Life & Work with Stephanie Walker

Today we’d like to introduce you to Stephanie Walker.

Hi Stephanie, please kick things off for us with an introduction to yourself and your story.
I have been working in gardens since I was a kid. My parents always grew vegetable gardens and I hated it because to me, gardening meant weeding. However, I always loved seeing a beautifully landscaped area. When I left home, I longed for a little space where I could grow things on my own. When my husband and I bought our first home after graduating from college, I immediately fell in love with the tiny postage stamp-sized backyard that had a border of sweet alyssum and canna lilies. Besides the cuteness of the home itself, the flowers are really what sold me on that house. We took a corner of the backyard, only a 10×10 space, and created our first vegetable garden.

We have been gardening ever since and our gardens have expanded substantially over the 26 years we’ve been married. It was important to me to have a beautiful yard that I could escape to and reground myself with on occasion. I came to a point in my life, after being a wife and stay-at-home mom, where I needed to rediscover who I was. After caring for children and pouring so much into raising them, I lost a sense of who I was and what made me, me. My husband encouraged me to take the Master Gardening course through the University of Arizona extension program and I’m so glad I did! I reconnected with a part of myself that had been put on hold. I found so much fulfillment in learning more about gardening and growing things. I soon began a garden coaching service with an Instagram account, but I found that I was continually posting more about flowers than vegetables. I then realized that flowers were my true passion.

Each Sunday I would take a bouquet arrangement of flowers to church to provide as a centerpiece for our women’s meeting. The purpose was to find a woman at the meeting I could give the flowers to take home with her. Pretty soon the leader of our congregation asked me to put them on the stand for our main Sacrament Service for all of the congregation to enjoy. One day, one of my friends at church said that I should start selling bouquets. This was such a strange idea to me since these were, after all, just flowers from my backyard. However, that thought stayed with me until one day a few months later I cut a bucket of flowers and took them to the florist just down the street from my house. I walked in a nervous wreck, expecting her to laugh at me and reject my flowers. I walked out of there with $94. I was shocked. From that day, I decided to get serious about growing and selling flowers. I continued cutting from around my landscape and selling the flowers that I grew.

When COVID hit and quarantine began, I decided to take a 600 sq/ft space in my backyard that we were reserving to build a pool and prepare it to plant flowers. I tilled and amended the soil and laid down drip tape and then planted lisianthus starts and sowed zinnias, cosmos, celosia, amaranth, and sunflower seeds. I began selling subscription and special order bouquets. And it just took off. I also began offering in-person consultations and online workshops.

Last year, I began production on a large field on our property. I planted seeds and transplants only to have them eaten by rabbits. We then had a heavy-duty fence installed that managed to keep out the bunnies. This has been the most challenging aspect of growing.

On our farm, we grow seasonally and sell flowers grown on our farm from March through November. We provide garden consultations, and conduct workshops- online and in person- do weddings, funerals, special order bouquets, CSA Subscription Bouquets, and special events. We also sell our bouquets in a variety of ways: on Doordash, at a local water store, and can provide buckets of bloom for DIY occasions.

This fall we are launching our Flower Gardening Master Class where participants are invited to our farm to learn flower gardening principles and grow flowers on their own little plots of land. This course is from start to finish from October through April.

Often people are pleasantly surprised that the flowers we sell are locally grown. It can be challenging growing in our desert climate, but by tweaking the growing season, we are able to grow just about anything. Although we are unable to grow some popular flowers such as peonies, hydrangeas, and lilacs, we have found ways to have amazingly beautiful blooms the majority of the year. I am so proud of this. We grow without the use of pesticides or herbicides so our flowers are organically grown.

Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall, and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Farming is never a smooth road. There are so many variables: weather, weeds, insect pressure, animals that decimate crops, and disease that can overtake a field in no time.

We have struggled with rabbits who ate everything we planted. With our new fence, we have conquered that obstacle. This summer, our good pump died and we had to replace it. The replacement pump was faulty and had to be replaced again. Needless to say, our flowers suffered as a result of the lack of water and we lost a large portion of our field.

Since I am mainly a one-person show, sometimes I can’t keep up with all the tasks of the field. I do have a couple of people who help me on occasion. It is a lot of work for one person.

Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I grow and sell fresh flowers. I specialize in varieties that grow well in full sun in the season that is best for the flower. I am proud of being able to grow beautiful blooms in a hot, desert environment.

I provide a comprehensive garden and flower growing service from workshops to consultations to flower and seed production and sales.

What do you think about happiness?
I truly enjoy being around flowers. They bring me so much joy. I love watching them grow and bloom. When I am planting, I feel the connection to the earth and the grounding that brings me peace. I love to see them in my landscape, bring them in to enjoy in my home, and cut them to take to friends and see the joy they bring them.

I love planting a seed and tending it and watching it grow. There are so many lessons to be learned in tending to a garden. The analogies and metaphors that I draw from gardening are priceless as I learn and grow from what I observe. I love that aspect of gardening. I draw strength from the entire process.

Contact Info:

• Website: thepottersbench.com
• Instagram: @the_potters_bench
• Facebook: @the_potters_bench