FLOWER POWER

Flower Power and how did it come about. 

I’m Marjo the farmer, I grew up in Finland and came to Canada for a visit as a young girl and met Peter my love/husband. 

My mom told me a story about me when I was around 2 years old (farm girl) I told her that “I want to have my own farm and the greenhouse so I can grow flowers.” 

The dream came through, a few years later. 

We were able to purchase our first farm on Herald Rd, East Gwillimbury. That was the fall of 2004. We didn’t even have a tractor yet, but we had to start from somewhere. By Spring of 2005 we were planting thousands of trees by hand and shovels. 

We had a big family already, 9 children our oldest was 12 when we moved to the farm. 

We were all excited and happy to be living on a farm and working on the land together. 

On Christmas time Dec 18th, 2007, our 11th baby Joseph Anthony, our LOVE was born. There were complications in his birth, and he had to go to Sick kids Hospital a few hours after his birth.  

He got stronger and they had to do an operation on him. He did get infection at the hospital and passed away on March 10th, 2008. Our Angel baby was gone, and our life was shattered. My arms were aching, empty.  

I couldn’t sleep and it was March, almost planting time, so we went and got seeds, soil, containers etc. I started planting, planting, planting, our house was full of plants, even the bedrooms. Peter found us used greenhouse and we got it up and we filled it up with the plants from inside the house, even the neighborhood kids came to help us to carry the plants and seedling trays to the greenhouse. Everyone wanted to help. I was a wreck; I still couldn’t sleep. We had a wood burning furnace inside the greenhouse so it stayed nice and warm for the nights, so I stayed there and planted sometimes all night when I couldn’t sleep. 

The new growth gave me such a good feeling that I just continued planting and planting. 

This was the start of “Flower Power” … story will continue.