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Ep. 97 Erin Clark of Muddy Hill Flower Farm: Growing 5,000 Dahlias in Snohomish County
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Some stories start with a grand plan. Erin Clark's started with five dahlias and a need to get outside.
In 2020, home with a new baby and a world gone quiet, Erin went looking for an outlet. She found it in a 60-square-foot patch of dirt. A neighbor walked by, saw her planting, and the next day her husband gifted Erin a whole tray of tubers. That neighbor turned out to be a dahlia hybridizer who lived right around the corner. That small act of generosity grew into Muddy Hill Flower Farm, where Erin now grows more than 5,000 dahlias on a field her husband once mowed for his dad's cattle.
In this episode, Erin and I talk about the messy, beautiful middle of building a flower farm. We get into soil tests and powdery mildew and the great vole wars. We talk about why she refuses to spray her field, what the Snohomish County Flower Collective means to her, and the brand-new community event she is helping bring to her town this fall.
And at the end, Erin shares something tender about what this work has given her. It moved me. I think it will move you too.
Key Takeaways
- Generosity is contagious. One neighbor's gift of tubers started an entire farm.
- You do not have to start big. Erin began with five dahlias in 60 square feet.
- Local flowers are not the same product as imported flowers. Freshness, vase life, and how they are grown all matter.
- Growing without chemicals is possible. Nematodes, lacewings, neem oil, and patience do a lot of the work.
- Community beats competition. Flower farmers who buy and sell from each other serve their customers better.
- The biggest reward is not the money. It is the confidence and courage that grow alongside the flowers.
Resources and Links Mentioned
- Muddy Hill Flower Farm: https://muddyhillflowerfarm.com
- Instagram / Facebook: @muddyhillflowerfarm
- Snohomish in Bloom (September 12, 2026): https://www.snohomishinbloom.com/
Guest Bio
Erin Clark is the farmer and florist behind Muddy Hill Flower Farm in Snohomish, Washington. She grows locally loved cut flowers without herbicides or pesticides on three acres just outside town, and she is best known for her dahlias, with more than 150 varieties. Erin sells through her farm stand, DIY buckets, local wholesale, and the Snohomish County Flower Collective, and she is helping bring the first-ever Snohomish in Bloom celebration to her community this September.
Related Episodes
- Episode 86 with Melissa Stewart of Sweet Bloom Farm
- Episode 61 with Jennifer Joray (the two-part conversation on ticks and organic, no-spray solutions)
Before you go: If you love dahlias, come grow with us at the Dahlia Design Summit, September 13 to 18. It is a full week of learning with world-class flower farmers and florists from around the globe. Learn more and grab a ticket at: https://thefloweringfarmhouse.com/summit
Recommended
Transcript
Intro
Dahlia Design Summit Announcement
00:00:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Before we dive into today's episode, if you're growing Dahlias this season, I have something to share with you that you're not going to want to miss. I'm so excited to be hosting the Dahlia Design Summit, the sequel to the Profitable Dahlia Summit.
Summit Details and Schedule
00:01:08
Jennifer Gulizia
This will be a full week of learning September 13th through eighteenth with an incredible lineup of world-class flower farmers and florists who will be joining us from all around the globe. Whether you grow a single row of dahlias in your backyard or a whole field of them, you'll walk away inspired and ready for your best
Ticket Information and Waitlist
00:01:26
Jennifer Gulizia
season yet.
00:01:27
Jennifer Gulizia
If you'd like to get on the wait list and be the first to know when early bird tickets go on sale, just click on the link in today's show notes.
Guest Introduction: Erin Clark
00:01:35
Jennifer Gulizia
Now for today's guest, and I'm so excited about this one, I get to welcome Erin Clark, the farmer and florist behind Muddy Hill Flower Farm in Snohomish, Washington. If you haven't met Erin yet, you're in for a treat because she is exactly the kind of grower this whole community is
Eco-Friendly Flower Farming Methods
00:01:54
Jennifer Gulizia
built upon. On three acres just outside of her town, Erin grows beautiful, locally loved cut flowers, all without herbicides or pesticides. She's become known for her dahlias with more than 150 varieties in every color you can dream of. And beyond her own field, she's a generous part of her local flower community.
Community Involvement in 'Snohomish in Bloom'
00:02:14
Jennifer Gulizia
And this September, she's even helping to bring her whole town together for a celebration called Snohomish in Bloom i'm so excited for erin to share her story today and i can't wait for you to hear it
00:02:26
Jennifer Gulizia
erin welcome to the backyard boquet podcast thanks for being here today
00:02:31
Erin
Thank you for having me. I appreciate it I'm really excited to get to chat with you today.
Farm Transformation Story
00:02:35
Erin
You've pretty much said everything.
00:02:35
Jennifer Gulizia
like
00:02:38
Erin
I'm Erin and I grow flowers here in Snohomish. If anybody's familiar with the area, I'm just on Fobes Hill and the property that we have, my husband's family actually lives just right down the street.
00:02:53
Erin
And so he grew up mowing our field for hay for his dad's cattle. And now we get to grow flowers on it. So pretty cool.
Snohomish's Flower Farming Community
00:03:02
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. So for anyone who's not familiar with Snohomish, where in Washington is that located?
00:03:08
Erin
um We're about 45 minutes north of Seattle. i always try to give people always seem to know where Seattle is about an hour south of Bellingham, if you're familiar with Bellingham.
00:03:19
Erin
We're
00:03:20
Jennifer Gulizia
So you're in the Skagit Valley, is that correct?
00:03:22
Erin
we're actually in Snohomish County, so one county south of Skagit.
00:03:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, very close to the area where lots of flower farmers are concentrated though.
00:03:31
Erin
Absolutely. Yeah.
00:03:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay, well take us back to the beginning of your flower farming journey.
00:03:37
Erin
Oh, goodness.
00:03:37
Jennifer Gulizia
How did you get into flower farming?
00:03:39
Erin
um Man, so I think it started when I used to have a corporate desk job. We'll just leave it at that. We don't need we don't need to mention what it was. And I remember I had just read Erin Benzakein's Cut Flower book. And i want to say my son was probably year and a half, two years old when I read it. And I remember telling one of my coworkers, how fun would it be to just be able to grow some flowers and have a little farm stand out front and just give away flowers and make tiny little bouquets. And next thing you know, maybe 2020, Emma was born, my youngest. And obviously during COVID, a lot of isolation, And I didn't go back to work after she was born. i ended up staying home to take care of both my kiddos.
00:04:34
Erin
And I needed an outlet, like a lot of people. And it turned into, it turned into flowers. It started with like 60 square feet, like super small, super small. I think I had bought five dahlias at a local nursery and was outside planting those when a neighbor had walked by and she's like, I see you're out here planting dahlias. I was like, yeah, I'm just kind of learning what I'm, you know, I don't know what I'm doing, just trying to figure it out, but I needed to be outside. i needed an a healthy outlet.
00:05:09
Erin
And the next day she came over and her husband had gifted me an entire tray, probably like 20 tubers to add to my five. And it was the sweetest thing ever. And come to find out, like, I didn't know anything other the time.
00:05:22
Erin
i didn't know what Dahlia hybridizing was. I didn't know what hybridizers were. and come to find out Denise and Mike Alexander, if you're familiar with Mountain View dahlias, he hybridized those dahlias and he just lives around the corner from me.
00:05:37
Erin
And so he gave me a tray to start and that kind of started my addiction with dahlias.
00:05:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my goodness.
00:05:43
Erin
And so that year grew 25 or so. And the following year I took over half of our veggie garden that we had also started the previous year.
00:05:55
Erin
And i think I grew about 50. And then i remember telling my husband, so our three acres, this was just where I was growing was just in the backyard, like where the kids play area is.
00:06:07
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:06:08
Erin
And we still had three acre field. And it was being mowed at the time for because like I said, my father-in-law raises black Angus just down the road. And I told my husband, I was like, what would you think about us expanding out into the field? And he was like, if you can make more money selling flowers than we do on hay, you go right ahead.
00:06:32
Erin
Funny story, we don't make we never made any money on hay because we just mowed it and gave it to my father-in-law. There was no exchange of funds. So all I had to do was sell one bouquet and the deal was done.
00:06:43
Erin
and so yeah, but the year after my 50 dahlias, then I think it turned into...
00:06:43
Jennifer Gulizia
That's hilarious.
00:06:50
Erin
like maybe a 400, 500 square foot area. And I grew 300, 350 dahlias, which I remember planting those and just being exhausted after getting those in the ground.
00:07:03
Erin
And i think that was the year like 2020, the end of 2022 was when I finally decided that I wanted this to be like a business.
00:07:13
Erin
I applied and got my business license. and formed the LLC and just had big dreams of having starting my own flower farm and each year it's progressively got bigger and bigger and bigger and now we grow of our three acres we grow on about a half acre maybe a little bit over a half acre and the rest is animals
00:07:35
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing.
00:07:39
Jennifer Gulizia
So I love the story and i feel like everyone's story is so similar, but yet I love it every time. It's that generosity of nature that you plant a few dahlias and they expand and the generosity that a hybridizer happened to live right around the corner from you and literally gave you
00:07:57
Erin
So cool, I feel so fortunate, yeah.
00:08:01
Jennifer Gulizia
That's really incredible. That's a beautiful reminder of the power of sharing what you have and you never know what seed you might be planting in someone else's journey.
00:08:06
Erin
geez,
00:08:11
Jennifer Gulizia
So that's really cool. I love that. Now, it sounds like after one summer you were hooked then.
00:08:18
Erin
oh juicy yeah. And now it's like, it's kind of become a joke with my husband. And I always, I'll say, hey babe, so I have this idea. and he just rolls his eyes like, okay, what do you need me to do this time? where What kind of tilling do we need to do? What kind of fencing do we need to buy? And it has it has expanded into sweet peas and peonies and cut annuals, the works.
00:08:47
Jennifer Gulizia
So you first – oh, absolutely.
00:08:48
Erin
But I think that happens to everybody though, right? Mm-hmm.
00:08:51
Jennifer Gulizia
It's like you've been bit by the bug, the flower bug, and you just can't stop. It's like even when I try and do like one thing or narrow my focus, it's like, well, maybe I'll just grow that for myself then.
00:09:03
Jennifer Gulizia
Add one more thing.
00:09:03
Erin
I've done that.
00:09:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah.
00:09:05
Erin
I've grown, this was the first year that I could actually cut my seven peonies that I grew for myself. This was, I think this is year four and I got the most blooms off of them this year.
00:09:17
Erin
And last fall was when I was like, we're going to dip our toe into the peony world a little bit. And I planted 150 roots last fall.
00:09:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Did they bloom this year?
00:09:28
Erin
They did. i got i got like one bloom off of each plant and I made short little, you know, pint size bouquets out of them because I just want that energy to go back into the roots.
00:09:38
Erin
So I was like, I don't want to just deadhead it and, you know, not get to enjoy it. So I cut really short stems to leave as much foliage on there and enjoyed what I could of them.
00:09:49
Erin
Yeah.
00:09:50
Jennifer Gulizia
That's a good idea. i just watched mine bloom and then petals drop and I'm like, I can't wait. It's such, you have to be so patient and wait so long.
00:09:58
Erin
It's so hard. Like the longest three years.
00:10:01
Jennifer Gulizia
And it's such a short bloom season too compared to dahlias.
00:10:03
Erin
It is. It's is like three weeks, maybe four weeks out here. I don't know what it's like for you guys, but it's never long enough.
00:10:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah. I mean, I think we were done in like three weeks. It got so hot this year. They bloomed so quickly and all at once.
00:10:17
Erin
Yeah.
00:10:17
Jennifer Gulizia
And my field's young too, because we moved two years ago. So I have like a one, mine are basically one years old.
00:10:20
Erin
That's right.
00:10:23
Erin
Yeah.
00:10:23
Jennifer Gulizia
um So I can't wait till I can harvest them. But that's the great thing about dahlias is you plant them in the same year, you get the flowers.
00:10:28
Erin
and here
00:10:32
Jennifer Gulizia
So what do you do with your flowers?
00:10:34
Erin
um So we have a farm stand. when we When we first started, my husband, Aaron, also, by the way, for anybody who doesn't know me, my husband's name is Aaron also. He built me the cutest little farm stand. And I quickly realized that that was not going to be big enough. and So we had to upgrade our farm stand to a bigger one. So in the summertime, it's stocked with bouquets. But then we do a lot of DIY buckets for brides and baby showers, bloom bars. And i do wholesale to local florists if they need any flowers and just any of the other farmers around here.
00:11:16
Erin
and part of the Snowco Floco, if if you're familiar with that, the Flower Collective here in Snohomish. And it's just a great group of people that if I have an order that I don't have everything for, I don't have to go all the way down to Seattle. I can ask any of these other farmers here. And so it's a lot of buying from each other, but it's great. And then we're able to get those orders completed for our customers and don't have to say, sorry, I don't have anything and send them on their way to find somebody else. Or if I really don't have anything, I can find a farmer that does and introduce them. And it's just, I don't it's a great little community that we've got here, but i have anything you can think of, I do it with the flowers. If you need flowers, come find me.
00:12:04
Jennifer Gulizia
So I love that. ah My community, we don't have a formal collective, but we definitely buy and sell from each other as well to help fulfill orders.
00:12:11
Erin
Yeah.
00:12:12
Jennifer Gulizia
And it's so nice because the quality difference, I would say, and hopefully i don't get too much hate for saying this, but um I really think there's a huge difference between what you're getting locally versus wholesale.
00:12:25
Jennifer Gulizia
I mean, I did an experiment the other week and I brought in some ranunculus and they only lasted a couple days in the vase compared to like the freshness.
00:12:31
Erin
yeah
00:12:32
Jennifer Gulizia
And I'm thinking what a full experience we're able to give our customers and the quality, just like it's so fresh.
00:12:38
Erin
Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. yeah
00:12:40
Jennifer Gulizia
And when you don't have enough yourself and we can help each other get more fresh flowers out into our community, I think that's really powerful.
00:12:48
Erin
The same thing goes for like grocery store flowers and the freshness of those. I always get so frustrated when I walk into the store and there's this display of flowers and their sticker is from Columbia or, you know, South America somewhere, or I don't see a sticker, but they're all like wilty or they're dyed, not normal flower colors, you know? And it's like, no, let's, let's support the local farms and get you the fresh ones that aren't covered in pesticides and herbicides, and you can give them to your mom or grandma or whoever, and not have to worry about them smelling them. And then they're also inhaling who knows what kind of gross chemicals.
00:13:26
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. And I don't think people think about that because our food system is so heavily regulated that it's like, well, flowers are sold in the store. They must be heavily heavily regulated too.
00:13:37
Jennifer Gulizia
But once you start realizing all the chemicals and things that have to go on them,
00:13:38
Erin
like, no. Those get sprayed so they can come across the border to kill any bugs and stuff on them. um It's so gross. and I understand like people love the local Trader Joe's flowers. Nothing against Trader Joe's. I love Trader Joe's. i just Your flowers, I want you to have local flowers. And i just I understand that they're cheaper and I wish I could make mine cheaper, but mine are healthier.
00:14:04
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally. Well, two things on that. One, I did learn this last year that Trader Joe's does have, I think it was tulips from California, which i was happy to hear that.
00:14:11
Erin
Oh, good. That's a start. Yeah, that's awesome.
00:14:14
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah. um But it would be nice. I wish the grocery stores, like my local grocery store I asked, I said, can you like have my flowers instead? Like the other day was all red roses and it's June.
00:14:23
Erin
Yeah.
00:14:27
Erin
Yeah.
00:14:27
Jennifer Gulizia
And they're like, well, it goes up through the corporate chain and they only deal with this one buyer.
00:14:31
Erin
Yeah.
00:14:33
Jennifer Gulizia
And I know like the floral manager and she's like, I wish I could have your flowers because they would last so much longer.
00:14:39
Erin
yeah
00:14:40
Jennifer Gulizia
And it's hard. But like you also said, the price, I think people get what they pay for.
00:14:46
Erin
That is true. that is absolutely true. Like I've seen a lot of people buy in the last few weeks, buy peonies from grocery stores and they weren't opened because they weren't harvested at the right time. And then they brought them home and they were complaining. They're like, I thought peonies were supposed to be this like giant bloom and it's like golf ball size. And I'm like, well, they didn't harvest them at the right time. You got to get them right at that, that perfect marshmallow stage that we're always talking about. And they you do, you get way better vase life, you get better quality when you buy them local from your local farmers.
00:15:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. I tried to bring in some flowers the other week ah wholesale and because I didn't have them blooming yet and they arrived and they were so bruised and so damaged.
00:15:33
Jennifer Gulizia
And it made me – and i I was like, I can't take these. This is – like, I can't use them. I'm not paying $15 for a bunch of these flowers.
00:15:41
Erin
Yeah.
00:15:42
Jennifer Gulizia
And I started thinking about the fact that as flower farmers, so often we feel like we have to set our price at the same as wholesale. And I feel like really we're comparing apples to oranges in the product. And I'm not trying to put them down. Like wholesale certainly has its place.
00:16:00
Jennifer Gulizia
80% of flowers are imported. We make up 20% of the market. We can't fulfill that gap yet.
00:16:04
Erin
Yeah. Yeah.
00:16:06
Jennifer Gulizia
But at the same time, I think that there's such value.
00:16:10
Erin
I'm thankful for We have the Seattle growers market also, which all, I was looking up all the profiles the other day of the growers that take their flowers to the Seattle market and like,
00:16:25
Erin
80% of them are in Washington. There's a couple in Oregon, and then I think there's one in California. So if I have to get flowers there, i don't feel i don't feel guilty. I feel like I'm still supporting the local community, and I love being able to help those farms when I can't get what a customer needs here locally.
00:16:41
Erin
you know Sometimes I need those California temperatures for something that a customer is looking for. So you got do what you got to do.
00:16:47
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. Totally. And I'll say like Portland and Seattle, I think are really lucky. Like I drove into the Portland wholesale flower market and I was able to buy from Portland and Eugene flower farms by going there to fulfill for an order.
00:17:00
Erin
I'd love
00:17:01
Jennifer Gulizia
um And i I think that's totally different than like the wholesale that's imported.
00:17:07
Erin
that.
00:17:07
Jennifer Gulizia
and and I know there's people listening to this podcast that still use imported flowers and I'm not trying to shame anyone.
00:17:13
Erin
No, absolutely not.
00:17:13
Jennifer Gulizia
I just, I think that we are undervaluing
00:17:14
Erin
Yeah.
00:17:19
Jennifer Gulizia
the quality and the value that local flowers bring to the market.
00:17:23
Erin
And I think it's just a matter of educating and teaching and showing people what we have. And the more we do that, the more people will support local and buy local.
00:17:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. How do you do that?
00:17:38
Erin
so Social media, a lot of it.
00:17:40
Jennifer Gulizia
yeah
00:17:42
Erin
This summer, I'm really excited to partner with a store down in Snohomish. We are going to have some bouquets for sale outside of their shop. and so I tried to do this last year at my favorite coffee stand.
00:17:55
Erin
And while it did work, it's harder it was harder for people to get out of their cars. So I wanted a place with foot traffic. And so I'm excited to be able to just bring our flowers into the community and make it easier.
00:18:07
Erin
While I'm not i'm about five minutes out of town, being able to give them to get them in the hands of people right in town is super exciting.
00:18:17
Jennifer Gulizia
That's awesome. How did you create that partnership?
00:18:20
Erin
Um, not to name drop or anything. My sister-in-law is, she is kind of, she's like her brother. She's like my husband, a jack of all trades. And I asked her if she knew anybody down in Snohomish because she just seems to know everybody. and she had recommended Lindsay Lamb of Lamb & Co. if you've heard of those girls. And so I just emailed her and I was like, I was chatting with my sister-in-law and asked if she knew anybody that might be interested and she had recommended you. And I was then I was telling my my sister about this and she's like, oh, yeah, I remember them. I guess my sister went to high school with Lindsay and I think her sister's name is Leslie, if I remember correctly. And she's like, I remember that we were on the swim team together. And yeah, so it just kind of all worked out.
00:19:13
Jennifer Gulizia
That's awesome. So are you going to have flowers every week on a daily basis? How will you do that?
00:19:19
Erin
I'm hoping we're going to start with one day a week and just see how it goes. And if it goes really well, then i definitely with growing 5,000 dahlias have the capacity to do more. And we're just going to play it by ear and see how it goes. You know, I'm hoping, I'm hoping it goes really well because I would love to have several days stocked with flowers outside and there was talks that maybe they will be providing a coupon for shopping at their store when you buy a bouquet so it's kind of a good deal for both of us yeah they'll be right outside their storefront mm-hmm yep
00:19:53
Jennifer Gulizia
Awesome. I love that when you can have a yeah a mutually beneficial partnership where both places can benefit. That's awesome.
00:20:03
Jennifer Gulizia
You just said you're growing 5,000 dahlias this year.
00:20:06
Erin
Yeah. I don't even know what the final amount was. we like, I just, I stopped counting after a while because it's, it's just too much to count. I'm just over 5,000. think.
00:20:17
Erin
i think But I told Aaron that I was going to count once everything was up because it never fails. You're going to have like the other yesterday when I was out there, i was like, man, this whole row is up except for like this small little section. So, you know, we start like digging under the dirt to find out what's going on when they're there. And I've already pulled some that were rotted, like the tuber was total mush.
00:20:38
Erin
And I pulled a couple that looked suspicious for viruses already. So I want to count once everything's up and I've, you know, pulled out anything that looks good. funky, then I'll do a final count and see where we're at. But I know we planted just over 5,000 roughly, give or take, is what we can plant based on our math, like of how what long our rows are and how wide they are and everything.
00:21:05
Jennifer Gulizia
How do you space out your rows?
00:21:06
Erin
um So our rows are, they're 30 inches wide. And so I do two rows down They're 30 inches wide by about 130 feet long, I believe. And then I do two rows kind of off-centered zigzag, you know, so when you're planting it it's like a zigzag Z shape. And my spacing i did this year, i did 16 inches. I've done 12 inches and I really struggled with powdery mildew. Last year i did 18 inches and I didn't struggle as much, but I had a lot more dahlias this year. So we're
00:21:43
Erin
squishing them back in and i'm just going to have to be on top of like removing the bottom foliage and stuff to keep that airflow going and so fingers crossed that i don't have a lot of powdery milder this year
00:21:56
Jennifer Gulizia
I know we're supposed to get a whole bunch of rain. I'm like, oh, is this going to be a bad year for powdery mildew with the hot rain, hot rain?
00:22:01
Erin
it's so with that humidity it just feels like when you go outside and it's just like like a air just feels thick
00:22:10
Jennifer Gulizia
It really does. Like by nine o'clock this morning, I was like, I am covered in sweat. It is so hot out here. And it's June.
00:22:16
Erin
Yeah. Yeah. I had to totally off topic. We borrowed my husband or my husband's dad's truck over the weekend for a trip to Montana because my car was in the shop and I needed to return it to him. And Emma came with me and she's six. And i was like, Emma, if you want to come with me, we're walking home because they're they're literally a half mile away.
00:22:35
Erin
But we we live at Muddy Hill. I'm on a hill. So we're at the top of the hill. Grandpa's at the bottom of the hill. And we get like halfway and she's like, Can we go back and get grandpa's truck?
00:22:45
Erin
And I'm like, Nope, girlfriend, we are in it for the long haul.
00:22:47
Jennifer Gulizia
oh
00:22:50
Erin
You wanted to do this.
00:22:50
Jennifer Gulizia
That's cute. Yeah, it is I'm just hopeful that it's an okay season in terms of weather.
00:22:59
Jennifer Gulizia
You hear all about this, like El Nino and...
00:22:59
Erin
I hope so.
00:23:00
Erin
Yeah, we've already Do you guys get forest fires down there? I was just seeing that we are already, our forest fires are starting and there's a burn ban. And I know like they're predicting a drought because we didn't have much of a snow pack and stuff. And it's not stressful.
00:23:15
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. We had a fire actually just yesterday, just up the hill from our farm. I saw it on watch duty. i i never saw flames.
00:23:22
Erin
Yeah.
00:23:23
Jennifer Gulizia
I never saw anything. I think they got it under control like right away.
00:23:25
Erin
That's good.
00:23:27
Jennifer Gulizia
But it's definitely something that worries me because we're surrounded by the forest.
00:23:29
Erin
Yeah.
00:23:30
Jennifer Gulizia
we so When we bought our property, one of the very first things we did that we weren't planning to invest in is we put a water perimeter around our property so that if we ever had to, we could turn the water on.
00:23:30
Erin
Mm-hmm.
00:23:40
Erin
That's so smart.
00:23:44
Erin
Super smart.
00:23:44
Jennifer Gulizia
But it's It's going to be a dry season, and our irrigation district is already asking people to be careful with their water usage. um
00:23:52
Erin
We do, I'm really grateful. We do our rows. I use plastic mulch. It's, it's biodegradable and I don't, I don't know why they call it plastic. I think it's made of like corn seed something. Nobody quote me on that. I don't remember exactly what it's made out of. um But Then when we put it in, we pull drip lines through underneath it.
00:24:13
Erin
So I save a lot on water because I'm not overhead watering.
00:24:16
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, nice.
00:24:18
Erin
And this year, that last year was the first year that we did the plastic mulch and it, my water bill was significantly less doing drip line. And so I will, I am pro drip line irrigation.
00:24:34
Jennifer Gulizia
I'm actually thinking about going to overhead and I'm worried about the water issues because our we have ah our water comes from an irrigation district that comes off of Mount Hood. And so there's a ton of sediment. So it's constantly clogging.
00:24:47
Jennifer Gulizia
But I have so many freaking voles and mice on my property that they are just... I had to replace all of my drip lines from last year. They chewed through every single one of them. It was just like, walk five feet, there's another hole spraying up.
00:25:03
Jennifer Gulizia
And they were just voracious with them.
00:25:03
Erin
Yeah.
00:25:06
Jennifer Gulizia
And now this year, i haven't lost too many dahlias yet, but I was walking through my zinnias that I planted a week ago.
00:25:06
Erin
That was so frustrating.
00:25:12
Jennifer Gulizia
and It's like, there's an empty hole, there's an empty hole. like The whole plants are just gone.
00:25:17
Erin
Gone. I'm so thankful and I'm knocking on wood right now because we, I don't have a issue with bowls. We get moles in our yard. Like I noticed them going through my little, my section of roses, it's but the roses are just for me. Yeah.
00:25:33
Erin
right now who knows what five years from now that will look like so i'm not terribly worried about it but i never really lost any plants to voles and i know so many people that do and that's that's just heartbreaking all this hard work and you're excited for your blooms and then you go to look at it and you pull it up and there's no bulb attached to it anymore it's gone
00:25:52
Jennifer Gulizia
Right. i had never had a problem with them until this last year when I started digging my dahlias. And I don't know if I told this story on the podcast or not yet. So I apologize if it's a repeat to some.
00:26:04
Jennifer Gulizia
In the winter, I'm digging up clumps of dahlias and I pick up a clump and I'm like, what is that gray fuzzy mold? It was a vole eating the tubers while I dug it up in my hands. I definitely screamed. I had ah farm help helping me dig up the tubers. And my friend, she calls out. She's like, are you okay? I'm like, I was just holding a vole.
00:26:25
Jennifer Gulizia
Not what I want on my Dahlia tubers.
00:26:29
Erin
I did that the other day, like a week ago out We were, I don't remember which implement we were putting on our tractor, but there was a snake sunbathing out where all the implements were.
00:26:37
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:26:38
Erin
And I just like moved, kind of rolled over this roll of plastic and there it was. And i yelped and my kids are like, what's wrong? And I'm like, it's a snake. Like, i don't, I don't like snakes.
00:26:49
Erin
I don't like rats. I don't like mice. Well, not my thing.
00:26:52
Jennifer Gulizia
I know I'm the same.
00:26:53
Erin
Yeah.
00:26:54
Jennifer Gulizia
However, well, we've only got like the garter snakes is all I've seen. And I'm telling myself that's all we have.
00:26:58
Erin
That's yeah. That's all it was. Yeah. That's all it was. And it still made me scream.
00:27:04
Jennifer Gulizia
I was wishing in some ways, though, that we had bigger snakes to take care of those voles and mice because I think they'd be gone a lot faster or a little more in harmony, a little better balance.
00:27:15
Erin
Yeah, you need my old dog Aspen. She, man, she was like half husky, half Australian shepherd, a mix of something else.
00:27:25
Erin
But man, I hate to say this, but man, she went after the rabbits, the the wild rabbits that we have.
00:27:30
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my gosh.
00:27:31
Erin
i think she caught three or four of them. And then Erin would have to put them out of their misery because obviously I'm not going to let it suffer.
00:27:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:27:37
Erin
And she didn't, she's just catching it like a toy. But she, i remember one time in the front yard, i was like, what is she doing? She's just standing there staring at the ground. And she freaking was going after a mole in the front yard.
00:27:51
Erin
It's like, you need an Aspen dog to help you.
00:27:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, we have a little dog. We have three dogs. Our dog, Rusty, he looks like a miniature golden retriever at our last house. I was like, why does he keep digging up all of my perennials?
00:28:05
Jennifer Gulizia
And then one day I realized why as he brings over a mole and just drops it at my feet. And I'm like, what am I supposed to do with this?
00:28:11
Erin
Look, I got a present for you.
00:28:15
Jennifer Gulizia
Now I know why you've been digging up all my hydrangeas though. So I haven't let him out at the farm lately because I don't want him digging up all my new stuff.
00:28:21
Erin
That's why we... Hazel, our current dog, she's got an invisible fence and it is it's so nice because then I don't have to worry about her going out and digging. and she's She's not really a digger.
00:28:34
Erin
um so I don't think she would dig up anything. Posey, my cat, likes to leave me turds everywhere.
00:28:40
Jennifer Gulizia
no
00:28:42
Erin
But no, luckily, Hazel stays out of the garden. i don't have to worry about her.
00:28:46
Jennifer Gulizia
We have a farm guard dog. So we have the coyotes keep coming in to try and get the voles. And it's like that balance of, yes, we want them to get the voles, but we also don't want them there when we're there. um So we have a bigger dog that comes with me sometimes, but she can't come right now because I'm still planting dahlias.
00:29:01
Jennifer Gulizia
She will literally watch me plant the dahlias.
00:29:01
Erin
Yeah.
00:29:03
Jennifer Gulizia
And then it's like, okay, mom, thanks for hiding something from me. Let me dig it up for you.
00:29:08
Erin
Because it's like a bone, like there's a treat under there for her.
00:29:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally. and I'm like, no, stop digging up my dahlias.
00:29:14
Erin
Too much work goes into those. You cannot have the dahlias.
00:29:17
Jennifer Gulizia
No. So anyways, so you said you're on a hill.
00:29:22
Erin
Yes.
00:29:23
Jennifer Gulizia
and Is that how you got the name Muddy Hill?
00:29:26
Erin
Yes. So when we bought our house in 20, but 2016, Oliver was just a baby, like six months old, I think when we bought it and it needed to be gutted and remodeled. And so we actually didn't move into it. We lived at my in-laws for a year while Aaron did all the work remodeling it. And i remember once we had moved in after a year, it was, we came home. I don't even remember where we were, but it had been pouring down rain all day. And our house is is just a rambler. There's no
00:30:01
Erin
like steps up to our front door or anything. And we came home and our back porch was flooded and water was within couple inches of reaching our door. And I've never experienced this before. And i know there are other people who have experienced flooding way worse than this, but I was like panicking. I was like, we just spent all this money on a remodel and now our house is gonna be flooding. And we ended up having to put in French drains all around the property and actually down the center of the field too. And thankfully, one of our neighbors who is on the far east side of our field, he helped Aaron put in the French drains and tied it into his property so that his runoff wasn't flooding out our property. And now we have a drain like in the center to catch everything. And knock on wood, it's been working so far.
00:30:53
Jennifer Gulizia
Does it go into like a drainage pond or something?
00:30:55
Erin
Yeah, it just goes, it goes. so then it's like, I don't know, this this was this was an Erin thing. I don't know how they do this. It there runs out to the street, essentially, is what everybody around here does.
00:31:06
Erin
It goes out to the street to the the storm drains instead of flooding into our house.
00:31:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Got it.
00:31:14
Erin
But there was a time like our greenhouse, we had just put in the foundation and like the frames.
00:31:14
Jennifer Gulizia
We're going to have.
00:31:20
Erin
And I think we had just started to put up the plastic for the siding and it was rainy. And this is when we realized we needed to do the drain down the center of the field. Also, we hadn't done that one.
00:31:31
Erin
Because the water runoff was like washing out the foundation under our greenhouse. And it's like, we just did all this work on this and now it's like going to crack.
00:31:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my gosh.
00:31:40
Erin
And it's just a nightmare. And like three years ago, three or four years ago, i remember we had, we get those atmospheric rivers where it's just like torrential downpour of, you five, six, seven, eight inches of rain. And I called Aaron, he was at work and I was sobbing because we had just planted our Dahlia tuber. So it's like late May maybe. And so nothing's rooted, nothing's sprouted and they're all under water. They're all under six or seven inches of water. And he left work. and came home. This was that same year that we had to put in the center and he had to dig like a trench around it to like get the water off of them because I would have lost my whole field to rot if it just sat there because it had nowhere to go and thankfully once he dug that trench it all drained out and it has since been fixed and I'm so thankful for him because I would have I don't know how to do that. I don't know how to operate a backhoe and
00:32:39
Erin
put in drains and stuff. He's my, i don't know, I made a reel a long time ago about like, I'm like an independent flower farmer. I don't need nobody to help me. And then I introduced Aaron and I was like, this is my nobody. He does my irrigation. He reminds me to drink water. You know, he fixes my machines for me. It's like without him, I would not be able to do this.
00:33:04
Jennifer Gulizia
It definitely requires teamwork. I think so many times people see that like flowers don't take up a lot of space compared to other types of farming. And it's like, oh, I could do that by myself. And then you start getting into it and you're like, oh, this is a lot harder than I thought it was.
00:33:17
Erin
it's a lot of hard work it is and that's like one thing when I see people selling their bouquets for like five dollars I'm like I get that you want to make it inexpensive to like get them into the hands of more people but man don't undercut all that work that went into growing those don't sell yourself short like it takes a lot of time and money and just energy to get those flowers to grow. It's like you deserve to make a few dollars more than that on them.
00:33:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally. Yes. I think people undervalue how much time really goes into growing them and dealing with the pests and disease.
00:33:52
Erin
Yeah. yeah
00:33:58
Jennifer Gulizia
And you don't use any herbicides or pesticides on your farm. Is that correct?
00:34:02
Erin
We are pro. I just finished spraying my nematodes out there and I've got lacewing larva. I didn't do ladybugs this year.
00:34:13
Erin
I feel like anytime I bring in ladybugs, they just fly away really fast.
00:34:17
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah.
00:34:17
Erin
And so, but I've noticed being out there that we have a lot of ladybugs this year. And so I'm like, okay, you guys just stay, stay right where you are.
00:34:23
Jennifer Gulizia
That's good.
00:34:26
Erin
um But yeah, we try to do everything without pesticides and herbicides, anything, you know, the dish soaps. And I'm trying, I'm trying to think of what my concoction for powdery mildew is.
00:34:41
Erin
And it's not baking soda. It's like, I'm totally drawing a blank. I'm sorry if I come up with it, I'll tell you what it is. It's that and dish soap and water and they just spray that on it. But the trick with that is to start it like the minute you see anything, because once the plant is covered, then you're kind of toast, you know, and we do a lot of neem oil and I try to stick to everything like organic as much as possible, even though we're not a certified organic farm by any means, but it's It's the ultimate goal.
00:35:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
00:35:16
Erin
I want my kids to be able to walk out in the farm and not have to worry that they're going to ingest something toxic. you know, it's like weed killer.
00:35:27
Erin
I use the 40% vinegar that will like make your eyes bulge out of your face. But that's what we use like in the driveway to kill weeds. And just as much as possible.
00:35:38
Erin
I know it, sometimes it doesn't work as well, but when I don't have to worry about my kids or my pets getting sick, then it's worth a little bit of extra weeding if I have to, because it doesn't last as long.
00:35:52
Jennifer Gulizia
Right. we um We just ordered the nematodes and I need to release them. I'm hoping that they'll help with the ticks this year. We have
00:36:01
Erin
I've heard ticks are really bad this year. I'm grateful that where we live, I'm not close to any forests or anything. So we do have ticks evidently in Washington. Just learned this 41 years later, didn't know we had ticks in Washington, but they're like in the forest in Eastern Washington. So I don't worry about them out here.
00:36:21
Jennifer Gulizia
We have so many here. Whether we take our dogs for a walk in the neighborhood or up at the farm, they get the ticks.
00:36:27
Erin
Hmm.
00:36:27
Jennifer Gulizia
And anyone who's listening, if you go back to last summer, Jennifer Joray join me. And we did a two-part series because we were going to talk about wedding flowers. And we side-railed on the first conversation and went an hour about ticks and organic sprays.
00:36:42
Jennifer Gulizia
And so now I spray peppermint oil on my dogs before going to the farm. And I'll find the ticks on them, but they're usually dead because the peppermint oil kills the ticks.
00:36:47
Erin
Mark.
00:36:53
Jennifer Gulizia
I just have to be careful not to accidentally spray it on my dog's eyes.
00:36:53
Erin
Oh, good. OK.
00:36:56
Jennifer Gulizia
um Because that stings.
00:36:57
Erin
Yeah.
00:36:58
Jennifer Gulizia
Because they're like trying to avoid me. They're like, I don't want to smell like that. But I mean, I've had so many on me this year. just the top They love the tall grass growing at our farm.
00:37:05
Erin
Yeah.
00:37:06
Jennifer Gulizia
And then we're right next to a huge oak forest that leads down to the river.
00:37:10
Erin
Mm-hmm.
00:37:11
Jennifer Gulizia
And they're just beyond terrible. This year I was hearing, not to scare anyone or give anyone nightmares, um what are they called? Tick seeds. A local hairstylist in our area posted that she was seeing people with tick seeds. They're like little tiny ticks that have just hatched.
00:37:28
Jennifer Gulizia
And so you don't even really feel them on your head.
00:37:30
Erin
Oh no.
00:37:31
Jennifer Gulizia
And that she's like cutting people's hair and discovering that these tick seeds.
00:37:34
Erin
Oh yeah.
00:37:35
Jennifer Gulizia
And so I like spray myself with peppermint oil before going out in the field every day.
00:37:38
Erin
Oh gross. I'd be so paranoid. Like I'm paranoid and I don't even have to worry about it. And I just, I couldn't, i I don't know if I could move somewhere where I had to worry about ticks. I'm thankful that I don't deal with that out here.
00:37:52
Erin
I got my fair share of like grasshoppers and cucumber beetles.
00:37:52
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, we
00:37:56
Erin
I just was outside pinching my celosia this morning and there's cucumber beetles on my celosia. I don't think I've ever seen it there before, but I think we had such a mild winter, like,
00:38:02
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, no.
00:38:09
Erin
hardly any deep freezes, no snow here, like directly where I live, maybe a dusting one day. But I think this year we're going to have a a lot of pest pressure because we didn't get any deep freezes to kill off everything, unfortunately.
00:38:26
Jennifer Gulizia
We're in the same boat. I mean, it used to be, I mean, when my daughter was little, I remember getting like 90 inches of snow one winter. And we like created a sled hill on our flat yard that she could sled on.
00:38:35
Erin
Yes.
00:38:38
Jennifer Gulizia
And this last year, I think we had a trace of snow.
00:38:41
Erin
Yeah, that's a bless.
00:38:42
Jennifer Gulizia
And this week I went into the greenhouse and one of my farm employees had sewed trays of more succession sewed sunflowers and celosia.
00:38:53
Jennifer Gulizia
And all the heads were eaten off.
00:38:55
Erin
Oh no.
00:38:56
Jennifer Gulizia
And we thought that maybe like a mouse had gotten in the greenhouse and I start watering. And there was like all of these crickets and grasshoppers in the greenhouse and they're just feasting on them. I'm like, how am I ever supposed to get these to grow?
00:39:07
Erin
There are so many grasshoppers outside. And I don't remember them being bad last year, but this year, yesterday when I was outside, pretending to be a tractor and because mike a few of my dahlia rows are too narrow for my tractor to drive through.
00:39:23
Erin
And so I had to pull my roller thing down because I was spreading out my my cover crop for my rows. And I just kept seeing them on the plastic mulch because you just see it out of the corner of your eye.
00:39:33
Erin
And I'm just like, this is going to be bad. I used to have geese and my geese, I would let free range. And I feel like they did a really good job taking care of them.
00:39:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh,
00:39:42
Erin
And I don't have my geese anymore. And I don't like letting my chickens out. We rebuilt their chicken run because they'll just destroy all of my flowers. They did that last year. And i was like, yep, nope, we're not doing this again.
00:39:54
Jennifer Gulizia
oh no.
00:39:55
Erin
Yeah, my my first dahlia row closest to the chicken run was was pretty sad because they just kept scratching everything up. So we rebuilt the run to make it taller so they can't fly over.
00:40:07
Erin
And so far, so far, so good.
00:40:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my gosh. Now you just said you were walking and putting down cover crop. You put cover crop down while your dahlias are growing.
00:40:17
Erin
I do. So in my, so my dahlia rows are three feet wide and then my pathways in between each row are supposed to be 48 to 50 inches. So the tractor can run through them. um And unfortunately, it like five or six of them were a little short or narrow, so I can't fit the tractor through. And I'm planting teff.
00:40:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, uh-huh.
00:40:38
Erin
in for it, but the soil has to be really compact. And I'm excited. This is the first year that I'm going to try it. um I've heard it's really good. And ah I'm excited to just be able to mow it like grass, but it's not grass because come first big freeze, it dies off just like our dahlias. So I don't have to worry about like dealing with more grass next season and it just coming right back and then it's adding nutrients into the soil because man my soil test this year in that field was sad it was not good so I was like whatever I can do to add some more nutrients into the soil I'm gonna try this year
00:41:18
Jennifer Gulizia
What did you add?
00:41:19
Erin
Um, so when we planted, i did, um it needed it needed everything, phosphorus, potassium, and nitrogen. It was super, super low on all of it.
00:41:32
Erin
And we went to in Monroe, which is like the next town over there is a agriculture, like they sell all the kinds of fertilizers, grass, whatever you name it.
00:41:43
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh my
00:41:45
Erin
Um, it's called Wolfkill. And I brought in my test results for my, I did, I did a soil test for the big Dahlia field and I did a soil test for where I plant my Dahlia seedlings, which is in a separate area.
00:41:58
Erin
And I showed him the test results for both of them. And he was just like, Oh, like what are we going to do?
00:42:04
Jennifer Gulizia
God.
00:42:05
Erin
And so I did a we spread a slow release fertilizer and, uh, what was the other thing we, I'm totally drawing a blank on what the other thing was that we We spread that all throughout the whole field tilled that in.
00:42:22
Erin
And then when I went back through and planted each individual tuber, we did a quick release nitrogen fertilizer.
00:42:27
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm. Mm.
00:42:30
Erin
The nitrogen was so low. He's like, I think you could benefit from all season release with the slow one. And then let's give your plants some oomph when you get them in the in the ground. So just a granule fertilizer for both of them. And then so far, like I started some dahlias in the greenhouse just in pots and then transplanted them out. And that row is looking amazing so far. So I'm hoping I'm excited to do another test and see how it's been improved.
00:43:05
Erin
But so far, so good. He gave me some good recommendations for everything.
00:43:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing.
00:43:10
Erin
Yeah.
00:43:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Do you do a soil test every year?
00:43:12
Erin
Pretty much, yeah. I like to, before I just get crazy throwing in fertilizers, I think anybody starting out, I would recommend doing a soil test. You can contact your local like agriculture office and figure out who's closer to you. Or the ones that I do, i just buy the kits off Amazon. And the testing center is in eastern Washington. It just goes over to Walla Walla. And so far I've had good luck with them.
00:43:41
Erin
But I know there's another place over here in Western Washington that you can send soil samples to that do just as in-depth ones. Like it does your micro and your macro nutrients, which I think is important to know both of those, not just your NPK numbers. you need You need the other stuff too.
00:44:02
Jennifer Gulizia
So do you do a soil analysis or like the Haney test? do you know what it's called? Uh-huh.
00:44:07
Erin
I don't like the test itself. I don't, it's called like my soil or something like that. And I buy the kits on Amazon and then you go through your field and you dig down.
00:44:14
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:44:19
Erin
i i take like a clean bucket. i so bleach clean it. So there's no cross-contamination and I go through the field and get take down like six inches or so and take out a scoop of that soil and in multiple spots throughout the field. Then you mix it all together and you take a, it comes with like a little scoop and you take a scoop out of your mixed soil and put it in a little container, twist the lid on and send it off.
00:44:44
Erin
And it's like less than a week, you get the results. It's really quick. Obviously I live closer to where the testing center is. So is, you know, in my favor. So if you're out of the state, it might take a little bit longer. but yeah, I think it's just called my soil and I've done those kits several times and so far they've been good.
00:45:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Awesome. Thank you.
00:45:08
Jennifer Gulizia
You are also part of the Snohomish County Flower Collective. Did I say that group right?
00:45:14
Erin
Yes. And we just call it snowco floco. Yeah.
00:45:17
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. Snowco, Floco.
00:45:17
Erin
Yeah.
00:45:18
Jennifer Gulizia
It kind of sounds, reminds me of like a snow cone.
00:45:19
Erin
yeah Mm-hmm.
00:45:22
Jennifer Gulizia
You need like the snow cone with some dahlias or something.
00:45:24
Erin
I love that. That would be cute.
00:45:27
Jennifer Gulizia
My daughter was looking.
00:45:27
Erin
I think Darcy's Dahlias, I think they made ah a dahlia, not a snow cone, but like an ice cream cone last year.
00:45:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:45:33
Erin
I've never seen that photo.
00:45:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah, that was super cute. My daughter's like, I want a snow cone machine, mom. So I think i she was just talking about it before we hopped on this recording. So I think that's where my mind was when you were like, snow ho, snow ho, flo co, snow co, co, flo co.
00:45:45
Erin
Yeah.
00:45:49
Erin
Snow Co Flo Co, like Snohomish County, yeah, Flower Collective.
00:45:55
Jennifer Gulizia
I love it.
00:45:56
Erin
It doesn't flow off the tongue very well, like when you're not local to Snohomish and used to it's a group, i don't even know how many people are in it, 30, 40 us.
00:45:56
Jennifer Gulizia
Love it.
00:46:03
Jennifer Gulizia
So tell me about that collective.
00:46:11
Erin
And every Wednesday in Snohomish, we all kind of sign up for dates throughout the like spring to early fall on Wednesdays from nine to one.
00:46:24
Erin
And we bring in bunches of flowers, whatever we have available. And it's open for wholesale and retail. So anybody can come in.
00:46:31
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:46:32
Erin
It's not just for florists. And, It's just so great it's a great way for us to get our flowers into the hands of people local.
00:46:43
Erin
And i love that it's not just for florists. You know, you don't you don't need a business license or anything. Anybody can come. Obviously, if you are florist and have your business license, there's no tax or anything.
00:46:57
Erin
And the pricing, you'll see the wholesale and the retail prices. And usually I i want to say there's like... anywhere from six to 10 farms there each Wednesday.
00:47:09
Erin
And so if you need flowers, please come.
00:47:10
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay.
00:47:14
Erin
It's on, I'm totally drawing a blank on what avenue it is. So girls don't hate me. I want to say it's on either A or B, right? It's at the Flores Creative Studio for anybody local.
00:47:25
Erin
They would know where Flores Creative Studio is.
00:47:28
Jennifer Gulizia
So it's just one day a week that you can come shop it.
00:47:29
Erin
Yeah, just one day a week right now, every Wednesday. And we started, i think our first market was three weeks ago. it kind of starts the beginning of June and it goes through September, I believe.
00:47:42
Erin
Okay.
00:47:42
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. Amazing. Now, is this collective the one that is putting on Snohomish and Bloom?
00:47:50
Erin
is I dont wouldn't say it's necessary Snohomish in Bloom. Anybody is welcome to join Snohomish in Bloom.
00:48:00
Erin
So with Snohomish in Bloom, we do every year, we pay like up um a membership fee.
00:48:06
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:48:07
Erin
Anybody, any local farms or florists are welcome to come join Snohomish in Bloom. Like The last I heard, they're still looking for more designers to help cover First Street with floral designs.
00:48:20
Erin
And we will have um our own little market pop-up tent there selling bouquets and flowers and candles and all things flower that you can imagine.
00:48:31
Erin
And there's going to be classes. I might be teaching slash co-hosting a Dahlia class to help people get their hands on dahlias and teaching you whatever you want to learn.
00:48:46
Erin
Viruses, dividing, digging, how to grow them, fertilize the works. um There's going to be other classes and presentations and just the displays.
00:48:58
Erin
And that September 12th, the day that this is, is also the Snohomish Wine Walk. So if you're a wine drinker, come drink your wine and get your flowers.
00:49:05
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh.
00:49:08
Erin
It's going to great day.
00:49:09
Jennifer Gulizia
Multi-purpose event.
00:49:10
Erin
Yeah.
00:49:12
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing. How many flower farmers or flower farmer florists will be there?
00:49:18
Erin
I'm not sure. i honestly have no idea. I hope it's a lot. um So if anybody's listening and you haven't heard about this, reach out and I can get you in contact because the more the merrier, you know, like the more we are donating tons of flowers to the designers to help them do their displays on first street. And the more flowers we have, the more beautiful I know it will be. This is going to be a really special event.
00:49:45
Jennifer Gulizia
Amazing. Is this the first time that it's been held?
00:49:48
Erin
Yep, this is the first one. So I'm sure there's going to be a couple kinks, you know, there it never fails. But so far, it sounds like it's going to be a fun time. I'm really excited. I'm looking forward to it.
00:49:58
Erin
I've already recruited my sister to come help run our booth because when I found out I might be doing that class, I'm like, well, who's going to run my table?
00:49:59
Jennifer Gulizia
It sounds like.
00:50:07
Erin
Like, I can't do everything. And she's like I want to come. I'll come help.
00:50:12
Jennifer Gulizia
That's awesome that you have help like that.
00:50:12
Erin
Yeah, yeah.
00:50:15
Jennifer Gulizia
and Will your children be helping at it?
00:50:18
Erin
Probably not.
00:50:20
Jennifer Gulizia
Uh-huh.
00:50:20
Erin
They do help at the farm though. Emma especially. She is my flower lover. Oliver is not so much into flowers. I could totally see Emma taking over the farm one day.
00:50:32
Erin
But they do, they love to create their own little bouquets and sell them at the farm stand.
00:50:36
Jennifer Gulizia
ha
00:50:37
Erin
I generally have to text a neighbor and say, hey, my kids put out a bouquet. Can you go, quote unquote, buy it for me? And then I just slip them five bucks, you know, in the farm stand cash box so that they think their bouquets got purchased.
00:50:47
Jennifer Gulizia
Aww.
00:50:52
Erin
because a lot of times it's like dandelions and like,
00:50:54
Jennifer Gulizia
oh
00:50:55
Erin
I think, you know, Emma made a dandelion, zinnia, and then a daisy bouquet. Daisy is just like growing wild on the side of the fence. It's like, yeah, people definitely want to buy daisies and dandelions.
00:51:09
Jennifer Gulizia
That's so sweet.
00:51:10
Erin
Abby, if you're listening, if you listen to this podcast, thanks for always coming and buying my kids bouquets. She's my neighbor. Yeah.
00:51:17
Jennifer Gulizia
ah oh that's so sweet. I love it. Your kids are going to listen to this someday and be like, Mom.
00:51:24
Erin
Mom, yeah, I know.
00:51:27
Jennifer Gulizia
My daughter has no interest in selling the flowers. She's all about 3D printed items. I'm like, maybe you could 3D print some vases or something to go along with them.
00:51:31
Erin
Oh
00:51:35
Erin
oh my gosh, my kids want us to buy a 3D printer so badly. I'm like, no, I don't want a 3D printer. No, thank you. But then you could have this and this.
00:51:45
Erin
I don't want that. i know I'm not interested in that. You can save your money and buy it yourself.
00:51:48
Jennifer Gulizia
Yeah.
00:51:51
Jennifer Gulizia
Our daughter saved up her money. We are very proud of her. It took her a while, but she saved it up.
00:51:54
Erin
Yeah.
00:51:55
Jennifer Gulizia
And it's amazing what she's learned to print. She, for Mother's Day, printed me a little planter.
00:51:58
Erin
That's impressive.
00:52:01
Erin
Aw, cute!
00:52:01
Jennifer Gulizia
um And then we got some rocks and filled it with just some houseplants. But I was like, that's so cool.
00:52:07
Erin
I love that.
00:52:07
Jennifer Gulizia
That's what you can do at the farm stand.
00:52:08
Erin
That's sweet. Yeah.
00:52:08
Jennifer Gulizia
She's like, no.
00:52:10
Erin
Not interested, no.
00:52:12
Jennifer Gulizia
But the problem is that she's figured out that she can make more money selling her 3D printed items than she can... make helping mom at the farm.
00:52:19
Erin
Oh no.
00:52:19
Jennifer Gulizia
so
00:52:21
Erin
No flower helping for you.
00:52:23
Jennifer Gulizia
Nope, not from the family, not from her at least.
00:52:25
Erin
all Yeah.
00:52:27
Jennifer Gulizia
So um is there anything I haven't asked you today that you wanted to talk about or share with our listeners?
00:52:34
Erin
I don't know. Not that I can think of. i just appreciate you taking the time to talk with me. This has been fun.
00:52:40
Jennifer Gulizia
It has been fun. um I'm curious, flower farming is very different from corporate America.
00:52:47
Erin
Mm-hmm.
00:52:47
Jennifer Gulizia
Has flower farming taught you anything about yourself that you didn't know before?
00:52:52
Erin
I don't know if it's time. I... I do better flower farming i do than I did working in corporate America. I am very, very much introverted.
00:53:04
Erin
i'm ah I'm an introverted extrovert, if that makes sense. Like I'll be extroverted when the time is right.
00:53:07
Jennifer Gulizia
Me too.
00:53:10
Erin
But for the most part, I am introverted. And I just like, the peace that flower farming brings me. And I just was not meant to work in corporate America.
00:53:22
Erin
I don't want people to be mad at me. i don't want to be yelled at. I just want to grow flowers that put smiles on people's faces.
00:53:31
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:53:32
Erin
like It was just not meant for me. I'm so grateful that this is now my full-time job and career. Like Aaron has said many times, he's like, would you ever thought like 10 years ago that you, this like wild idea of like, oh, let's just grow a few flowers and see what happens is now totally replaced my income, you know, that my other job did. And I like, I would never have dreamed of this. But I'm really grateful that I was given the opportunity to do this. And if anybody is out there wanting to start a flower farm, don't wait until you're ready.
00:54:15
Erin
Just do it. Start now, start small, grab a few packets of seeds and don't be, don't be the first person to tell yourself no Like you can do this.
00:54:27
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally.
00:54:29
Erin
It's hard. It is not an easy, an easy task by means is not an easy job. But I love it. I love how, like, you know how they say, like, if you love what you do, you never work a day in your life, or I don't know exactly how that quote works. I'm like, oh, I get that.
00:54:47
Erin
That's me. Like, I love coming in exhausted and filthy and dirty and my hair's all flying every which way and I'm just covered in muck.
00:54:58
Erin
Like, I feel so fulfilled now. Whereas I never had that feeling. at my prior job like I came home stressed and anxious and just sky high anxiety and now like my biggest worry is like are my delhi is gonna make it you know and it's like at the end of the day I love my plants but at the end of the day it is just a flower and it's
00:55:23
Jennifer Gulizia
Totally. Mm-hmm.
00:55:24
Erin
You're going to lose some. You're going to unalive a lot of plants. I'm going to tell you all right now, if you're starting out, be prepared. You're going to have entire crops not make it. They're going to get eaten out by pests until you figure it out. But that's what you have to do. You have to start somewhere and you're going to learn along the way. Like these people out there that have been growing, you know, 20, 30, 40 years, They didn't get to where they are any different than you are now. Like they started out as not knowing anything either. And you just have to keep going and you learn from it and you move on, you know?
00:56:01
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. And you'll never learn if you don't plant that seed.
00:56:04
Erin
Exactly. Exactly. You got to try. got try somehow.
00:56:08
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes, that's so true. For me, i feel like that absolute exhaustion where you can just put your head on the pillow and fall asleep so quickly at the end of the day, it's like that was a hard day in the best way possible.
00:56:22
Erin
I feel like I sleep so much better in the spring and summertime because I'm outside so much more often. And I'm just, it's because I'm just like exhausted. It's been in the winter time when it's not so physically demanding.
00:56:36
Erin
I mean, I'm sitting dividing tubers for eight, 10 hours a day.
00:56:36
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:56:40
Erin
I'm not exercising the way I am right now outside pulling weeds and pretending I'm a tractor. And it's just... something that I'm very proud of.
00:56:52
Erin
You know, I've, I made this business and I'm able to support my family with it. And I just, I hope that other people can see what we've done and that what we do encourages them to try, you know, you never know until you try.
00:57:11
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely. That's great advice. Okay, Erin, i started this year asking all of my guests a series of quickfire questions.
00:57:19
Erin
Oh, geez.
00:57:21
Jennifer Gulizia
um These shouldn't be too hard. I bet you you'll get them fast.
00:57:23
Erin
Okay.
00:57:24
Jennifer Gulizia
So my first one for you is what is your favorite flower to grow and why?
00:57:30
Erin
oh
00:57:34
Erin
Last year, I would have told you dahlias. This year, i told I would tell you peonies because you just plant it and you're done. Like, you don't have to do anything.
00:57:40
Jennifer Gulizia
i know
00:57:41
Erin
Okay. but But the downside of peonies is that you don't really get to thoroughly enjoy them. Whereas dahlias in 90 to 120 days, then you've got like nonstop blooms for the next two to three months. So it's dahlias. I got to say it's dahlias.
00:57:56
Jennifer Gulizia
And since you have 5,000 dahlias, do you have a favorite variety?
00:58:02
Erin
No, I don't. Everybody always asks me that and I don't. I do, I don't know if I have a favorite. I have some favorites. I really love, um, K-A's pearl. It's like a lavender. i don't know if you guys grow that one. That one I think is really pretty. That's one of my favorites. Last year, excuse me. Ooh,
00:58:24
Erin
I'm drawing a blank. I can't, there's just so many. How do you choose? I don't know. i My friend and I joke about Cornell bronze because if you grow Cornell bronze, you know that one plant's gonna give you like 550 tubers.
00:58:39
Erin
And I love that. I love those plants that are like, they never fail, you know, it's like, you can always count on them.
00:58:49
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:58:50
Erin
I love those, those workhorses. And if you followed me last like fall, I did my workhorse, my favorite workhorses and Cornell Runs is one of them. It's like, even though it's easy to get, ah it's, you know, $5 tuber or whatever, but I always appreciate that it, it never fails. Yeah.
00:59:08
Jennifer Gulizia
You know, Melissa Stewart and I, um Melissa from Sweet Bloom Farm was on recently. And I asked her the question and she said, Cornell Bronze. And I was like, me too. i have 300 of the Cornell Bronze tubers planted because I do a lot of wholesale dahlias.
00:59:22
Erin
Yeah.
00:59:23
Jennifer Gulizia
And it is so reliable. ah Last year, actually, i only had 100. had planted 300. The only thing the voles ate last year was an entire 200-foot row of Cornell Bronze tubers.
00:59:36
Erin
Oh no.
00:59:38
Jennifer Gulizia
I mean, at least they didn't have expensive tastes.
00:59:40
Erin
Right. Seriously. That's when I'd be really sad, but no, yeah it's absolutely true. And especially come September, like a lot of the orders that I have for like DIY bridal buckets have like those kind of rusty, bronzy colors.
00:59:54
Jennifer Gulizia
Mm-hmm.
00:59:55
Erin
And when you can get like 15 stems off of one plant at one time, like you need to have those. So anybody starting out in dahlias, make sure you grow a Cornell bronze.
01:00:07
Jennifer Gulizia
I know I have that whole series like for florists, not wedding florists, but just like everyday orders. Cornell, Cornell Bronze, Ivanetti, Caitlin's Joy. They are such workhorses that just keep pumping out so many blooms and their tubers are the best to divide.
01:00:18
Erin
Yeah. yeah So easy to divide. Like if you want to learn how to divide Dahlia tubers, any of those that you just mentioned, they're the easiest ones to find the eyes, like the necks aren't scrawny, they store well, they're like, they are the perfect, perfect Dahlia tuber.
01:00:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Okay, next question.
01:00:40
Erin
Okay, I'm ready.
01:00:41
Jennifer Gulizia
why do Why do local flowers matter to you?
01:00:45
Erin
Hmm, local flowers are about community. And i just, I'm really big on our community here. I love Snohomish so much. I grew up in Snohomish. I went to Snohomish High School. And so the fact that I get to be here and grow local flowers and give them back to the community that essentially raised helped raise me is awesome feeling to me.
01:01:12
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. That's beautiful. What do you wish more people understood about the floral industry?
01:01:18
Erin
It's a lot of hard work. I don't think people, i feel like people think that you just take your packet of seeds and you sprinkle them in the ground and then you just water them and you wait. I don't think people realize especially for like what you and I do is that this is not just a spring and summertime job. It is all year long. And so i get people that squawk at the prices, you know, when I tell you like, oh, my dahlia stems are this much and a bucket of flowers is this many stems and it costs this much. And then I get ghosted and never hear from them again, or i get the
01:01:55
Erin
that's how much you get for $120 or whatever it is. And I'm just like, well, you don't understand. Like this took hours and hours and hours of work that goes into it. And i just wish more people understood that I'm not, I'm, I am not a millionaire by any means. I'm not even a thousandaire if that's a word. And I just wish more people knew everything that went into it. And the only way they're going to know is if we just continue to teach and educate.
01:02:28
Jennifer Gulizia
Absolutely keep getting those local flowers into the hands of other people. i think that's so true.
01:02:35
Erin
I really want to this year go, sorry, I don't mean to interrupt you.
01:02:35
Jennifer Gulizia
What are
01:02:37
Erin
I really, I have this idea in my head when my dahlias fully blooming and going and dropping off just little pint-sized bouquets around my neighborhood, just because, just because I can.
01:02:50
Erin
And just as a good way to introduce myself, because I know like where we live, I don't have neighbors like right next door, you know, we're like five acres apart, you know, and i just want to go drop off flowers to everybody.
01:02:57
Jennifer Gulizia
Uh
01:03:03
Erin
Last summer, We did a, I just had people send me, send me your favorite, who deserves a bouquet, you know, and we, Emma and I went and dropped off flowers at the library and the senior center and like the Snohomish Pie Company and stuff.
01:03:17
Erin
And the more i can get my flowers out there, the better. It just makes me happy.
01:03:21
Jennifer Gulizia
I love that. that's it i I sometimes feel guilty doing that because I'm like, I feel like I'm getting more out of giving them than the person receiving them is getting.
01:03:22
Erin
Yeah.
01:03:32
Erin
Right. Like gifting flowers is like my love language. I gift giving in general is my love language, but when it's flowers, it's even more like it was really special this past weekend.
01:03:44
Erin
We were in Montana for my sister's wedding and I got to do the flowers for her wedding.
01:03:49
Jennifer Gulizia
amazing.
01:03:49
Erin
And that was just like such a cool opportunity. Like I don't do. wedding flowers in the sense of like going and setting up and creating your arches and everything. This was the first time that I got to do that. I will do wedding flowers a la carte. I will make your bridal bouquets, your bridesmaids bouquets, your boutonnieres, that sort of thing, and pick them up or go drop them off to you, whatever. But this was the first opportunity that I've had to do that. i'm like, well, I kind of like this. I think I might do this more, but it was just so special to be able to do that for her. And like, that was my gift to her was to do those flowers.
01:04:25
Jennifer Gulizia
That's amazing. Did you bring flowers to Montana?
01:04:27
Erin
ah we We brought some and that flowers going over three mountain passes is you need a refrigerated van. If anybody's going to do that in the future.
01:04:38
Jennifer Gulizia
Did you?
01:04:39
Erin
I ended up buying my flowers from Blue Mountain Flower Farm in Missoula and it worked. It was beautiful. And Caitlin, if you're listening to this, you were a lifesaver. Thank you. because her farm was literally a mile and a half away from my sister's house. And then the wedding venue from my sister's house was a mile the other direction. so it was so easy to just go pick up the flowers from her. We went back to my sister's house, made all the arrangements and then went to the venue and
01:05:10
Erin
set them all up and it was amazing. The peonies that we brought over, they did fine. They were they were good. And honestly, because you when you harvest them and they're in that like ball shape, by the time we got over to Missoula, they had opened up and that's what you want for big you know wedding arrangements for them to be open.
01:05:24
Jennifer Gulizia
Right.
01:05:26
Erin
The greenery that we had brought over did not fare well on the journey.
01:05:31
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, no.
01:05:32
Erin
Yeah, it was, yeah.
01:05:32
Jennifer Gulizia
Well, it's it's been so hot.
01:05:34
Erin
it It all worked out. Like we had plenty of flowers. It was beautiful. yeah
01:05:40
Jennifer Gulizia
I love it.
01:05:45
Jennifer Gulizia
Did I just ask you, what are you most grateful for that flowers have given you beyond the blooms?
01:05:50
Erin
No, but that's a tough one
01:05:51
Jennifer Gulizia
Okay. Well, I just spilled the beans. So my last question for you on the quick fire is, um because I know there was a lot of gratitude baked into that one, but what are you most grateful for that flowers have given you beyond the blooms? Yeah.
01:06:09
Erin
Beyond the, something to be proud of. I mean, um i'm I'm proud of my family. I'm proud of my kids, but I feel like I'm a middle child and I don't know if people who are middle child, they know middle child syndrome.
01:06:24
Erin
And I just feel like I, in my life have never had something that I'm like truly, truly proud of, you know, but this has given me something that like, oh, sorry.
01:06:36
Erin
I'm
01:06:37
Jennifer Gulizia
Oh, I love
01:06:39
Erin
just really grateful for it. And
01:06:45
Erin
sorry did not see that meant
01:06:47
Jennifer Gulizia
you. didn't mean to make you cry.
01:06:51
Erin
it uh it has just been an amazing opportunity and has given me like just the courage to go out there and try and know what i'm capable of doing and that there's a lot out there that i can do just got to put your mind to it and
01:06:51
Jennifer Gulizia
it's
01:07:14
Erin
it's been a confidence boost for sure because like, as you know, as an introvert, sometimes having confidence is hard, you know, and now that I'm like, I can do this and it there's nothing to be afraid of, you know, and I'm just truly, truly grateful for it.
01:07:33
Jennifer Gulizia
Thank you for sharing that. That's really beautiful. Flowers really are empowering and they they touch us so deeply.
01:07:41
Erin
Mm-hmm.
01:07:41
Jennifer Gulizia
i mean, I've been moved to tears so many times, like holding a bouquet or watching someone grab a bouquet. And you're like, how is it that something so small or something so like it' it's so representative of us in our life that I just think
01:07:56
Erin
Yeah. Mm-hmm.
01:07:58
Jennifer Gulizia
And it's really powerful what we do. And I think it's such a good reminder that what we do is so important and that you are touching so many lives, Erin.
01:08:07
Erin
When you get those messages from people that are just like, I just dropped off the bouquet to my grandma in the hospital and she loved it so much.
01:08:07
Jennifer Gulizia
And we're really...
01:08:15
Erin
You know, it's like those messages mean the world to me. And that just tells me right there that I'm doing, I'm doing the right thing. I'm doing what I meant to be doing. And just like the people that I've met doing this, so many new friends and it's it's just amazing.
01:08:35
Jennifer Gulizia
The flower community is amazing.
01:08:37
Erin
It is. It is one of a kind, that's for sure.
01:08:40
Jennifer Gulizia
And we're so lucky that you joined us here today to share your story. And we're grateful that you're part of it.
01:08:43
Erin
Thank you for having me. Thank you.
01:08:47
Jennifer Gulizia
oh Thank you for joining us. And before we go today, um two quick things. One, we will post links in the show notes so that you can follow Erin. We will have a link to Muddy Hill Flower Farm, ah both on social media and web website.
01:09:01
Jennifer Gulizia
And Erin will give me information, is that correct, for the Snohomish Bloom Festival? Am I saying that correct?
01:09:08
Erin
The whole mission bloom, yes.
01:09:08
Jennifer Gulizia
Yes. Snohomish and Bloom. So we'll have a link to that as well in today's show notes. So be sure to visit the show notes and check those out and then make sure you save the date for September thirteenth through 18th for the Dahlia Design Summit. Our tickets will be opening soon and we would love to have you join our community. So Erin, thanks for joining us today and we'll see you all soon.
01:09:30
Erin
Thank you.