WINTHROP — Whether you’re making dough starters, learning how to bake or becoming an amateur mixologist, many people have taken up a new hobby during the early stages of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was flower gardening for Rachel J. Ramsdell.
“In the year “When the outbreak started in March 2020, my situation was out of control and I needed something to help provide for my three children,” she said. “I happened to stumble upon some YouTube videos of flower farming, and thought I could do this from home.”
In October of that year, Mrs. Ramsdell worked around her 1,500-square-foot home in Winthrop and planted 175 tulips.
As those blossomed in the spring, so did her newfound business.
“That spring I turned my sunroom into a grow room and planted thousands of different seeds,” she said. “That’s where it went.”
Rachel J. Ramsdell stands at her flowerpot, called Leah’s Garden, on the side of the road at 11 Winthrop on Friday. Christopher Laney/Watertown Daily Times
Her business, Leah’s Garden, is named after her aunt, who died of cancer last year. Mrs. Ramsdale helped inspire a love of flowers.
“I thought her name would be a good tribute to her memory,” said Mrs Ramsdale. “She used to work at a Samaritan medical center but she was a master gardener, so she knew a lot about flowers and everything.”
Mrs. Ramsdale became a gardener in her own right.
“I grow all the flowers myself, and I start everything from seed,” she said.
She starts most of them inside, and when they are ready, she teaches them outside.
And she’s far from just growing tulips. She now offers all kinds of indoor flowers from a cart outside her home – including snapdragons, gladiolus, lilies and dahlias. Her favorites are gladiolus and snapdragons.
“I had no luck with the snapdragons I tried to grow last year, but this year I did, and those are becoming one of my favorites,” she says.
Her cart is located on the corner of her property at the intersection of White Road and Route 11.
When she has flowers, she posts them on social media to let people know. You can find her on Facebook as “Leah Garden Flower Farm” or on Instagram as “leahgarden53”.
“People can message me on social media and order me if they want,” she said. But now for the last couple of weeks it’s been pretty steady blooms, so people have to check my social media and see if the cart is open or not.
At the cart, she sells 15 pots of flowers or $20 wraps, but her menu changes based on what’s available.
“I have a sign on the cart, and I let people know on social media,” she said.
All of the flowers sold at Lea’s Garden Roadside are grown at Ramdell House in Winthrop. Christopher Laney/Watertown Daily Times
In the future, she hopes to expand with a greenhouse, and possibly a store.
“Eventually I need a greenhouse because my sunroom isn’t big enough to grow everything since this is only my second year and I’m looking forward to growing more each year,” she said.
“And who knows? Maybe I’ll have a little shop down the road,” she added. But now I have begun.
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