This is Our Story— and we're sticking with it!

Linda and Chas Gill got started in the horticultural world after enrolling in the Southern Maine Vocational Technical College's plant and soil program in 1988. (They both came from different backgrounds and previous careers.) Linda was working in Boston in the Video Production Field while Chas had a real estate appraisal business in Kittery, Maine. After working in the traditional garden center/nursery business for several years as both growers and retailers they realized that wasn't the business for them. Through a business associate who was doing a market survey about dried flowers, Linda and Chas learned about the Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers (ASCFG) and the opportunities in the cut flower industry. They were excited from day one. Finally they could work together--Chas could grow, and Linda could design with flowers.

Linda and Chas borrowed a small piece of land in 1991--their first year--and grew some flowers and did one wedding and a party, still working fulltime at various nurseries. During this year they'd been looking for land to move to and start a horticultural endeavor. After looking all around central Maine, the couple found a perfect piece of land. (The big issue for us was finding good soil. They used to joke that unlike typical homeowners, they weren't all that concerned about school systems or other services.) Linda and Chas bought 80 acres with approximately 15 acres of Kennebec River bottomland—silt loam with no slope or rocks. Whenever Chas find a stone in the field, he'd wonder how it got there.

During the summer of 1992, on weekends and evenings Linda and Chas traveled the 45 miles to the land they'd purchased and planted approximately 1 acre of cuts. Linda set a table at the Wednesday farmers' market in Portland, and they both participated on Saturdays. They made mixed bouquets (because everyone else did) and charged $3 each, averaging $30 to $60 a day. The next year, Chas took more time off and participated more actively on the farm. They built a house in 1994 and since the summer of 1993 have been fulltime flower growers. Although for a while Linda and Chas sold to a few specialty grocery stores, they found that selling direct to the customer is without a doubt the best way to market for a small farm.