About your flowers & farmer-florist
Grown in Michigan.
I work with seasonal, locally-grown flowers that are difficult to source elsewhere. Many of the flowers I grow myself in a small converted side lot in Hazel Park. But increasingly, I source from other local flower farmers to showcase the beauty of what can grow in this pocket of Michigan. I strive to work with plant materials that haven't been treated with synthetic chemicals (in either pre- or post- harvest), so that flowers are safe for up-close enjoyment. I will work with imported flowers on a case-by-case basis and in instances of cultural significance.
The Garden is my muse.
The tension between that which is cultivated and that which is wild serves as the primary inspiration for my designs — nothing influences my aesthetic more than the Garden itself.
By nature, a farmer or gardener seeks to assert control and order over the natural world, and my day-to-day life is a constant exploration of that push-and-pull. Everyday is an exercise in adaptation and every moment spent in the soil is a lesson in letting go of the things I can’t control. Embracing the wildness and randomness of Nature is something I mirror in my personal life.
My roots.
I am blessed to have four grandparents who had/have a deep connection to plants and the natural world. As diasporic Koreans, they kept ties to the motherland by growing fruits and vegetables: perilla, hot peppers, summer squash, cucumbers, Korean pears. All four are/were fervent growers and foragers, able to spot purslane in a blinding field of green or turn tannic acorns into the most delicious jelly. My maternal grandmother’s family are leek and green onion farmers in Korea, to this day, so I am grateful to this connection to my ancestors.
What I care about.
My gardening practices follow Korean Natural Farming, which teaches that most everything we need is around us and that microbes are allies. I refuse to grow flowers from companies like Danziger, founded on the depopulated Palestinian village of Bayt Dajan, and I support the BDS boycott of Israeli agriculture. Farming in Detroit shows me constantly that land is never neutral: Palestinian neighbors and local LandBack work remind me of our duty to the soil. My Korean grandparents, displaced by occupation and scattered to Japan and China before immigrating to the U.S., always gardened and foraged. Their legacy reminds me farming is about belonging. I want my nephew to see the land of his grandparents vital and complete: — a unified Korea and a free Palestine.
Send support from afar
Help me realize some of my big goals for the year: to breed new varieties of zinnias and dahlias; to open a store for tubers, bulbs, and ceramic wares; to double my growing space by removing three trees; to buy my first pottery wheel.