Check Out Erin Lyons’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Erin Lyons.

Hi Erin, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
To this day I’m not entirely sure what inspired me to jump head first into flowers but a stroke of good luck and a lot of time at home solidified the path forward.

Before going on a long vacation (to Asia ironically) in February of 2020, I ordered a bunch of seed starting supplies so I could start a cut flower garden that spring. Of course, the pandemic came, lockdown was put in place and because everyone wanted to spend their time at home growing something beautiful or delicious, it became nearly impossible to get any seeds or seed starting supplies! I felt outrageously lucky that I had everything to make a beautiful garden already delivered.

My basement storage room became seed starting central and I spent many days with friends clearing out 15+ yards of landscaping rock in my backyard to use as a space for my cutting garden.

The first flowers I sold were bouquets I listed on my instagram stories for porch pickup and my incredible friends supported me over and over again.

Last summer my partner found and bought a farmers market stand that someone had made of a vintage truck bed and it’s now Farrow’s flower cart, parked permanently (for now!) at our location in Wheat Ridge. Once we had a flower cart, everything felt ‘real’ and inspired me to take the next step to do more than just list flowers for my friends to buy on my personal instagram story.

We spent time this winter and spring building a new space for growing and have the largest selection of flowers to date.

I dream of someday quitting my full time corporate tech job to grow flowers, have bouquet making workshops and seed starting classes. But for now, the self-serve cart is stocked and open every Friday morning until sold out and we’re planning to host at least one bouquet making evening (with pizza and drinks!) later this summer.

I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
It’s been a learning journey. Lots of seeds never germinated, many seedlings died from accidental neglect or other mysterious causes, we’ve moved twice and had to start our growing space over but there’s just one thing that sometimes feels like it may overcome us…..grasshoppers.

We back up to a creek so there’s significant open space with dense trees and this seems to be a haven for grasshoppers. Last year we lost 500+ sunflower plants in the course of several days when they were only few inches tall. We thought it was bunnies that were eating them overnight. We fenced the area and continued to lose flowers rapidly before realizing it was the seemingly harmless (and arguably adorable?) grasshoppers that are everywhere in our yard and garden. They eat up to 250% their body weight in plants daily and it continues to be a battle to keep them out of the garden without harsh chemicals. So for now, if you go by Farrow and see white powder all over our plants, know that its an eco-friendly way of us trying to keep the grasshoppers at bay so we can put flowers on the cart. And if you have tips for grasshopper control, send them our way!

Appreciate you sharing that. What else should we know about what you do?
This year has been a year of growth, research, business plans and challenging myself to do more of what I love over the long term. I’ve been working a corporate job since 2012 and have had an overwhelming desire to own my own businesses in areas where I’m passionate. Farrow Flowers has a sister brand, Farrow Stone, which is just getting started.

I’ve been doing the interior design for my partners home building business for quite a while and we always find ourselves wishing we had larger counter top budgets to make unique designs come to life. And so, Farrow Stone was born out of the desire to provide more unique stone slabs at more competitive pricing and locate our shop on the west side of the city.

It’s been a busy year and will continue to be but my passion cup is full and I’m so excited to see my dreams come to life.

Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My sweetest friends that encouraged me to start growing and selling flowers, that have been cheerleaders along the way, and have supported me endlessly by buying bouquets consistently season after season: Scarlett Schares, Ashley (Beaumier) Beals, Sophie Graefenhain,

My amazing partner who recognized my passion and gently pushed me towards making Farrow ‘real’ by buying the cart and pouring endless hours into building the new garden space where Farrow’s flowers are grown. And also for cooking dinner every damn night so I can spend that time catching up on weeding and cutting!

Sophie deserves an extra shoutout for bringing Farrow to life as a brand. She took my crazy loose words describing my brand vision and turned it into the logo and brand Farrow is recognized as today. She also played photographer this spring to build our content library.

A great friend and OG girl boss: Emily Turner. She has been a supporter since the start and is a constant champion of me and all women following their passions and creating successful businesses.

Pricing:

• $15-50

Contact Info:

• Instagram: farrow_flowers

Image Credits
Sophie Graefenhain