Hello and welcome to Silver Fox Lane Flowers. I'm Darcy, a photographer and stationery designer turned small scale flower farmer living in the heart of America along with my husband just outside of Cedar Rapids, IA. 3 years ago, (2022) we learned about an acreage that was going on the market and were asked if we knew of anyone that might be interested, to let them know prior to it falling into the lap of a realtor. Were we intrigued? Yes, but after two house renovations in as many years, we were ready for a break from house projects. So no, we were probably not interested? Right? In fact, it took us weeks to go check this property out, and by then we thought for sure there would already be an offer pending. To our surprise, the property was still available and we were instantly hooked from the moment we drove down that quarter mile lane, Silver Fox Lane. We are now just over 2 years into what will probably be a 4 year renovation of the home, and endless derecho cleanup of the timber, still tired, but we are absolutely in love with where we're at.
I'm a creative by nature, a photographer and stationery designer for over 20 years, my creative itch spills over into most everything I do. I've grown flowers and vegetables for as long as I can remember. My earliest memories start at the age of 5, running barefoot through my own childhood garden. Just 2 years prior to moving here, my husband built me my dream garden. Raised wooden beds, pea gravel paths, twinkling lights, filled to the brim with seasonal cut flowers and vegetables, it was my little sanctuary, it was hard to leave behind for sure. Little did he know, however, he'd be doing it all over again just 2 years later! But this time I wanted to go bigger, but not just in the physical sense.
Last year we built our structure, started growing on about a tenth of an acre, had great growing success, built the website, learned A LOT, quickly learned that our growing season is just not nearly long enough here in Iowa and put plans in place to extend our growing season this year. I already have plants that are ready to be hardened off and put in the ground mid March, and hope to have blooms sometime in late May. We also plan to double our growing area this year with plenty of room to expand beyond that should this thing take off. With two weddings of our own and a home to finish, I'm trying to remind myself to not bite off more than I can chew this year.
So where do I see this going? Well, I know first hand the joy that not only the flowers bring to me personally, but the whole process of preparing the soil, planting the seed, growing the flowers, harvesting the blooms. Each and every aspect of growing flowers fills me with a sense of joy and accomplishment and at the end of it all, I receive this bountiful reward and I don't want to keep it all for myself, I want to share it with you. The flowers, the process, the DIY's, and probably more.
I am so eager to spread the word about our little flower farm and cannot wait to not only get these blooms out into the community, but to also BUILD a community of locally grown flower lovers, back yard flower growers and big or little event DIY'ers! If that's you, this is your space.
See you soon,
Darcy