 |
 |
Passion and profit by Melissa McCann Western New York’s short growing season is a challenge for gardeners—it seems as soon as beautiful flowers bloom in spring, they quickly revert to the greens we’re used to seeing the rest of the year. Organized flower gardeners know how to plant for continuous color throughout the warm season, but Julie McIndoo has perfected the art. On a fifty-acre spread that includes eighteen garden beds, a 66x100-foot cut-flower bed perennially boasts twenty-five to fifty flower varieties. From tulips in the spring to mums in the fall, they are the heart of McIndoo’s profitable retirement business, McIndoo Arts and Flowers. McIndoo not only sells the flowers at the Hamburg Farmers’ Market, but provides fresh flowers for weddings and special occasions. Have your heart set on bluebells and begonias for your wedding bouquet? With enough advance time, she’ll even grow the precise seasonal flowers you desire.
McIndoo’s personal favorites include peonies, tulips, irises, and late summer coneflowers that attract myriad butterflies; McIndoo knows the names of all of them. “I used to teach a nature study class,” she says. “It’s important to know how to identify plants and animals, and you become more knowledgeable if you become interested early.” This is especially true when it comes to weeds, and for beginners, McIndoo stresses the importance of knowing what is a weed and—perhaps more importantly—what isn’t. A retired grade school art teacher, McIndoo always dreamed of living in a rural area and owning a farmhouse. Her dream came true in 1970, when she and husband Daniel moved to North Collins. At the time, “gas was a quarter,” and the fifty acres was nothing but cornfields. Over time, the gardens grew, most prolifically in the late seventies after her children were born and McIndoo left her job in Lancaster to teach part-time in North Collins. (Since she retired and began her business in 2003, she’s added five feet to her business garden each year. “We’re done with it now,” she says.) When the gardens were in bloom, McIndoo found pleasure in presenting friends and family with flowers as wedding gifts. When someone suggested it might make a good business, McIndoo was intrigued with the idea of earning extra money to feed her travel bug, and that was the start. “Every week, there are fresh varieties to choose from,” McIndoo marvels. “I have an eye for arranging the flowers that comes from my art background. I am self-taught.”
As a consumer, McIndoo has high praise for Barbara Kingsolver’s Animal, Vegetable, Mineral, which recounts the author’s year of locavoring. With her strong sense of community, McIndoo is big on supporting local growers, and hopes books like this will encourage others to do so as well. “I do anything I can to promote farmers’ markets everywhere,” she says. “I have tremendous respect for farmers whose livelihood depends on selling their crops.” McIndoo is quick to acknowledge that her livelihood does not depend on sales, and that she gardens for the sheer love of it. “Gardening has become the number one pastime for retired people,” McIndoo contends. “It gets your body and soul active and it’s rewarding. I really love helping a bride realize her dream, use local flowers, and save money.” Melissa McCann attempts to be an avid gardener from East Aurora, but has realized the beauty of simply enjoying others’ hard work and effort. You can reach Julie McIndoo at j.mcindoo@att.net. Garden Variety: Pretty as a picture click here Garden Variety: City companions click here Garden Variety: Otherworldy delights click here Garden Variety: Daylily tripper click here |
