Perseverance sprouts beauty, joy
Photo by Cindy Godfrey and Story by Dana Greig
For the third year in a row, Cindy Godfrey will be spreading brightly colored joy at the Grangeville Farmer’s Market with her flower bouquets from “Miss Cindy’s Garden”.
Though many are familiar with her beautiful bouquets and unique pumpkin arrangements, you may not know that she is a fourth-generation farmer. Working in “the patch”, as she refers to her flower garden, brings her joy because working with the earth is in her blood.
“Smelling the fresh cut alfalfa was probably one of my favorite memories,” recalled Cindy. “Where I grew up [in Nevada] they grow some corn but mostly alfalfa.”
Strong roots are needed for any plant to be successful, similarly Cindy’s roots are a large part of what makes her “hobby” successful. Her deeply rooted appreciation for farming runs just as deep as her fixation for flowers.
“I’ve always loved flowers,” smiled Cindy. “My mom grew flowers, my grandmothers (on both sides) grew flowers. Flowers have always been a part of who I am. I think the biggest part of it now is that I get to share them with so many people.”
When there are leftovers after a farmer’s market, Cindy will often drop bouquets off at Grangeville Health and Rehab or Syringa Hospital.
“They are just fun to share,” explained Cindy. “Their bright, happy faces really bring a lot of joy.”
Others who get to experience the joy of Miss Cindy’s Garden are her students. She taught preschool at Grangeville Elementary for fifteen years and has been teaching kindergarten for the last two. Her favorite part of teaching also happens to be one of her favorite aspects of gardening.
“Seeing [something] thrive and grow brings me a lot of joy,” said Cindy. “It’s similar to teaching kids. You provide them with love and support, and they thrive. It’s the same thing with flowers.”
The past two years, Cindy has brought her two favorite things together by bringing in plants for her students to take home and plant.
“The last few years I cut pussy willows and took them into my class,” explained Cindy. “They make me think of spring because of those sweet little fuzzies. [Her students] can’t keep their hands off them because they are so soft. I cut enough so that once they root, each one of the kiddos can take them home to plant. It’s the gift that keeps on giving.”
Gardening has proved to be a role reversal for Cindy; being a teacher nine months out of the year and learning from spring through fall. Through the last few years, she has learned a lot and has had to persevere through struggles brought on by the learning curve.
“It’s a lot of trial and error,” shrugged Cindy. “You just have to try it out and see if it works.”
One of those lessons came the first year she planted flowers to be cut and sold. Not knowing what she would like, what would grow best, and what would sell, she cast out a wide net to see what would work.
“The first year I started flower farming I probably planted 30 different variations,” recalled Cindy. “They did really well but I found myself spending a lot of time putting bouquets together on farmer market mornings.”
That experience taught her which flowers are easiest for her to quickly make into a bouquet she’s satisfied with, making her process more efficient on farmer’s market mornings. Thanks to that lesson, she now plants six or seven varieties of flowers, including 32 different dahlias, multiple grasses such as millet, and multiple sunflower variations. This year she is also trying out tulips.
Another way she has brought efficiency to her process is by organizing with spreadsheets. The sheets include flower lists, planting dates, time to germinate, whether light is needed to germinate, and plant spacing once they are ready to plant. She also plans out succession planting, enabling her to cut all summer long.
“What I’m growing now really works,” admitted Cindy. “I’m really happy with all the flowers that I grow now, and I can’t see myself doing anything different. Though I might add a few more varieties of dahlias.”
“Every year [I hear] ‘I’ve got all the varieties of dahlias I need’,” chuckled husband, Scott. “And then it’s ‘look at these four other varieties I found’. It’s always evolving.”
“I am thinking of expanding,” laughed Cindy. “Last year we invested in 80 peonies. They take three years before you can cut from them, they took a little bit of room in the patch so we might have to expand to make up for the room they took up.”
Those dahlias have come with their own amount of perseverance through another lesson learned over the past years.
“Growing dahlias is super easy, but storing them is the tricky part,” explained Cindy. “They have to stay at 38-45 degrees and a certain humidity otherwise they rot.”
The first year, every one of the dahlias were lost during winter storage while using a convertible fridge/freezer in the shop. The unit froze from the outside, in, when the temperature dropped to negative 10 degrees.
Cindy and Scott agree that has been the hardest part, fighting mother nature.
“Last year we lost almost six weeks because the spring was so wet,” recalled Scott.
Between temperature, precipitation, and all the unknowns Idaho weather brings, the couple has learned to roll with the uncertainties and make changes accordingly. For example, after the previous year’s loss they stored the dahlias in the upstairs of their house and only 10% were lost.
Through it all, “working the patch” is something the couple enjoys doing together. From tilling and bed prep done by Scott to Cindy picking weeds; It is all a labor of love.
“I love picking weeds, it’s one of my favorite pastimes,” laughed Cindy. “I turn on a podcast and just sit out there picking weeds. Before you know it, you’re two rows in and it’s like ‘wow’! It is satisfying when you can look back and see progress.”
We can all be grateful for the progress made in the patch and appreciate the perseverance that brings such colorful sparks of joy to our local farmer’s market and beyond. Look for Miss Cindy’s Garden at the Grangeville Farmers Market Saturdays July – October.