about

Toronto's Urban Flower Farm

Flower friends,

We just got our first frost of the season and it feels like time to share the news that that this has been the final season of My Luscious Backyard. After many flower filled years it’s time to change things up and head in new directions.

I created the urban flower farm 18 years ago out of a need to carve out a life for myself in Toronto that felt true to who I was. I came here with my partner Jesse from the west coast islands and after struggling to make a place for myself in Toronto I slowly found my way forward with flowers.

I grew the flowers and brought them to you and the flowers grew me and brought me to myself.

I feel very lucky that in my 20s I had the safety net of a supportive family which allowed me to take risks and see where my interests led me. While I worked other jobs I began to create an entirely new growing model by using multiple residential city yards as my farm plots (as many as 13 at a time) and thereby make work for myself that suited my needs: to work outside, to have the opportunity to dive deeply into a passion, to do work that aligned with my environmental values and to be my own boss (although honestly, the flowers and the weather are the real bosses).

The reality is that Jesse and I have been planning a move from Toronto for several years now. As a person who constantly craves being out in nature, my city days have been coming to a close for some time. This is finally the year that we could make it happen.

It's definitely scary to leave behind the comfortable, known life we have here and I'm so sad that we won't be living close by to so many dear friends and extraordinary communities of people, but also it feels right. It's time to follow other interests, learn new things, and have adventures with my family. I feel there are other ways for to me to carry out my life’s mission and they’re calling me. There's much work to be done, that's certain, and I'm eager to find out how else I can contribute to this beautiful, struggling old world.

I want to deeply thank all of you who have been so enthusiastic and supportive over the years. This has certainly been a community endeavor. The weird idea of growing flowers in other people’s yards in the middle of a big city would have gone exactly nowhere without the many dozens of yard hosts over the years who granted me full access to their space. Beyond the flowers, I value the friendships that grew from these collaborations.

But without people actually buying the flowers this would have been just an unsustainable hobby.
So a huge thank you to all of you who bought the flowers; the many couples who trusted me with their wedding flowers, the florists who ordered from me week after week and the subscribers who received arrangements or buckets of flowers every week or two from June to October. I have had dedicated subscribers who received flowers weekly every season for many many years. I always thought of you when I was making decisions about what to grow and how to improve. You were the backbone of this operation.

Thank you also to those who bought seedlings and dahlia tubers from me in the springs, giving a much needed financial boost early in the season.

And the workshops! For the first several years giving talks and workshops I was terribly nervous. Unreasonably nervous. After some time the nerves leading up to the day remained but I came to understand that as soon as I saw your sweet faces I would relax. Knowledge and love of plants would be shared among us. We would laugh and together we would learn.

Big thanks to all the people who worked for me over the years. In the past several years this has been Will, Juliah, Elena, Japneet, Emma, Ray, Sophie, Candice and Aliah. Your help and companionship meant so much.

A heartfelt thank you to photographer and extraordinary human Jeremie Dupont, whose work you see in this letter. He reached out to me last year and asked to document my work and process as a personal project. I wasn't prepared for the beauty he would create. The flowers and I have been photographed by many professionals over the years but Jeremie was the best. Working with him was exciting, inspiring and so comfortable for this introvert. I highly recommend you seek him out.

How My Luscious Backyard operated:

From 2002-2020 I grew cut flowers in an unconventional farming model, a micro farm comprised of many residential front and back yards in Toronto's Parkdale / Roncesvalles neighbourhood.

My team and I grew a ton of flowers in a very small amount of space. These specialty cut flowers were organically grown (although uncertified) and ranged from beloved favorites like peonies and dahlias to unusual varieties rarely seen at a standard florist. 

During my time as an urban flower farmer/florist I had a popular flower subscription, flowered weddings and events, sold some wholesale to florists, sold dahlia tubers and specialty cut flower seedlings and taught workshops on different aspects of growing and designing flowers.

Since leaving Toronto I am focusing even more on sharing my knowledge and experience of 18 years of flower growing/ urban micro no-till flower farming/ running a small business. Head to my Consulting page for more info.

Like you, I want to connect to the beauty of the natural world in our city; to the plant world, the pollinators and wildlife and the changing beauty of the seasons… And don't flowers just make every room feel more joyful, more poignant?

It’s been a joy and an honour to work and play with so many remarkable people in the Toronto flower world as well as bring flowers to so many beautiful people over the past 18 years.

With love and thanks, Sarah

My Luscious Backyard, Toronto’s Urban Flower Farm 2002-2020

All photos by Sarah Nixon unless otherwise credited.