Contributed photoAbby Gaddis reminds me of a garden fairy so I suppose it is only fitting that one of her creative outlets is the growing and selling of flowers. With her mass of strawberry blond hair it’s easy to imagine her flitting around her gardens gathering and tending the flowers she uses to create bouquets of different textures and colors resulting in beautiful and original arrangements. Gaddis is a woman who decided on the purchase of their house based on the fact that it had established peony beds. To me, that sums up her gardening passion and her motto of creating beauty every day.
Gaddis has always grown flowers. She grew up on the coast and had a roadside flower stand but now that she and her husband and three sons live on a back road in Hodgdon, she’s had to be a bit more creative with sales. In addition to providing flowers for weddings and parties, she sells bouquets regularly at Houlton’s Co-op and Farm Store and Hodgdon’s Pleasant View Tree Farm.
She loves mixing things up and along with techniques such as using different textures against each other, she firmly believes that, “there are no rules to follow.” Like many of us, she gets a little too excited to plant in the spring and ends up planting sometimes twice. This was especially difficult to adjust to after living on the coast and moving north. Now, she tries to follow clues from Mother Nature. When volunteer seedlings start emerging in the garden, then it’s time to plant.
Gaddis finds flower growing addictive and, living among her boys, an outlet that feeds her creative and feminine side. Cottage style gardens are her thing and as you’ve probably guessed, peonies are a favorite.
She’s also a self-described junk collector which is why her bouquets are often displayed in vintage wares. A couple of years ago, with the assistance of NRCS, Gaddis installed a high tunnel that has helped her provide an out of season availability of different flowers. Her high tunnel is a permaculture experiment, meaning she tries to replicate the patterns and features that happen in natural ecosystems.
What it really comes down to though is that she wants her flowers to enrich the lives of those around her in as many ways as possible. When she tells me she wants to help make the world more beautiful, she means it. Like Alice Rumphius in the children’s book “Miss Rumphius,” who seeks to make the world more beautiful by planting lupine in the wild, Abby seeks to grow flowers to spread a little beauty to those around her. Abby’s Flower Farm can be reached at 460-6005 or by messaging on Facebook.
Angie Wotton loves her work as district manager for the Southern Aroostook Soil and Water Conservation District. She also raises pastured pork and vegetables with her husband on their small West Berry Farm in Hammond. She can be reached 532≠9407 or via email at angela.wotton@me.nacdnet.net
