Behind the Scenes

I’m Heather Marano and I’m the owner/farmer florist at Bush Poppy Farm. I’ve been gardening for the last 20 years, but it wasn’t until we moved from the Peninsula just south of San Francisco, to our new home here in the Lamorinda area, that I was able to ‘spread out’ and really dig in. Three years ago my sons and my husband helped me build four raised beds on our property. We surrounded this little haven of mine with deer fencing because as much as I love wildlife, I don’t want to give over my entire harvest to these cuties. In these beds we grow lots of veg including: tomatoes, peppers, herbs, strawberries, onions, pumpkins, cucumbers, zucchini, beans, peas, garlic, etc.

That first season I also added a pollinator bed to attract all the wonderful bees and butterflies and beneficial insects to the garden. I planted Buddleia, Rudbeckia, Echinacea, Monarda, Lavender and California natives like Blue Eyed Grass and California Poppies. This bed led to a small selection of fruit trees, then blackberry bushes, blueberry bushes, a pomegranate tree, citrus and more.

For the last ten years I’ve been designing knitting patterns, writing books, teaching knitting and natural dyeing classes. I decided to start growing my own flowers for dyeing. That’s when Bush Poppy Farm was born. I grow a wide selection of flowers which I use for natural dyes and cut flowers. I use my certification as a Master Gardener to help guide my hand in terms of horticulture but I’m always learning, always reading and always trying to improve on last season. I’m thrilled to begin offering my flowers to others in this next step for my micro farm.

Goals for the coming seasons include finding land so that we can increase our operations as well as the varieties and quantities we can grow. I hope you’ll enjoy your flowers and I hope you’ll consider learning with us through our workshops. Flowers can bring so much joy. I hope mine can provide that for you.