The Blue Dot Blossoms Story
Hello. My name is Liebe Patterson. In 2017, I started growing garden flowers on a quarter of an acre of Blue Dot Farm, a horse farm in Nicasio, CA. I have always loved gardening and flowers, and I was inspired to grow and sell flowers to bring joy and beauty into the world and help people celebrate important people and moments in their lives.
After reading the book, Flower Confidential by Amy Stewart, I also wanted to provide an alternative to commercial flowers, grown with chemicals and pesticides, and requiring a big carbon footprint to grow and transport. I wanted to grow flowers that are healthy for both people and the planet, and that would take just hours (not weeks) to get from field to vase, retaining their natural fragrance and fresh beauty.
I was lucky enough to attend a workshop at Floret with Erin Benzakein, a flower grower and local flower advocate in Washington State. This experience gave me the confidence to move forward with my flower growing dreams. We converted a dry lawn into a quarter-acre flower farm. In just 3 years, we have filled this patch of land with garden roses, ranunculus, anemones and sweet peas, dahlias, and a mix of other flowers and fillers.
We use horse manure from the barn to make compost, which feeds the flowers. We don’t use any chemical fertilizers or pesticides. The garden is full of pollinators, frogs, lizards, and birds that find their food and shelter among the blossoms. We take care of the soil by planting cover crops and adding organic matter. We avoid tilling the soil, which can disrupt the fungal networks and disturb communities of microorganisms that the plants need. We conserve and re-use water to irrigate the flowers and try to use as little plastic as possible in the growing and marketing of our flowers. In short, we are doing all that we can to care for our piece of the planet and help keep the earth a healthy home for all living things.
“There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.”
Harvesting flowers on Blue Dot Farm.