Meet Robin
All of my earliest memories of flowers come from time spent with my Mom. She absolutely loved going to the nursery centers in the spring, picking out the brightest and boldest flowers she could find — never any whites — and planting them in the little beds along our house.
I’ve done the same thing at every home we’ve moved to. There’s something about that first trip to the nursery after a long winter. It’s a little treat. Proof that winter is, in fact, going to end.
I also have a habit of turning my hobbies into businesses.
After closing my previous shop, I wanted to do something that brought me closer to nature. Something that would let me use my brain — I love learning new things — while also getting me moving physically. The idea of a flower farm took root in my mind, and I couldn’t let it go.
I’m the idea gal. I can dream it, and then I usually have to figure out how to make it happen.
The funny thing is, I didn’t always have a love of nature or the outdoors. I had never even sat on a tractor until I bought one.
Pretty much everything about farming has been new to me.
I’m still learning as I go. There’s almost always some experiment happening here, whether I know exactly what I’m doing or not. And honestly, that’s one of my favorite parts.
There’s always something new to learn. Something to try. Something that might work — or might be a spectacular failure.
And that’s the way I like it.
meet Chris
Chris grew up following his Dad around Air Force bases, from Japan to Italy to Mississippi and finally here. He always knew he wanted to eventually put down roots in a community, but farming wasn’t really part of the plan.
At heart, Chris is a fixer. Thank God, because there are plenty of things going wrong around here all the time.
From irrigation problems to tractor maintenance, he’s the guy who will figure it out and get ‘er done. There is very little that can break around here without eventually ending up on his list.
Somewhere along the way, he also decided that the corner of the barn needed its own farm.
A worm farm.
Chris raises worms and produces what gardeners like to call “black gold” — the rich worm compost that goes into the flower fields and vegetable garden. He also sells worm compost to other gardeners, so his little operation has become its own thing.
His day job is as an IT professional, so naturally, when he had some spare time, he developed an app for worm farming called Worm Wise.
Because apparently having a worm farm wasn’t enough.
Chris is what I’d call the bedrock of this family. He’s the most supportive and steady guy I know, and I honestly couldn’t do any of this without him.
the farm crew
poppy
Head of Supervision
cricket
Chaos Maker
sterling
Professional Lounger
geronimo
Field Security
jon snow
Hunter
katniss
Huntress
Although we don’t have goats or sheep for her to herd, our border collie, Poppy, is very good at keeping an eye on all of us. She takes her job very seriously and seems to believe that whatever we’re doing probably requires supervision.
The three barn cats have made a surprisingly big impact on the success rate of my seedlings once they make it into the ground. Geronimo, an orange male; Jon Snow, a tuxedo male; and Katniss, an orange female. They’re all named after hunter characters in books, and they each live up to their names in their own way.
We also have Sterling, an old, grumpy indoor cat who doesn’t particularly appreciate other animals — or people. 😉
And then there’s Cricket.
Our latest addition showed up here as a little rescue and decided, apparently, that this was home now. He’s some sort of mix that looks like a dachshund crossed with a terrier, although we’re not exactly sure what else is in there. His name is Cricket because he jumps. A lot. And for such a short little guy, he can jump surprisingly high.
His official job seems to be keeping all of us on our toes.
How Goldfinch hill got it’s name
When we first moved here, before there was a flower farm, I planted a little flower garden.
There were some sunflowers, among other things, and before long I started noticing tiny goldfinches showing up. I had never really seen them at our previous home, so seeing them here felt like a little discovery.
I love their trill. It sounds like joy.
And I love that flash of yellow when one flies past — there and gone before you really have time to notice it.
Those little birds were part of what kept pulling me toward planting more flowers. The next year I planted a whole row of special Van Gogh sunflowers along the fence. And eventually, the flower farm happened.
So when I was trying to come up with a name for this place, Goldfinch Hill just felt right.
It was a name tied to one of the things that made me fall in love with this property in the first place — growing things, paying attention, and noticing what shows up when you make a little room for it.
