability built into me. Because farming really does teach us to be resilient and adaptable and flexible. i mean There's so much out of our control. like As a control freak, I've had to release so much over the last six years. Yeah.
00:25:27
Speaker
Absolutely, it is. That's a great word for it is release. And and that's how that's how farming in motherhood has been for me where there's just like a lot of surrender. Just a lot of surrender and then counting on yourself to just really do your best and do the most important things at the time that you have, um which is, that's the whole point of living as far as I can tell is like, let's find what's the most important thing to give our attention to and and we and we'll do that. And the other things are just going to have to slide. That's such great wisdom. So ah along that same path, now that you're a mother and a flower farmer, how is your business going to change in the coming year?
Expanding the Farm Business
00:26:17
Speaker
So yeah, so the business, um amazingly, my husband has been able to farm full time with me for the past two seasons after he left his job at, he was doing influencer marketing for this this company that does that. And he does graphic design and um identities for new companies as well.
00:26:41
Speaker
um But he has been able to join me. And so that means that we are both really committed to the business. And having that other partner with you, who's not an employee, but who's an owner, it's just been game changing for us. um Because he's got all of these strengths that I don't have, and vice versa. And so by having these two really committed owners, we with different strengths, we have really been able to cover a lot more bases of of our farm um and and really kind of get things down and under our belts and um you know sort of going. The ball is just rolling. you know um So that has been absolutely incredible. And then the rest of everything
00:27:35
Speaker
you know we are expanding a little bit this year with our footprint on the farm so especially having the tractor we're able to open up more land more easily and I'm looking into doing more um sort of extensive cropping like more sunflowers we're doing more ornamental pumpkins we're doing more grasses and things that you know because some of the land that we're farming on is really pretty weedy so it's hard to do things that require a lot of care And at the same time, we're really concentrating on varieties that are
00:28:07
Speaker
ah really profitable and productive for us. So we still want to keep a mix of really unique things because, of course, that's what sets us apart as um local flower farmers. um So you know the things that florists can't get, like I grow this thing called Lorenziana blanket flower. And it's a double blanket flower. It's really unique. People really like it. um Another thing I grow is um a Zulu Prince daisy that you know you're just not going to get that at the at the wholesaler cosmos, dahlias, things like that that the florists really, really appreciate. So concentrating on those things that we are good at and that our florists appreciate from us as opposed to getting them from the wholesale house.
00:28:57
Speaker
um That has been ah really important and and kind of that's that's where we're at. But ah we're doing, let's see, this year we grossed, or 2024, we grossed $225,000 and that's on our acre and a quarter plus probably another half acre in the in the other fields. So our main field is about an acre and a quarter with three high tunnels. um Well, caterpillar tunnels.
00:29:25
Speaker
um And you know I feel really good about that. Our goal is 300,000 for this year, but we're able to support ourselves. And then last year it was one full-time employee and one part-time employee. This year we'll have at least two full-time employees. We're in the process of hiring right now, which is a lot of fun. It's really cool to meet all these people that are interested in flowers. um And then, ah yeah, maybe a part-time person this year as well.
00:29:53
Speaker
So like it feels like we're in this growth stage. um And being having a kid really means that we have to dial in all of those systems that are going to allow our employees to do their best work. So that might be writing our s SOPs, updating our employee handbook, really getting those training sessions down pat of like, what is it that this person really needs to know and do and how does that need to be done so that it's Good you know um and so starting and we're actually starting with two new employees this year so you know that's a whole.
00:30:31
Speaker
a whole aspect of my job that I really enjoy, which is the teaching and um and training people. I really love that. That's why we do a lot of on-farm workshops and things here. um But the training and the employees is it going to be a blank slate this year. So I'm excited about it. I'm really excited to kind of get some more systems in place that are going to help people like do their do their best work and keep us all really like a well-oiled machine. and So I feel good about where we're at with that as far as um like we have a lot of good ah s SOPs and I feel like people, I'm able to express my expectations and able to express the quality um and the standards for the product. um So that feels really good. and um Yeah.
00:31:23
Speaker
Yeah, like I feel great about where our business is right now. we're also because Also because we have a child, we're um definitely pulling back from some of our our outlets. So we're not going to go to farmer's market this year. We are only doing ah weddings where people come and pick up their arrangements from us. We're not going and doing any installations or anything like that, no deliveries.
00:31:48
Speaker
And it's also that we can just stay on the farm as much as possible. um And so that's where like our on-farm workshops really come in. On the Saturday, I'm able to make almost as much money doing an on-farm workshop as I am going to farmers market, but there's just like a lot less.
00:32:08
Speaker
prep and time and everything um associated with it. And I really love it. It's really fun for me. um I love going to market too. I really appreciate, you know, hearing from people, Oh, I've never seen that before in my life. That is so cool. These are the most beautiful flowers I've ever seen. Like, you know, people really love it. It feels really good to get that feedback at market. So it'll be, it'll be sad for us. And my husband really enjoys market too. So he'll be sad to not go, but maybe we'll do a Mother's Day guest spot or something like that. So I love that you have become a mother and I keep saying this word and that you are doing both. Like you can be a mother and a flower farmer and you're expanding your business this year. Like that is so amazing. And from what I'm gathering from what you're saying, I think you're able to do a lot of this because you have these systems in place. Can we talk a little bit about those systems? Because like for me, and I think a lot of the listeners out there, it's been just me on my farm.
00:33:07
Speaker
And a lot of my listeners know that we went from leasing land to now we have a 20 acre field, which we're not farming 20 acres. We're starting small again. But to scale up, I'm going to need a team. How did you develop systems for your farm so that it was not just you? Because obviously with you being gone in August and September, two prime months for a flower farmer and our farm still didn't just carry on, but it thrived last year. How did you get those systems in place so you could do that?
00:33:38
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, I think it's just, yeah, it's really been the the sort of diversity of my experience on all these different, you know, three different farms, and then working for different people, having different goals for my ah my work and on these different farms.
00:33:57
Speaker
um I think that what has been most important for me is just Defining the job and defining what needs to be done and even though it seems silly To take the time to write and when I say fop, I mean standard ah standard operating procedure so we're writing down how do we plant a flat of stop dragon right so So here's the soil mix that we use. We use this and then we add this to it and we mix it in this proportion and we add a little bit of water and then we take this tray and we put it on the bench. We fill it with soil, we tap it a couple of times so there's not as much air. you know It's like this really detailed um system or or document right that we use to say this is how this should be done.
00:34:45
Speaker
now that always has flexibility built into it because different people do different things in a different way whether that's because their body it feels more comfortable for their body in that other way or it's more convenient um for me as long as the quality is there and it's getting done that's fine i just it's it seems silly to write down these exact steps sometimes especially if you're doing it just on your own it's just for you you know but it can be really clarifying. It can be really, um yeah, just focuses you on what's important about that task and why we're doing the thing the way we're doing it. And that's really an important thing to have in your back pocket. So even if it's just for yourself, to write down those processes, I think is a really good exercise. It really helps you um
00:35:41
Speaker
clarify um why you're doing it that way and then once you're ready to start working with other people and i would say like for most people if you're doing this as a business i would say hire people faster than you think like cuz more people are the sooner you start working with people.
00:36:02
Speaker
the sooner you're going to be able to get in the group of of managing people and um and really figure out what kind of manager you are and be able to get again those systems in place to help people because you'll be working out the kinks with them. um And so I think even having, you know let's say you're managing a farm on your own and ah you're doing most of the on-farm work, great. um But maybe you hire somebody to help you with your emails and your social media or something like that, especially if it's something that like you don't really enjoy. like If you want to be out in the field and stuff, like hire somebody to help you with your with your social media. It can be like five hours a week.
00:36:45
Speaker
you know and that way you're getting a little bit of practice like working with somebody else defining your goals on the farm and communicating those goals to somebody else um so yeah i would say for me the systems building sort of started with record keeping i really wanted to know how much i was producing on the farm and so that meant like okay i've developed this record keeping sheet a harvest sheet where i got and i say okay in this bed we're harvesting this plant and we you know today we're writing down okay i harvested five bunches of you know yellow cosmos um today and that way when i take that sheet and i go and i put it into the computer
00:37:31
Speaker
Actually, I worked with my mom. My mom is my executive assistant is what we call her when we're being together. So she comes in and she sold. call me on the phone and go through my emails with me while I'm out in the field um harvesting and I'll say you know just ah basically do like a thumbs up thumbs down or whatever on somebody's question or um somebody has a bride has a request for a wedding and say thumbs up thumbs down and then you know she goes through the the process of um getting them onboarded and stuff.
00:38:05
Speaker
But she also does the data entry, so I get you know all of this bre and all of these records of my harvest. And that's where it started for me because I was like, oh I really want this data. I really want to know what we're producing um and what's the best thing for us to grow, what's the most productive thing.
00:38:25
Speaker
And of course, there's so many variables that it's hard to tell just from that data, but you can get a good sense of what's happening through the season if you're keeping records of what you're doing. So that's where it started for me was like, okay, we're going to keep records and this is how we're going to do it, right?
00:38:41
Speaker
And then from there, it's sort of like, okay, now there's all of these other tasks and things that I would really like to be done in a certain way, or that at least here's a really good guideline for how to do this task in an efficient way, so that we're all making the best of our time.
00:38:57
Speaker
um And for me, i I just really enjoy that kind of work. So sitting down and saying, this is the way that we transplant. right So we get the plants out. They get hardened off. they We do a root soak in fish emulsion. And then we use this rake thing to lay out the lines. And then you know for this plant, it goes in at 6 by 6 spacing. And this is how we measure that. And we do that on a triangle spacing. And you know we're going to make sure that it's Covered you know up to the that the plug soil is covered and then we're gonna lay back the drip line on and we're gonna do some hand watering and you know, so That if I am gone, which I was, you know
00:39:43
Speaker
People can see exactly what to do. um and i'm not and it It's a really interesting thing because like you want to be essential to your operation, but it's also essential that you are not essential to your operation. like Totally. You need to like just spread out that knowledge. you know You really need to stop hoarding it. that was At least for me, this is what I said to myself. I'll stop hoarding all of this knowledge that I have and I really have to give capacity to the folks around me who are helping me, right? um and And that's actually been really empowering and really a good thing that's happened on our farm.
00:40:23
Speaker
we um I just really enjoy seeing my employees grow and learn and and come up with their own ideas for how to do things differently or do things faster. Because when you can give people capacity and give them you know responsibility and trust, they really they really bloom. They really just come into their own. So um as much as like the SOPs feel like this really dry thing, it actually gives the people you're working with
00:40:53
Speaker
I'm a little bit more creativity because it's like here's the guidelines and then within that. do will do it the way that it's best, right? And yeah, so that's been really fun. So setting up the SOPs, making the seating schedule at the beginning of the year, because that way it's like, okay, this week, here's what the seating schedule says to do. We just do that. We just do it, um you know, and that has kept our farm going. And actually my husband, he said,
00:41:25
Speaker
You know we had a in had an amazing september like we had a really really good september in terms of sales and harvest it was really good um and he said you know It wasn't me. I said, Oh, it's because I wasn't there. It's because I was not there. And you guys were able to just be awesome without me. He's like, No, no, no, it's because you did so much planning in advance. So you did so much planning, you really gave people capacity to do their jobs without you. um And that
00:41:56
Speaker
Is resilience right so when you're able to weather a really difficult time and still come out ahead. That's resilience and so the reason that that happened is that i had a seating schedule plan.
00:42:14
Speaker
Everybody knew where things were going to go and what you know well but was going to be planted and how they were going to be harvested. i had you know with With experience, you just get that rhythm of, okay, here's this focal flower coming into season, and then here's the next one coming into season, and then here's the next one, and here's the succession. and like you know now we do I used to do one succession of zinnias, but that's not enough anymore because like the first one will sort of You know get gross after a while and then but the second one will go all the way to frost. So um We've learned that over time. So Knowing that great we're gonna seed that second succession of zinnias at this time that means it gets planted at this time and then we have zinnias all the way to frost and um, so that's that's kind of how it worked out how it has worked out for me, um and to just
00:43:09
Speaker
Just be able to trust people and give them that that work um and that freedom to do the work in the way that's best for them and it's best for the farm.
00:43:22
Speaker
so Yeah, it's a long process, I guess I would say, with those systems. And it's definitely um unique to everybody's operation. But as much as you can do, you know as much as you can sit down and sort of define those processes, it's really great. And then, of course, we have all that flexibility built built into it, too. so So being able to say, yeah, that was the plan, but that's not going to work anymore.
00:43:50
Speaker
But you know as much as possible sticking to that seating schedule um really helps us. So. I think that's such great wisdom. and As I think about it as you were talking, even being a solo farmer by myself, even when I was growing on a quarter of an acre, there was a summer where like one of the things that we've really been focusing on for planning the future is that our daughter is getting older and we don't take summer vacations because it's harvest time. And a couple years ago, my daughter and I, we went down to California to visit family. um I believe it was for my niece's first birthday. And we were only going for like three days.
00:44:33
Speaker
So two nights, three days. And I had to get someone to water the plants because even though I had drip lines to everything, it was like that random heatwave where we're going to get up to 118 degrees. But I had no like plans. I'm like trying to write on Apple notes of what to do. And I come back and things are dead and I can't be angry because I didn't have a great system to tell someone. And it's like you're chained to your farm almost if no one can do what do you do.
00:45:02
Speaker
But and it's not like anything we do is that hard or rocket science. ah So I love this idea of, regardless of what size, just taking the time to create these operating procedures so someone can step in. What if you break your arm? or yeah I hammered my hand two summers ago but putting down landscape fabric, and my hand hurt so bad that I couldn't use my left. Thankfully, it was my left hand. yeah You never know when something's going to happen, and especially if you're working by yourself, it's maybe even and more important sometimes yeah So thank you for sharing that wisdom.
Collaborative Farming and Land Use
00:45:37
Speaker
I want to go back if we can, you mentioned that the land that you're growing on is shared space. Did you find this land or did you come upon this collectively? How did this collective come to be?
00:45:49
Speaker
Yeah, thank you. I love talking about this. though um So thanks for that question. Yeah. So we were looking for land. We thought we were going to buy land. And then it's so expensive here. We just couldn't find anything that was reasonable. Like the best thing we found was 10 acres with maybe water rights and a mobile home on it. And it was just like, it was gross. So this, we came across this property through the, I'm part of the Flatirons Farmers Coalition, which is a local group of farmers. um And
00:46:24
Speaker
They came across this because another the land that we're on is owned by another farmer, and they do animal agriculture at another farm about five miles away. um But they had this property. They had bought it. It was a cattle feedlot before um they bought it. They bought it. They were cleaning it up. I mean, they did a lot to it. like The greenhouse where we are was a cattle barn, and it was like I don't know a three feet deep in manure but they got it all out they put yeah they put like a greenhouse you know roof on it and then cemented in the floor on one side and so there's been just like a lot done to it.
00:47:01
Speaker
We came in, i you know I saw that they were looking for people to lease it. um And I came and did a tour of the property. I was like, wow, it this is really great. The irrigation system, the greenhouse, you know it's really got everything that you need to start a farm. um and But it was you know it's,000 a month to lease this place.
00:47:25
Speaker
And that was just not going to be possible for us. So actually through mutual friends and just knowing people in the farming community, we we got hooked up with Cody and Melissa, Speedwell Farming Gardens, and they had put together an amazing proposal for leasing this land. And they had already sort of done a lot of the legwork of bringing together some people who were I'm gonna allow us to ah be able to afford it and also take care of the land in the way that the owners wanted us to. um So I said, Hey buddies, I have a different product than you. I'm not a vegetable grower. I'm a flower grower. I really think that our operations could compliment each other.
00:48:08
Speaker
um And so they very graciously allowed me to kind of tack my proposal onto theirs. But um I think that as a group, we became a really strong candidate for this property. um And then You know we were able to get that proposal approved um by the owners and yeah so we took possession in ah January of 2021 so this will be our fifth that's so crazy it'll be our fifth season on this farm um and.
00:48:42
Speaker
Yeah, it's fantastic. So the way that we structured it, I really, I really like to talk about this because a lot of people are interested in how we're doing it. So we're two completely separate operations. We were not, you know, farming collaboratively or anything. but We're working together to take care of the land and so they have about an acre ah and a half that they're growing on. I have my main field of an acre and a quarter and then we all collectively work on
00:49:13
Speaker
um the rest of the land and we divide that up between let's say we're not going to use all of it so we'll do cover crop on this part or they're going to grow like a big field of winter squash and I'm going to do dahlias out here and I'm going to do sunflowers out here right.
00:49:27
Speaker
um So we have frequent meetings, we sit down and we we talk about um how we're going to use the land and and so on. So the way we actually set it up was that um we created a new LLC, which is the Treehouse Farm Collective. So that LLC holds the lease with our landowners.
00:49:48
Speaker
and then the LLC sub-leases to our individual businesses. so We sub-lease to Artemis Flower Farm, to me and Nelson for the house, to Speedwell Farm and Garden, to the Tool Library, and to the Verma composting operation, Verdeterra. The tree house farm collective is just a bank account you know where we collect rent and then give it to our our landlords.
00:50:15
Speaker
um But it does allow us to allows us to have a lot of flexibility in paying for utilities and buying things collectively like soil or fertilizer or something. um so its just yeah It's been really wonderful. and Then to be farming with other people who are doing this as a business, they actually just had their baby two weeks ago. and yeah so It's really weird there's something in the water in our community like everybody is having babies right now. um But it's yeah it's just going to be amazing to be growing our families together and um be farming this land together because you're so much less.
00:51:00
Speaker
Isolated um you have all of these other brains at your disposal you have you you can look over and you can see how man what are you doing what is that what's that tool what are you know what are they using you know to make their lettuces so green and beautiful. um what are they you know What is that ah Tilther? like I hadn't seen a Tilther before and then we're using that. I was like, oh, that's nifty. and you know We've used it in our tunnels a little bit. um We're able to use this tractor that we got collaboratively and collectively on the farm. um you know We're able to share tools, share resources, um and of course, share the burden of the rent and the utilities and all that. so
00:51:40
Speaker
But it's just there's just so many, um so many benefits to farming together, um especially when you're doing it with people who are growing something different than you and have just different um goals, different experiences, different expertise. So, yeah, it's.
00:51:59
Speaker
That's the best thing it's the best part of i think our our business and definitely the thing that makes our business possible so in in the way that we're but we're running it um like i could.
00:52:13
Speaker
I could run this business on my own on a different piece of land. But I know that by doing this collaboratively and collectively, we have been able to grow our business much faster and much more sustainably than we would have otherwise. right Because like we're able to afford this property that has the infrastructure that we need already. And then, because we're sharing costs and sharing tools, we're able to purchase things that It costs half as much you know half as much for me to buy like an implement for the bcs or it costs half as much for me to um get this big bag of fertilizer that like maybe i would use over the course of two seasons or something but now we can get it and we're sharing the cost of the shipping you know there's just.
00:53:00
Speaker
Really, it's just awesome. I ah really appreciate what we've been able to build together. And then, of course, like the interpersonal stuff is fantastic, too. So like being able to um have difficult conversations sometimes or bring up things that you know it's like, hey, like I really need this part of the greenhouse for this year.
00:53:21
Speaker
is that going to Does that feel fair? um How can we make it feel fair? um How can we do this in a way? The so the responsibilities of like doing the taxes for that LLC or doing the bookkeeping for it um and making sure that the rent gets paid and gets collected and all of that. so we you know We share these responsibilities too. It's great. That's really all I have to say about it.
00:53:48
Speaker
It's such a unique way of farming and I'm sure there's so many people listening who have light bulbs going off thinking, oh, what a great way that would be, especially if someone's trying to get started and doesn't have land. I am curious though, do you live on the land?
00:54:04
Speaker
I do, yeah. So me and Nelson, we live here together. Cody and Melissa, ah they live 10 minutes away in North Boulder, and they have a really good housing situation. So um they were, it was a difficult decision when we first got the property of who was going to live in the house. um But because of their living situation, it was actually more cost of effective it more cost effective for them to stay where they were, and for us to live on the farm. So, um you know, there's a lot of things with housing, like we would love to be able to have some employee housing here. um We would love to all be able to live on the land, of course, and there's just a lot of restrictions because our property also has a conservation easement. So we're only allowed to have like one
00:54:53
Speaker
single-family home. It can be 4,000 square feet, but it's a single-family home. um so ah but it's yeah That was a hard a hard decision, but um it's worked out well, I think, for everybody. and there They're doing great and I think we're all we're all pretty happy with that. so That's awesome. How big is the property?
00:55:18
Speaker
In total, it's 17 acres. um So it's not enormous. But we have really good water rights, which is essential here in the West. So we have 18 shares of the ditch that runs um kind of through the property. And then we're able to take our shares out of that into our ah retention pond. And then that goes through our irrigation system with our big pump and our underground PVC up into our lay flat and our drip irrigation lines. um So yeah, it's 17 acres, probably.
00:55:50
Speaker
six and a half of those are productive land. um The rest of it, there's you know the greenhouse, the barn, there's this place that we call the terraces. It's kind of just like, my we have pigs on it right now, which are really fun. So there's another farmer who's, ah they're his pigs, but they're doing us a big service by kind of eating up a bunch of the leads and digging up some of the blessing land there. So they're being very useful.
00:56:17
Speaker
um And then, yeah, just where the house is and some other sort of, and then our big um a metal barn where the tool library is. um So yeah, it's it's interesting. It's um it's a really diverse property and there's so many people coming in and out and doing things all the time on the property. It's that's a lot of fun. um But yeah, it's It's also a lot of work to take care of um you know a lot of the areas on the farm that are sort of marginal.
00:56:50
Speaker
um but We've come up with some pretty good, you know, just being plugged into a bigger community of people who are, you know, animal farmers or who have ah you know other kinds of machinery like um mowers and folks that do snow removal. I mean, it's just, you know, it's good to to have this like big group of people on the farm um and have so much activity. And you said there's a conservation easement on the property?
00:57:17
Speaker
Yeah, so that means, so ah the landlords purchased the property from the city of Boulder. um And, or no, sorry, they didn't purchase it from the city of Boulder, but when they purchased it, they got like a better price on it because they did a conservation easement through the city of Boulder. And so the city wrote a conservation easement that says,
00:57:41
Speaker
This is meant to be an agricultural property. And here are all the things that you can't do. Like you can't have a junkyard. You can't have a dirt bike. like you know like track or whatever. yeaht have There's like a bunch of things that you can't do. um so And that's intended to keep it an agricultural property. um On all three sides of us, there is a county of Boulder open space actually as well, which is um cared for by our rancher. So he does flood irrigation and runs his cows on all three sides of us.
00:58:14
Speaker
um and Actually, this property used to be part of his land, the feedlot operation here. so um so you know There's a lot of history actually here. that Most of the people that we that come to the farm are like, oh I know this place, like this is where the hemp was, or this is where that feedlot was, or um I remember working here doing, um I was building the greenhouse or something. So so it's been a lot of fun. um But yeah, the conservation easement basically says, don't do stupid stuff, just keep it a farm. ah Gotcha. Yeah. So it's not like a wetland easement or an animal?
00:58:51
Speaker
It's not. it just It's really just that they don't want you um doing commercial stuff and they don't want you to disturb um the land in ways that would not make it usable agriculturally. So, yeah.
00:59:07
Speaker
gotcha Here in Oregon, land like mine is called EFU, which is exclusive farm use. We have very, very strict regulations of what you can and cannot do. You can't have a campground because my husband was like, oh we could put some hip camps and have this like agritourism, but agritourism is not permitted. ah so It's interesting having to like learn the lay of the land and what you can and cannot do.
00:59:32
Speaker
i know it it yeah there was There's a lot of things, I mean, I think our easement is okay, but there's a lot of things about those legal agreements where it's like, you're really making it hard for us to like have a viable you know agricultural business. um So there were there was some things in our easement about having an on-farm store. And we eventually learned that the way they were defining on-farm store meant that we could still have an on-farm store, but it was like,
01:00:02
Speaker
you know, there was a lot of legal ease and trying to figure that out. And um yeah, it can be those events, because they're developed by people who aren't farmers, you know, they tend to be maybe not as farmer friendly as they should be. um But yeah, the hip camp thing is the same here. They're like, no, temporary,
01:00:21
Speaker
you know camping or anything like that. We can have temporary worker housing, which is really great. So if we wanted to put like um an ah RV or a tiny home on the property that's for workers to live in, we could do that, but it has to be mobile. um So yeah, lots of lotss of legal stuff to think about too. um But thankfully we have some good help with um our our landlords have like a good layer that helps us out. so Oh that's great cuz yeah it's confusing I had no idea because I was previously growing on residential land and so now it's this whole new ballpark of learning what you can and cannot do.
01:01:04
Speaker
Exactly. Especially as a flower farmer, I'm finding there's a lot of gray areas because we're not an edible crop. They're like, well, does that really even fall under? And I'm like, yes, we feed the souls. Oh, I know. No, and that's that's very interesting because there's so many um like funding opportunities out there too that are Really focused on food, which is great and there should be programs for that but a lot of the time it's like, well, your grant is focused on let's say soil health and I'm doing all of those same things that a vegetable grower is doing.
01:01:39
Speaker
um for soil health and that's why like the grant that we got through our county um is focused on soil health and so I was able to say you know yes I am doing all of these practices for the soil that are the same that a vegetable or a you know um commodity crop grower would be doing right um and so yeah that's been you know and I always whenever there's a grant out there and they're like only food you know only food people can apply i'm like you should really consider ah like a flower and fiber you know sort of grant as well or this program should also be open to people who aren't necessarily growing food as um important as food is um i think that beauty is really really really important too um i don't know if you know this guy his name is david white but he's a poet who um wrote the the book that i'm
01:02:35
Speaker
thinking of is called Consolations. And he um goes through and has a ah different prose poem sort of for each of these words. And one of the ones that he does is Beauty. And it's so it's like this koan. It says, beauty um Beauty is the harvest of presence. oo And I just Adore that because that is how I kind of I don't know that's like what makes me keep doing flowers and keep thinking about beauty right is that when we are thinking about beauty we are
01:03:18
Speaker
Observing something with our senses and our bodies and we are really fully present in the moment right we're saying oh my god look at this the creation look at this absolutely miraculous thing that has appeared on the earth.
01:03:35
Speaker
for us to observe and enjoy, right? And so when we're able to see something as beauty, as beautiful, it means that we're really there. Like we're really here experiencing our lives right now and experiencing like the natural world in this really profound and important way.
01:03:54
Speaker
um So you can kind of have this corollary to that, which is that presence is the harvest of beauty, right? To be present, we can also, we can use beauty to be more present in our daily lives. And so I feel like as a flower farmer, I'm really able to offer people that really important thing, which is let me I'm captivated by this flower, um by this beautiful thing. like I'm captivated by it. I am brought into the present moment by it. I'm paying attention. I'm like giving my attention to this right now in front of me.
01:04:32
Speaker
here, you know, and that's, there's just like nothing better than that. There's just nothing better than it. And so I just really adore David White, that whole, the, so that's the first line of that um piece of work that he wrote about beauty. But the rest of it is just as just as profound. I really encourage anybody who's um interested in beauty in whatever way, whether you're an artist or a flower grower, this is a fantastic piece of writing.
01:05:02
Speaker
I just wrote that down. I'm going to check that out. that is definite I want to say that's so beautiful, even though you just said the word beauty. but i mean i I love that so much because I think about that all the time when I'm out in the farm.
01:05:15
Speaker
Yes, flowers exist for pollination, but what's their purpose? Their purpose is to bring beauty to this world. like i mean they I'm sure God or the universe, whatever you believe, could have created another way for pollinators right to pollinate. But instead, we have this beautiful thing that just brings joy to our lives. and i mean it just it's For me, and I think so many other people as flower farmers, it fills our souls in a way that nothing else.
01:05:45
Speaker
really can and it's that beauty, like that that one word right there. is just such a powerful thing. So thank you for sharing that. I have so many other questions for you, but we've been talking for so long already that um I feel like we probably should wrap this up and maybe leave the door open for a second conversation if you have some free time in your newly new motherhood. I'd be new mother happy to. Or um I mean, if you have like, a maybe I can do like one word answer to something. If you have a rapid fire, like we can do like a, you know, lightning round.
01:06:19
Speaker
Well, I was really wanting to talk to you about soil health. Yeah. um So maybe we could end it with just a few tips that you have for people sure about why soil health matters as a flower farmer. Absolutely.
Importance of Soil Health
01:06:33
Speaker
Yeah. So I mean, obviously,
01:06:37
Speaker
where you know beauty that we're talking about comes from the soil. It comes from the the web of life that is in your soil. So we have to think about soil as a living entity. It is profoundly diverse in the um amount and number and the the kinds of species that are the diversity of species that are there. I mean a teaspoon of soil has something like a billion organisms in it. It's crazy. It's crazy. And so I really believe that our job as
01:07:13
Speaker
farmers of any kind is to steward that life in the soil. Because when you have a soil that is overly disturbed, it means that the creatures there don't have a home anymore. And all of the services that they're doing for your plants, they can't do them you know anymore. And so I really think that um as much as we're providing a home for plants on our farms, really we're providing a home for the microorganisms in the soil.
01:07:42
Speaker
as well as macroorganisms throughout the farm, whether that's the birds that are coming to eat the worms that are you know feeding on the bacteria in the soil, that sort of chain of life, and ah or the snakes that are like eating the bunnies or the voles or whatever, or the owls who come and eat the voles. There's just a huge chain of life that's completely dependent on the soil and its ability to store the energy from the sun. And that's another way that flower farming and farming in general is really beautiful because we um we see how connected we are to not only
01:08:28
Speaker
Microorganisms but huge you know the the universe the solar system the giant ball of gas that is the sun like you know there's. There's a big chain that's connecting us in both directions macro and micro.
01:08:44
Speaker
um So I really think that um and it's important in a spiritual way too for us to conserve the soil. um As far as tips for doing that, it's just like the the five principles of soil health are what I always go back to, so it's disturb as little as possible.
01:09:03
Speaker
keep a living root in the ground, keep the soil covered, um diversity, diversity, diversity. So um not just planting dahlias through the whole field all the time every year, um but really rotating things and rotating within families. And then animal integration as much as possible. i mean And animals are just a lot of fun. So like even if you're throwing your 10 chickens out there at the end of the season, that's that totally counts.
01:09:31
Speaker
you know or And we human beings are animals as well. So I consider when I'm out there in the field, too that's animal integration. um If you're able to do things like have some ah pigs like we have coming through our field or maybe it's sheep or you know some kind of low impact animal, like those five principles of soil health, like I just really try to stick to those. ah It's really helpful to me and especially keeping a living root in the ground. so When I'm not able to keep a living root in the ground through cover cropping or cash cropping, then I'll put out mulch so that the soil is covered, whether that's leaves or it's maybe it's wood chips or um you know compost as a mulch, something like that. um And then you know disturbing as little as possible. So we do have to disturb the soil.
01:10:21
Speaker
to plant and to weed and to harvest and all of those things. right um But allowing those microorganisms and everybody to have their homes as long as possible and you know in place, that's that's our goal. um And then the diversity and yeah the animal integration. So um those are just those are the classic ones and they work really well. so But yeah,
01:10:45
Speaker
you know We're not out there trying to um make the field look completely pristine and amazing all the time. like It's just not going to. But something that I've learned as well with no-till and with soil health practices is that the farm looks a little bit messier than maybe you would like and maybe than your social media feed looks. But I think that means you're doing something right um because you have diversity um and you have life. And we're not just like, we only have the plants that we've planted, right? where We're opening things up, we're allowing um the farm to be a home for a lot of different animals, plants, creatures, people. um And yeah, that's really important.
01:11:37
Speaker
Thank you, Helen. Wow. You are a wealth of knowledge. um So much with farming and life and even motherhood, even though you're a new mama, you have so much wisdom already. Your daughter is a lucky little girl um and so lucky to be able to grow up on such an amazing farm with a community surrounding her. I think that's one of the hardest things as a farmer sometimes, especially when you're doing it alone,
01:12:03
Speaker
And part of why I created this podcast is for the community because it's, it can be really lonely if you're doing it by yourself. And so my hope is that by telling these stories, by people hearing your story, people just feel more connected because we can make a bigger difference when we do this together. So I really appreciate you being here today. Before we say goodbye, I do have a couple of quick questions.
Connect with Artemis Flower Farm
01:12:25
Speaker
First is for those that want to know more about you, where can they find you an Artemis farm?
01:12:31
Speaker
Yeah, so our website is artemisflowerfarm.com, and I know that's a difficult name, so that's A-R-T-E-M-I-S, flowerfarm dot.com. She's um the Greek goddess of the wilderness, actually. yeah I love that. so Yeah, she's she's pretty awesome, Artemis. I have a whole blog about Why we pick that name and stuff but Artemis flower farm calm. We're also Artemis flower farm on Instagram and Our farm is yeah between Boulder and Longmont here um in Colorado We have an on-farm store and we do a lot of on-farm workshops floral design and flower gardening so love to welcome people here all the time for those events and um
01:13:16
Speaker
Yeah, I'm actually, I think, I don't know, I really want to do like a fall farm fest on our farm and do like, you know, pumpkins. And my dream is to have all of our neighbors bring lots and lots of leaves because most people take them to the landfill. But what I'd really like to do is create a giant pile of leaves and then have a diving board where you can dive off to the pile of leaves. That sounds amazing.
01:13:43
Speaker
and pumpkins and sunflowers. you know But anyway, that's in the that's in the works for another another season probably. yeah but um But yeah, those are the ways you can get in touch with me. Well, you should do that next year around the same time as the Boulder Marathon. Oh, yeah. Are you going to do that? It's on our bucket list. So um I would run a half marathon, not a full. um But I better start training now because I'm totally out of shape. ah Tell me about it. I'm out of shape for sure.
01:14:12
Speaker
Well, you've got a better excuse than me. You just had a baby. Okay. ah my final My final question. What would you like to leave our listeners with today? Thinking about the conversation that we just had, I would really like for people to know that this is hard. This is a really hard thing to do.
01:14:38
Speaker
no matter how you're doing it. And it's really worth it. It is worth it. It's worth it every day. um And just to when you're feeling overwhelmed or you're feeling like it's not working, I would really encourage you to just do what we just talked about, which is be present.
01:15:00
Speaker
and Take a look at everything that you have built and take a look at the tiniest little thing on your farm in your hand in your soil because i guarantee you will find inspiration in that even when you're feeling your worst and even when things are really really hard.
01:15:20
Speaker
And just like just keep doing it because it's really important that we have this beauty in the world. And i'm really just I'm just really proud to be part of a big community like this of people that care about care about beauty and care about taking care of the Earth that we live on. so Well, we are so blessed to have you as part of this flower community. And I know you're also super involved with the A-S-C-F-G. I think I got the acronyms great that time. I'm also a member. um But thank you so much for your contributions to the floral ah community. It's so appreciated. And you are such an inspiring leader in this space. So thank you and enjoy this winter with your little one.
01:16:07
Speaker
um And we would love to keep the door open to have you back on the podcast again. Absolutely. Yeah, please do. I'm excited to to hear how this turns out and open to questions and so be in touch. Thanks so much, Helen. Have a wonderful day.
01:16:24
Speaker
Thank you Flower Friends for joining us on another episode of the Backyard Bouquet. I hope you've enjoyed the inspiring stories and valuable gardening insights we've shared today. Whether you're cultivating your own backyard blooms or supporting your local flower farmer, you're contributing to the local flower movement, and we're so happy to have you growing with us.
01:16:46
Speaker
If you'd like to stay connected and continue this blossoming journey with local flowers, don't forget to subscribe to the Backyard Bouquet podcast. I'd be so grateful if you would take a moment to leave us a review of this episode. And finally, please share this episode with your garden friends. Until next time, keep growing, keep blooming, and remember that every bouquet starts right here in the backyard.