White Picket Gardens doesn’t advertise much and doesn’t need to.
Seventy varieties of lavender and a selection of new and unusual perennials and herbs draw customers to this rural nursery in Stanwood owned by Kristi Fina.
Tucked behind a 100-year-old farmhouse, the homegrown business has more than doubled in size in the past eight years. Fina began selling herbs from her garden at local farmers markets so she could afford to stay home with her two young children. “Back then hardly anyone was selling herbs and there was a huge demand for them,” she said.
As her children grew, so did the scope and size of her business. Today, Fina, 43, has three greenhouses, and a number of her plants are sold wholesale to nurseries in Seattle. But customers can still poke around her farm Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Fina runs the business largely by herself and enjoys chatting with customers.
Lavender is Fina’s signature crop, and she grows it because “it’s the first plant anybody asks for” when they visit a nursery. It’s also an attractive plant to landscape with and easy to care for. Drought-resistant plants such as lavender are well-suited to her farm, which sits partially in the rain shadow of the Olympics and gets lots of full sun. For first-time lavender buyers she recommends the Grosso variety of lavender because it’s easy to handle and produces many blooms. Penstenons and salvias are two other plants plentiful at her farm.
Part of the success of her business may be the charm of the nursery, a six-acre farm with a creaky old barn, chickens, apple trees and the white picket fence was the inspiration for the name. A giant walnut tree with a wooden swing hangs in the yard. Her shaggy brown dog, Rosie, often greets visitors holding an empty flat for plants in her mouth. Sculpted metal garden art by Woodinville Garden Goods and Arboretum Metal Works, also for sale, pokes out of the lawn. Don’t expect to see rows and rows of lavender – she grows much of it in the greenhouses.
For those searching for the out-of-the-ordinary, she sells unusual perennials and herb varieties, such as an ornamental oregano called Kent Beauty, and a variety of euphorbia called Tasmania Tiger. She’s increasing the number of ornamental grasses and dark-leafed plants such as heucheras that look good in containers. Fina decided to sell more hardy geraniums after last year’s harsh winter. “It’s time to get back to the tried-and-true methods that were so popular,” she said.
Fina’s products are not certified organic, but she has a reputation for Earth-friendly products. She doesn’t use pesticides or chemicals on herbs. (She does use a chemical fertilizer on perennials.) Compost tea is a plant super food Fina uses and sells. She makes her own with a mix of worm and vegetative composts that have been screened for E. coli.
Debra Smith is an Everett freelance writer. She may be reached by e-mail at dasmithwork@hotmail.com.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
