SUBMITTED BY THE BOCA GRANDE GARDEN CLUB – Jennie Love, a founding mother of the “farmer florists” movement, comes to Boca Grande for the Boca Grande Garden Club’s “Flower Week.” She will speak at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, Feb. 5 at the Boca Grande Community Center. The following morning, Thursday, Feb. 6, she will teach a flower-arranging workshop at 9 a.m. at the Power House on Gulf Blvd. in Boca Bay. The “farmer florists” activity is a slice of the urban farming trend spreading rapidly around the world. From Auckland to Bangkok to Cairo and throughout the United States, on city fringes and in city centers, farmers are sowing their seeds in corners of land left behind by urban development. A little bit about food security, a lot about efficient use of land, urban farmers serve the needs of residents, restaurants, shops and other businesses. Shorter distances and lower transportation demands make for fresher, better crops. An unanticipated benefit is crops free of pesticides and pests. Jennie Love’s crop is flowers. In fact, she is credited with being a sparkplug for the “seed-to-centerpiece” movement. All planting, caring and harvesting takes place on her farm. In addition to cutting flowers, Ms. Love grows specialty herbs, foliages and fillers. Central to her methods is small space/low impact farming. In 2019, she initiated a 100 percent no-till regenerative process for all her flower beds, even for tulip bulbs. Tucked into the heart of northwest Philadephia’s Andorra/Upper Roxborough neighborhood, the two-acre Floral Design and Flower Farm is organically managed. A 14-point manifesto serves as the backbone for the Love n’ Fresh farming credo. Four key elements are to: 1. save rare open green spaces in urban environments (starting with our farm) and safeguard ALL life that lives there: big, small, even microscopic; 2. […]