WELCOME TO
THE SMALLEST FARM
IN WESTWOOD
Dorothy’s Garden started as a small project. My house sits on a relatively large lot for my tightly packed neighborhood and for me, growing grass just didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I was raised in a flower family, my mother’s parents were nursery owners and ran a retail flower shop, Valley View Florist, in Charlottesville, VA. After leaving home, I had always kept a small garden for myself, but in 2021 I decided to transform the lot and all of that grass beside my house into a micro cut flower farm. What I learned in the process of becoming a small scale cut flower farmer is that 80% of all flowers sold by florists and grocery stores are imported from far away lands, where labor practices and pesticide use goes largely unregulated.
Growing happiness
The idea of bringing the production of gorgeous flowers closer to the end user is making gains here in the US. Small scale growers are bringing cut flower farming back to where their customers acturally live. This scaling down to a local level has a many benefits for the environment. Think of local pollinators, less lawn fertilizers, and a lower carbon footprint of the flowers themselves as they are no longer flown and driven thousands of miles nor do they need refrigeration. So while micro flower farms are good for the earth, there is what I believe a larger take away. Fresh cut, locally grown flowers make people smile. Neighborhood based, micro flower farms foster community. Local blooms bring much needed joy to everyone who encounters them. In short, I’m growing happiness on my postage stamp sized lot and I want to share those smiles with you.