Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Stephanie Walker. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Alright, Stephanie thanks for taking the time to share your stories and insights with us today. So, naming is such a challenge. How did you come up with the name of your brand?

My maiden name is Potter. Most gardeners have a potting bench and I thought combining the two was perfect! I have so much love for my Potter roots and heritage. I love paying homage to my roots through my business name.

Stephanie, love having you share your insights with us. Before we ask you more questions, maybe you can take a moment to introduce yourself to our readers who might have missed our earlier conversations?

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 that 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 back yard that had a border of sweet alyssum and canna lilies. Besides the cuteness of the home itself, the flowers is really what sold me on that house. We took a corner of the back yard, 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 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 women at the meeting I could give the flowers to 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, afterall, 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 from those 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 seed and transplants only to have them eaten by rabbits. We then had a heavy duty fence installed that has 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 March through November. We do weddings, funerals, special order bouquets, CSA Subscription Bouquets, and special events. We also sell our bouquets at a local water store and can provide buckets of bloom for DIY occasions.

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 that our flowers are organically grown.

We’d love to hear the story of how you turned a side-hustle into a something much bigger.

Selling flowers definitely happened by accident. It came about as I grew flowers in my yard and took them to church each Sunday to share with the women in our weekly women’s meeting. Eventually, the leader of our congregation asked me to place them on the stand each week in the our main Sacrament meeting, which preceded the second hour of church which is the women’s meeting. One of my friends told me I should sell my bouquets and I thought that was a ridiculous idea. However, the suggestion would not leave my mind. Eventually, I cut some flowers one day and took a bucket of blooms to the florist down the street and walked out with $94! Then I started advertising bouquets on my social media, which led to preparing a dedicated flower growing space.

Once I dedicated a space for growing flowers specifically, I was able to concentrate on production. This made it much easier to harvest for bouquets, as they were all in one space and I didn’t have to gather all around my property.

Can you talk to us about how your funded your business?

The amazing thing about flower farming and starting out small is that there was not a lot of captial needed for my particular venture. Besides investing in seeds, irrigation equipment and soil amendments, I did not have to have a lot of cash. I also had the land to be able to plant on. We have about 1.25 acres and I was able to dedicate a portion of our property to growing.

When I first began, I was cutting from flowers that I was already growing in my landscape. That initial $94 I got from the first florist was invested back into my business and I was able to purchase seeds. Soon after that, I sold Easter floral arrangements and made some more money to invest for irrigation supplies. As I have earned money, I have invested it right back into my business.

Contact Info:

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