Kay’s BouKays & Flower Farm, a rural Ohio acreage, stuffed with cut flower seedlings and located near Oberlin, Ohio…has just launched a retirement dream.
My husband willingly agreed when I asked for help getting started. Excavating trees, stump-removal, row-tilling, irrigation-laying, flower stand designer and builder. In his spare time. Like a good weekend project, only the opposite.
Most people would not even think of starting a business in 2021, then dare to announce to their spouse of 9 years, “Hey, love, let’s start a flower farm!”
I promised myself not to plunge us into crippling debt, while wearing the high ponytail and rubber work boots. He couldn’t resist my shameless Wife Superpowers, and so far, he hasn’t turned me into compost by throwing me in the pile. It’s cute that we call our itty-bitty operation a “farm,” we are micro-farming on less than an acre. What I lack in ground, I make up for in diversity, planting more than 50 flower types and 5,000 plants I started from seed, tuber, bulb, or corm. Each flower has its own quirks, and requires something different from this aspiring farmer.
So far, so good. The field is full of seasonal thrillers, spillers, and fillers, oh my! Some seed crops are so easy, they practically grow themselves, and bulbs just want a good hole to lay in. Other crops are tricky, with seeds tiny as dust specks.
As for customers and sales, we are working hard for more of both, but keeping things simple to start: On site flower stand, local farm markets, subscription bouquets in our flower CSA, and DIY buckets for brides. Check out our Services.
Each day is different, but the rhythm has become familiar: solid, honest, hard work with a wonderful payoff—the opportunity to offer beauty and blessings to the world, in the form of flowers. Just when the world really needs more kindness and beauty. How great is that?
In the rows, in the quiet, I think a lot. The flowers are coming! The flowers are coming!