The barn in Chelsea, along with a 6-acre farm, belong to Bill and Rebecca Rowley, who have been Chelsea residents since 2006. After spending seven years in Brazil working as missionaries and school administrators and not while starting a university there, the pair returned home in 2019.
“As we were coming back stateside, we had a desire to have a farm at our house in Chelsea,” Bill Rowley said. “My wife wanted to have a flower farm.” The couple named their farm Ingadi, which means garden in Zulu, as a nod to their time in Brazil, where Rebecca is also from.
They began their business toward the end of 2020 and flowers started to grow in the spring. Currently growing on less than an acre, Rebecca has done most of the plant selection, which features local flowers, sodded flowers and a combination of seeds and buds.
Rowley said that with so many people working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, they wanted to try to bring joy and happiness into their work environment.
When the weather cools off, they will grow flowers in their non-temperature controlled greenhouses. Bill Rowley said he is also in the process of building a 7-by-30-foot house that will extend their growing season.
As they move into upcoming seasons, they plan to do another seedling sale in the spring, offering vegetables and herbs. Types of flowers grown at Ingadi include zinnias, sunflowers, celosia, cosmos, dahlia, ammi dara, gomphrena, ageratum, lisianthus, anemones, delphinium, poppies, stock, ranunculus and more.
“Next year we plan to expand that out to be more local, but also offer specialty seedlings as well,” Bill Rowley said. “Classes will expand to include home gardening classes and micro-farm basic and intermediate. We also want to help people who want a small 10-by-20 greenhouse see if it will be a good fit for them and possibly even build it on their property.”
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