A huge thank you to the amazing photographers Kaitlyn Shea & Danielle Wilson for taking the beautiful portraits of me on my web site. Kaitlyn Shea Photography & Danielle Wilson - Rooted By Love
My name is Katlyn – Garden lover, Flower obsessed, Surfer, and Photographer. Although I have been involved in gardening all my life through my family and neighbourhood, it has only been in the last hand-full of years that my obsession with gardening began. I can remember being a small child walking through my grandfathers garden admiring the massive dinner plate dahlias, and being mesmerized by their beauty. After experiencing city life I decided it was not meant for me. The quiet coast line of Vancouver Island was calling me. It was here where I began my gardening obsession. You could say it was always in my blood to have the “green thumb”, it was just waiting for the right time to bloom.
What once started out as a small addition to my vegetable garden, growing just a few flowers along side, has now turned into something much bigger. When I decided to create my garden I knew I wanted to use organic methods. Over time through research I began to grow flowers that attracted beneficial insects and pollinators to my garden to help me keep everything in balance with out the use of any chemicals. When I started I soon became passionate about the farm to table movement supporting locally grown seasonal organic food. Not long after I then started to question the same with the flowers we see in our grocery stores, florist shops, and on our kitchen tables. Where were they all coming from? As my collection of flowers grew, I realized that there is a need for sustainable local flower production. A newer but quickly growing movement has started with flowers as well; Field to Vase , growing seasonal organic flowers locally.
Similarly to much of the vegetables and fruits we see in stores, many of the flowers sold have been grown in 3rd world countries, on farms that often times are a mono-crop (Monocropping is the agricultural practice of growing a single crop year after year on the same land, in the absence of rotation through other crops). Because of this, the farms use extremely harsh chemicals to guarantee the success of their crops. Many of these industrial flower farms have a history of unfair labour practices. The chemicals used on many of these farms are causing some workers and babies devastating health problems such as cancer and extreme deformations. The flowers are then shipped thousands of miles around the world to shops where they are then sold, creating a huge carbon footprint.
Although I am just a small scale farmer, it is my passion to bring awarness about this happening in the world and to do my best to produce organically and ethically grown flowers that reflect the seasons in my region. Part of this includes growing a mixture of native plants along side other blooms, to help increase the wildlife and pollinator population.
Not only am I passionate about growing flowers and veggies for sustainability, but am also delighted to bring happiness and sunshine to others through one of natures greatest gifts: Flowers.