There are joys one cannot imagine until they have
experienced them. I suppose that has been my mission, to constantly seek the
joys I could’ve never known existed until I fell into these new unique worlds
and my brain is streeeeetched beyond belief.
Wollam Gardens is that new world (you can google and find
out all about us) for now.
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| Sunset from the balcony. |
First arrival: nervous, anticipatory… The Dahlia Festival
was in full swing and I walked up to the welcome tent, ready to state my
purpose and attempt to explain why I didn’t need to pay the entry fee when Kim,
one of the managers noticed me and whisked me away, rushing through the
farmhouse (dating back to the early 1700s with original hardwood flooring) to
show me my room (upstairs shared with the other two managers, Josh and Jen, a
couple sharing one bed, and their dog, Zoe, who gets the third bed in the room)
and then hand me over to Josh. No one really knew what to do with me that first
day, so I helped shovel out some pumpkins but spent most of my time awkwardly
standing around petting the farm cat, Maxwell, and Zoe. I finally asked if
there was anything I should be doing and Josh told me to just hang out as no
one expected me to work that day so I took a walk around the grounds… the 10
acres: row after row of different types of plants, most of which were foreign
to me (celosia? Tuberosa? Gomphrena? I really don’t know flowers). There are 5
hoop houses, one large green house, a treehouse, a pond, bridges, golf carts to
easily transport from one spot to another, a giant walk-in cooler, outdoor
showers, a tree swing, a large flower processing area, and I’m sure plenty more
undiscovered such things.
I went up to my room afterwards and sat in fear for awhile.
The loneliness and unfamiliarity had me in a NEW PLACE stupor, but after
wallowing in ‘holy shit, what am I doing’ for a little while, add in a nap, and
finally going back outside to be greeted by all the other interns with smiles
on their faces, I was all set.
“All we do is go out and cut flowers together all day. It’s
amazing!”
“Bob (the owner) has the most interesting stories, and he
takes car of you.”
“Going out in the morning is amazing, you just ride out with
the sun shining on the dew and the birds all flapping around in morning glory
and you’re in the middle of a bunch of flower fields!”
I quickly began to feel more comfortable with all my fellow
housemates, including the baby chickens living at the bottom of the stairs. I
was also assigned Farmers Market the next day, as no one else wanted to miss
the festival. 5:30am wake up call!
I finally met all the interns, the owner, his partner, and
even an old intern who came to visit with her boyfriend. The farm is full and bountiful,
with characters a plenty. The food is tasty and all free and we scored a bunch
of free stuff from the vendors at the festival.
Day 2: I met Kim’s husband, Andrew, who is a fantastic
character that I thoroughly enjoyed chatting with throughout the day. He made
the day pretty stress-free, educational, and fun. We loaded up the van at 6:15
and headed to the Duponte circle farmers market in DC. We set up the whole
shebang, 4 tents, tables, arranged the flowers as best we could, and set off,
which loads of people coming through with particular tastes and knowledge of
these flowers of ours—most knew more about them than I when we began. I learned
how to wrap the flowers, the names and prices of many of em, (CELOSIA, brain
celosia is my favorite so far), how to best dry the limelight hydrangeas and
the celosia, and how to barter with the surrounding booths. What a good intro
to work! We stopped at Potbellies one our way home and he paid for my stuff,
which included a large meat sandwich and milkshake, all delicious. I also go a
free iced coffee as we gave the coffee vendor a bunch of flowers.
I’m really enjoying it here. I know this was long and
jumbly, but I wanted to get something out there. Oh! And I went for a walk this
evening and it began to rain so I sought shelter in a hoop house. Felt so nice
to be back out here, on this land-a-plenty, working and living with
like-minded, interesting folks!
