New Year, New Home
Fall view of farm looking north toward the Grand Hogbacks
Guess what?! Modern West Floral Co. has a new permanent farm home! The reality is still sinking in and we still get that ‘pinch me’ feeling from time to time.
As you may know, Modern West Floral Company was born in 2015. We started off as a floral design business but quickly realized that our designs were really only as good as the florals that were in them so we decided we would try to grow our own flowers. In 2016 we got super lucky and met a wonderful lady in Carbondale who leased us some of her land to start our own floral production. We started growing (and killing, oops! Learning curve!) flowers on her property and in 2017 we began selling wholesale to Whole Foods. We continued to grow flowers on the leased property until 2020 when we found out that the property was being sold and we would have to move. STOP. Yup. It was a little bit of that heart sinking feeling. But after all those feelings dissolved away we had a realization: How lucky we were to have all that time on her property to grow and learn what we really needed and wanted in a flower farm!
January sun setting over the high tunnels in our southwest field
We then asked ourselves, “Can we find something that we can own?” We knew we needed at least an acre (more would be better), water rights, somewhere we could still be part of our Roaring Fork Valley community and we wanted to be able to live on site.
Have you tried to farm somewhere other than where you live? Yes? I feel for you. You’ve probably had that really great experience in early spring of just getting ready to climb into a warm bed when that little switch flips in your brain and your like, “Did I turn off the hose?” Nope. You didn’t. Great job. If you don’t get dressed and drive out to the farm the pipes are going to freeze. So you get up...you drive to the farm and….you… realize... you DID turn off the hose! HA!
Farming somewhere besides your home has its challenges and since we were dreaming we thought we might as well add a house to the dream. Being able to be on site all the time to make sure watering and temperatures are kept in check and to just admire plants and flowers was really key. So we put all those little dreams and desires on a list and then we started the hunt.
To house hunt here in the Roaring Fork Valley you have to be quick! The first place we looked at got away from us, but in hindsight this was a good thing. Seeing a place that makes you realize you really want what you think you want is kind of like flipping a coin. Your true feelings seem to come out and that’s what happened, we realized that we were ready to make the leap. It also helped us realize what we could afford financially and what we needed to do to get our ducks in a row. Another property came up for sale, it checked all the boxes, we saw it, we jumped, we landed.
Summer view of our south pasture looking out over the mesa.
Modern West Floral Co. is now located on a 2 acre property in Silt, Colorado! We are on the mesa so our views of sunsets and sunrises are incredible. We face south with the Grand Hogbacks just to the north of us. We have a small chicken coop/shed that we are renovating into a design studio and a loafing shed that is used for storage. We have water rights that will allow us to irrigate seasonally. Currently, we have 2 high tunnels (unheated hoop houses) that are both 72’ long with one being 17’ wide and the other 20’ wide. Our outside growing space is 1/13th of an acre- ha! That sounds so tiny! Let’s just say our total growing space, including the high tunnels, is just over 1/8th of an acre. We have room to expand though and are aiming to expand each year.
Before: Our work crew helping us take first steps to renovate the existing chicken coop/shed!
After: Chicken coop/shed with a real door and some fresh siding.
We are currently working on renovating an existing shed into a propagation room and design studio. We planted tulip bulbs in the fall so hopefully we have tulips again for Mother’s Day! In the high tunnels we are starting bed prep. We are using cardboard to sheet mulch over the existing pasture grass and then laying 3”-4” of compost on top to plant directly into and then 4” of arborist wood chips in the pathways. (We got our compost from Soil Not Dirt Farm in Crawford). One of the things we realized when at the previous property was that 4’ wide beds weren’t very comfortable for us. It felt like we were straining to reach the middle of the bed when planting and weeding and it was hard to hop over the bed to get to the other side. (Why did the flarmer cross the flower bed? To get to the other side!) So we are very excited to be designing our beds to be 36” wide and our pathways at 2’. I know that seems like very spacious pathways but flowers grow a lot taller than most vegetables and by the time we are harvesting they encroach a bit into the path. We can also straddle a 36” bed so this will be helpful when setting out transplants. We will start planting seeds around Valentine’s Day!
Karen, intern class of 2020, planting tulip bulbs in one of our outside beds.
In addition to our Silt farm location, Modern West Floral Co. still has a shop and remote pick up location in the beloved SAW building in Carbondale (it’s located at 525 Buggy Circle). So, if you are a Carbondalian or an up valley resident don’t fret! We are still close! We will also continue to sell our bouquets during the summer at Whole Foods Basalt.
That’s our story, so far. Thanks so much for tuning in!
Best,
Vanessa - Owner, Flarmer
Modern West Floral Co.
*Please note that when I say ‘we’ I’m mostly saying ‘Brett’ (my *new husband). He did A LOT of leg work to make it possible to purchase the farm. I am very grateful to him as well as all the friends and family that have come to help dig up plants, move fencing, load moving trucks, unload moving trucks, level the pasture for the new growing area, paint our walls, feed us, fix windows that don’t stay open, etc. Thank you and Happy New Year! Let’s grow some flowers!