A Brief History
In 1973, my husband and I had just moved to our place in the county, a small farm south of Mt Horeb on the southern edge of the driftless area. I wanted to grow anything and everything. After contacting the Madison Co-ops and asking what they would like us to grow we settled on paste or plum tomatoes. When the crop was ready the co-ops couldn’t use them. So I got up at 2:30 a.m. the next Saturday and went to the fledgling Dane County Farmer's Market with my tomatoes and a few other things. It was cold that Saturday on the west side of the Square where I staked out my spot at 4:30am! It was a long morning and I didn't sell all my paste tomatoes, but I did sell all the bunches of marigolds I brought. I went home exhausted but exhilarated with around $30 in my pocket. Never to miss a good thing, I was back the next year only with flowers and it has been my passion ever since.
What We Grow
The flowers we grow are designated ‘Specialty Cuts’ by the floral industry because they are not the usual roses, carnations, or chrysanthemums normally found at the florist. Snapdragon, zinnia, and Sweet William are a few of the over 100 different kinds of flowers we grow. Sunborn Gardens belongs to the esteemed Association of Specialty Cut Flower Growers and is a member of Fair Field Flowers, a partnership of local cut flower growers who all grow sustainably and market flowers to florists in Milwaukee and the Milwaukee-Madison corridor.
How We Grow
I grow my flowers as organically as possible. For years we spread our goats manure on the garden. I haven't used pesticides for over 20 years and I try to mulch as much as possible, water regularly and grow what takes the least amount of intervention. Ninety-nine percent of what I sell is from seeds I've ordered, sown and planted. We are working on setting up a hoop-house to prolong our growing season.