Helen Skiba & Nelson Esseveld

Photos courtesy of Artemis flower farm

Greenhouse Management: Artemis Flower Farm is an ecology focused farm. What does that mean?

I was just a little bit frustrated with the terms “organic” and “regenerative” because it didn’t feel like they really captured what we were trying to do on our farm. What we’re trying to do is make room for all of the creatures that use the land alongside us, so being an ecology focused farm means that we’re focused on everything that’s in the soil. We’re focused on really celebrating that we have great horned owls that live around us, and bobcats and coyotes, that we have a vast array of birds on the farm, and we want to do things on the farm that encourage that diversity of life and that protect that diversity of life. We do less tillage. We do as little pesticide spraying as possible. Last year, we didn’t do any pesticide spraying in the field. We notice that when we intervene less, we are encouraging the ecology that’s already there to just simply do its job.

We’re not just looking at things singularly. And I think that holistic approach allows you to become a better observer and understand your farm a bit better than you would if you were looking at things at a very singular level.

The ecology of the farm also includes the human beings on it — how we interact with employees, how we’re training them and compensating them, and the quality of life they have on our farm. That’s really important to us, too.

GM: What are you seeing in the cut flower market right now?

We work with weddings a lot, and the big wedding trend has been brown flowers like lisianthus Rosanne Brown. There are lots of muted apricots, peaches and browns trending. People are really into this warm and muted palette. And then as far as our other retail customers, they value the small nature of the farm, the local business aspect and that we’re producing a product they can feel good about buying.

People are buying more flowers since the pandemic as a form of self-care, and that’s been good for us. I think that when people were stuck at home with the pandemic, they wanted to get more in touch with their local communities and the people there, so the fact that we’re able to offer on-farm experiences for people is really, really valuable. People want that connection to their food and their flowers and the land they live on.

GM: What advice would you give to flower growers who want to participate in this kind of ecological, environmentally conscious growing?

I would say to join the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG). There is a lot of information there about both organic and conventional growing. Also, pay attention to the organic farming and vegetables movement. Those folks have really paved the way for us. There are a ton of resources out there about growing organically and shifting our mindsets to thinking that a pest in the field isn’t necessarily the enemy, and we need to sit back and observe what our farm and our ecosystem is doing for us and how it’s balancing itself.

Patience is one of the biggest things you need while growing with these organic and ecology-focused methods.