Macomb Summer Farmers Market New Vendor
Three Sisters Garden
By Cheryl Douglas
“To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow”. Audrey Hepburn
Kayla Louden is obsessed with flowers. She mentions this more than once during our interview , flowers are her passion and have been since childhood.
Kayla will be selling seasonal cut flowers at the Macomb Summer Farmers Market on Saturdays as her schedule allows and when the seasonal flowers are available. Her business, Three Sisters Garden, was named in reference to her three daughters, all named after flowers - Poppy, Violet and Jalaine Rose.
Louden, a Macomb High graduate, was a labor and delivery nurse. After having children of her own, she wanted a vocation where she could work from home and be with her girls. Her husband, Cameron, an installation manager and sales representative for JB&D, encouraged her to go big when she talked about starting a flower business. He encouraged her to meet the challenge head on.
Kayla grew up surrounded by gardening and being on farms with her grandfather Earl Archdale. She also took care of her grandmother Rose’s flowers, in the small town of Bryant, near Lewistown. She developed a love for flowers that has continued into adulthood.
Kayla decided to start raising flowers in her own yard and it has expanded into a home-based business which she is loving every minute of.
Flowers that Louden specializes in include tulips, ranunculus, anemone, snapdragons, peonies, dahlias, sunflowers, chrysanthemums, and zinnias to name a few.
At the market on Saturdays she will be selling wrapped bouquets, vase flowers, and eventually she may develop a system where the customer can “build your own” bouquet. She estimates her wrapped bouquets will sell for somewhere around $20.00.
Louden has been known to work in her gardens at night with a headlamp. When her flowers need to be harvested, they need to be harvested. They don’t wait for a particular time of day. Three Sisters Garden is starting to see the fruits of its labor, as the business just received its first large wedding order for this July.
Kayla’s beautiful flowers are all organically grown using no pesticides and as little plastic as possible. She uses beneficial insects such as ladybugs, praying mantis and green lacewing to help control the undesirable elements in her garden. She buys no flowers from wholesalers, and on occasion will swap or purchase items from local fellow flower farmers, and she reciprocates when they need a favor from her.
Louden’s dream is to expand someday by building her own greenhouse. She recently filled a large order for the Macomb High School FFA program and is predicting that her business will eventually need more space. Kayla also has worked hand in hand with the Old Dairy and Bloom florist shop.
In the winter months, Three Sisters Garden is a research station, with Louden constantly searching for ways to grow better flowers and learning more about marketing. She might even someday like to teach classes to those who want to grow flowers, and she may also eventually start working with dried flower arrangements. But for now, with three little ones, she is keeping very busy with her existing orders and repeat customers.
To appreciate the sheer beauty of Three Sisters Garden’s flowers one need only to go to her Facebook page (Three Sisters Garden) and her Instagram page (three.sisters.garden). She posts pictures of flowers of the most beautiful colors and videos on how the flowers were grown. Growing flowers is no doubt hard work, but Louden makes it look easy and it is apparent she is in her happy place in her garden.
Mother’s Day is coming up, and most people first think of traditional floral shops or box store cut flowers. While that is perfectly acceptable, think about another alternative this year.
There is a woman in Macomb, mother of three sisters, that grows flowers right in her yard. Her home-based business will sell you fresh bouquets or flowers in vases that box stores only receive from the back of a delivery truck. Kayla Louden can even deliver the flowers for you to mom, and she also does porch pick up if you prefer to pick the flowers up yourself. Kayla Louden is trying hard to become your fresh flower go-to woman.
To reach Three Sisters Garden use any of the following:
Facebook - Three Sisters Garden
Instagram - three.sisters.garden
Telephone - 417-569-8669
Email - [email protected]
Kayla’s hours are any time she is home, and she accepts cash and Venmo as payments. Look for Three Sisters Garden at the Saturday Macomb Summer Farmers Market and see first hand just how talented gardener Kayla Louden is with her beautiful, home grown flowers.
