My parents are originally both from Vienna and only lived a few houses apart. When I say a few houses from each other, they were on 10 acre lots backing onto the Black Forest. So both my parents grew up learning how to Grow their own food which they needed to do during the war, raising bees for honey, and of course the necessity of flowers to brighten up their lives. From as far back as I can remember which is about two years old, I remember being in the garden with my mother as she tended to her garden.

Some of the plants I remember with great fondness are as follows, Sweet William, the Smoke tree, tulips, ground cover sedum, daffodils, A large crabapple tree which always housed a family of Robins each spring, Forsythia and Weigela.

When I was five my mother decided that she wanted to bring her family to farm life, so my parents bought a 50 acre farm, which was mostly an overrun neglected farm.

So at five years old my father decided he would like the black forest or something similar to back in his backyard. At the time the local government sold yearling trees in bulk to encourage treeplanting. Each year for 10 years we planted 14,000 trees by hand. So our family of five spent every evening and every weekend working on my dad’s vision.

In addition to the planting, my dad had two massive pond dug which spend the width of the property which is 1100 feet. He also spent numerous hours puttering around with his backhoe, often getting it stuck in the valley, as he continued to work on his dream.

Every Sunday he would take the whole family around Ontario and collect plant material for the farm, my father’s favourite plants to collective course we’re ferns, many different water plants for our ponds, and he also propagated hundreds and hundreds of evergreens which he then started the base of the gardens around The farmhouse.

The farm was my Mother and father’s beautiful creation. When my father passed away in 2007 I knew I needed to keep the property close to me in order that I could keep his memory alive so I purchased it from my mother. For A decade I worked at the landscaping somewhat and rented out the house.

I was a very successful real estate broker one of the top in Canada when a chain of events really changed my life. In 2017 I lost three of my beloved dogs and my mother also passed away. In 2019 I was diagnosed with two very aggressive types of breast cancer.After two years of battling cancer and undergoing extremely aggressive treatment, I made the decision I needed and wanted to change my life. It was time to start to follow my dream and be happy.

Of course I’ve been buying plants wholesale in the intention of selling them to the public, but they never ended up in pots to sell they ended up in my garden, and so my garden on the farm expanded and expanded.

It’s been a year since I’ve had the whole property to myself and I’ve done nothing but work on the gardens and it has made me so incredibly happy. So this is what life is supposed to feel like. I discovered a few key people that influenced my life and help me make the decision to finally make the farm my number one focus and passion, and turn it into a real business.

I first discovered Laura from Garden Answer Who then introduced me to Floret and a few other seed companies. I was so inspired by the two journeys from garden answer and florettes I’m working on opening up my small boutique garden centre next spring. This is the most exciting thing I can remember doing for such a long time.

I have learned so much and I’ve been able to have developed a much larger vision and understanding on how to grow for the market but of course I’m just beginning. I’m so grateful for people like yourselves and Laura that enable people like myself to realize their dreams.

My 50 acre Farm (Kammerer Heritage Farm) is a zone 3-5 in the Niagara region in Ontario Canada. I also raise Heritage poultry and free ranging Peacocks to complete the picture.

I dedicate the remainder of my life to this amazing property and in honour and memory of my parents Victor and Fredericka Kammerer.

The farm will be donated to conservation and to support the wildlife that have made this beautiful farm their home.

With gratitude Marcella Kammerer