Coming Out Of The Weeds

Fall is moving in fast this year. Instead of a slow descent into cooler temperatures, this one feels rapid. The leaves are turning orange and yellow instead of the dull brown that often happens around here. What gives brightly colored fall leaves is sunny days and a large shift between daytime and nighttime temperatures. The more extreme of a difference, the more shocking it is to the trees. Chlorophyll — what makes a leaf green — begins to degrade, and other chemical compounds create the yellow, orange, and red colors we love. When we have cloudy, monotonous weather, we don’t get much fall color. But this year is looking like a good one! It might even warrant a drive out to North Cascades National Park to take in the scenery!

This week on the farm, progress has been moving at a snail’s pace. I came down with a cold nearly two weeks ago, and I can’t seem to shake it. There’s a bounty of flowers, tomatoes, and seeds to harvest. I want to get beds prepped, hardy annuals planted, and I have some final work to do on the conservatory before the rain comes. Plus, I have several garden jobs that I keep having to push back, which is quite inconvenient for both them and me. Colds never seem to come at a convenient time, do they?

Instead of my preferred physical work, I have transitioned to working on my website, editing media, and making plans for the 2027 farm season. I would love to discuss them in full and obsessive detail, but I’m still hammering out the not-fun stuff like permits and insurance, making sure my ideas are really feasible. Let’s just say I have something really good in the works for 2027 that feels realistic, fun, and exciting. You’re going to love it!

A few years back, I wrote a book called “The Wild Mindset,” which is about chasing down big dreams. I have to remind myself all the time about certain parts in that book. There’s a concept called “Following the pull,” which is about trusting in yourself even though what you want makes no sense on paper. And that’s exactly what I’ve been struggling with. When I decided to start the farm, things felt incredibly vague. I knew I wanted to do it, but I didn’t know how to grow, how to sell my products, or how it really made any sense at all. My farm is in Skagit County, Washington. There’s a huge agriculture industry here with 89,000 acres of farmland. You’ll find a flower stand on nearly every corner. The spring tulip festival brings thousands of visitors each year. It’s safe to say we are bursting at the seams with flowers. So why does my little dream even matter?

Luckily, I am a very stubborn individual. My greatest strength and weakness, in one five-foot, seven-inch package. I could focus on the reasons it doesn’t matter, won’t work, how it will be unprofitable, and a total waste of time and energy. Plus, what if it fails? That’s super embarrassing. But instead, I’m choosing to listen to my gut that says to do it anyway. And by sticking with it the past couple years, which has NOT been smooth sailing, I’m beginning to see where I can make a difference.

With two growing seasons under my belt, my path forward is beginning to open up. I now know that I can grow. I know I can sell. And I know that I’m doing something that I think the world really needs. The project that I’m working on is extraordinarily slow, hard, and will probably stay unprofitable for a long time. And yet — I’m going to do it anyway because I really want to. Even if it never really amounts to anything, at least I’ll never have to live my life wondering what it could’ve been like if I really went for it.

If you’ve made it this far in my ramblings, that means you probably are excited or at least interested in this farm project. I think you deserve a little one-word hint as a reward: Propagule. Comment your guess if you have one. Good luck!