I grew up in South Texas, in a single parent home, with a large hispanic family. My grandparents migrated from Mexico to begin a life in America, and chose farming as their means to provide for their large family. Even though my childhood was lived on a farm, I never once thought I would one day be a farmer myself!

I am a University of North Texas graduate with a degree in Art Education. It was not until my second year of college that I actually began to pursue a degree in Art Education after my aunt, who is a diagnostician, administered an aptitude test and discovered my strengths were in creativity and artistry. After college, I started working at Lewisville High School as an Art One teacher. As I began to pursue my education and then my career, I began to love and appreciate the beauty all around me. I found a great passion in the creative process and immersing myself in creating something aesthetically pleasing to the eye.

I married Josh in 2011, and we had our son, Graham, in 2013. After Graham was born, I was able to stay home with him and become a homemaker. I still loved to create, and brought Graham into my creative processes, but my creativity shifted from traditional art to home decor and design. I wanted to create a space in my home that was beautiful and inviting, and helped others see how I could see the world. We bought our first house shortly after Graham was born, which was a big step for me as I’ve lived most of my life in rental properties. I was drawn to the convenience of just calling a landlord to come fix problems. It was especially nice that the landlord was responsible for all the lawn and landscape maintenance.

As we began to take on all the new responsibilities of home ownership, my aunt (the same one who led me to my degree plan) reached out the spring we moved in to see if i wanted some purslane plants she found for $1 to place in our front flower bed. She brought them over that week and showed me how to dig and open the earth preparing this plant’s new home. We watered them and let them be. As my family came and went each day, I continued to be drawn to wait and watch the flowers grow. Watching these flowers grow in our front garden bed sowed a seed of awe and fascination in my heart, and sparked a new way in my heart to see and appreciate beauty. I’d  never really taken the time to watch something grow from a small plant into a mature one and found that there was so much joy in being the gardener that put that plant in the ground in the first place. I was so captivated by how the flowers would open in the morning and then close at night. Graham and I would often sit on our front porch, eating breakfast, and we would literally watch the flowers bloom before our eyes. We would sit down at 8:15 in the morning and see the closed flower buds, and yet by 8:30, they were completely open. Awe and wonder took root in my heart. There was a connection I made to the natural world that season that I had no idea I needed in my life and yet I was led there ever so graciously. 

My interest then led me to discovering Floret Flowers on instagram. I took their very first workshop in 2018 and have since been learning and discovering my love of gardening and connecting with nature through cut flowers.

From this little seed of intrigue in my heart grew bigger interests, bigger dreams, and a bigger plot of land. We moved to an older home in Denton during the pandemic in 2020, which was smaller in size of house, but larger in outdoor space for Graham to run and play, and me to explore gardening.

There has been much in our little family that has been so hard and difficult. Our marriage was one of surviving for many years. Our parenting has continued to be a place of difficulty and discouragement as we see how our weaknesses and failures have affected our son. Through these years, I believe gardening was a gift given to me by God to connect with Him and to see my life in deeper ways than I had before. The garden has been a place where I found myself identifying with things like a seed that seem dry and dead, yet is a source of anticipated hope and growth. It is a place that helps my life make more sense as I think through how my life is like a garden.

My hope in starting Little Seed is to inspire others to connect with the natural world by bringing a piece of that beauty into their homes, gatherings, and special occasions. Connecting with the beauty of nature, and the One who created it, helps us feel more human. We were made to experience the natural world with our senses, noticing details with our sight. Most of us get to experience the world with open eyes, experience smell and feel textures. This garden experience helps our hearts connect on a level that I believe we were created for.