See Jane Do Everyday Women Doing Extraordinary Things
Lisa spends her time creating space for living things to realize their true potential. Her racehorse rescue provides an environment where used and broken racehorses can “learn to be horses again. Her home and flower gardens allow beauty to flourish and inspire. And Farm Girl Nursery, which she launched in March, gives people the opportunity to experience food in its natural habitat.
Lisa jokes that her skills come from the school of hard knocks, but it’s more like the school of hard work. While growing up in Novato, her dad hunted and brought home food, and her mother gardened and made her own jam and pickles. At age 11, she took a paper route to fulfill her childhood fantasy of owning a horse. While delivering papers, she noticed a horse that nobody ever rode, so one day she knocked on the owner’s door and offered $200 she’d saved from her paper route. The owner told her that because nobody paid attention to the horse anymore, she could have it for $1. Lisa went on to become an accomplished equestrian, participating in high-level dressage competitions. After receiving a degree in communications from UC Santa Barbara, her
career experience ranged from being a waitress/actress to starting a successful advertising agency and a photography business. Sixteen years ago, Lisa started a racehorse rescue that she has been carrying on ever since. She takes on racehorses that are broken in body and spirit, brings them home, pays the veterinary bills and gives them a place to realize their true nature. Then she sells them to good homes for one dollar.
The inspiration for Farm Girl Nursery came to her one weekend when her son, Carson, and his four cousins were collecting seeds from their garden. “We were up in what used to be the horse arena, and I said, ‘You guys, what would you plant if you could plant anything?’” Their answers were everything from bananas to strawberries. She suggested they use a pile of rocks to create imaginary vegetable patches of their own. When Lisa saw their designs, “All of a sudden, my head just exploded.” She realized that she could build a nursery in her own backyard, specifically for selling plants and educating the public. It could be a place where she could ignite the fire in children and adults for
planting and growing their own food. Visions raced through her head of a garden where they could walk, carrying baskets and picking fresh food. “I know kids have a vested interest: When they pick that apple themselves off the tree, or that strawberry or that tomato, they want to eat it.” She also saw the potential for a kids’ summer camp, where they could collect eggs from the chicken coop, learn about local honey, pick fruits and vegetables, and use them to cook a meal they’ve helped plan. They could leave the mp3 players and video games alone for a while and learn that fresh food is just as good as —
maybe even better than — sodas and cheeseburgers. Everything Lisa has used for the nursery has been donated or recycled. She takes objects nobody wants and gives them a new potential – an old rusted water trough with a hole becomes a planter for rows of spinach and chard, an unwanted wire gate is now a trellis, and unused plastic half-barrels hold clusters of heirloom potatoes. When asked what her biggest challenge has been, she says it’s learning as she goes. She has no formal gardening background or training, and has had to deal with a very dry winter followed by a very wet spring. “I don’t use any sprays or chemicals of any kind, so that has been a challenge, too.” She has learned to control the abundant slugs and snails naturally by picking them off and tossing them to the chickens. Her attack plan for the weeds is simple and straightforward. “I weed all the time — if I see one, it’s gone. And I hand
water everything.”
Lisa draws her own inspiration from people like Jere Gettle who started Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds at age 17 and now carries the largest selection of heirloom varieties in the world. “His story about what he’s trying to accomplish, and how humble and honest he is, there’s something huge to be said for that.” Her current book favorite is his story, The Heirloom Life Gardener, which she sells in her store, and encourages everyone to read.
Her advice to others: “Just try it. I’ve never done anything like this and just thought, why not? I believe in giving any idea a shot to see if it works.” She reiterates that Farm Girl is an experiment. “It’s a learning process for sure.” She will continue to throw seeds in the dirt — both literally and figuratively — and see what happens. “If they die, just plant more.”
When it’s time to leave her piece of paradise at the edge of the suburbs, Lisa stops to show off the most unbelievable lilac, white with a pinkish-purple tinge. It has just bloomed and smells like heaven. She then offers tomato, spinach, and cilantro seedlings to take home. Then she walks out the gate toward her car and calls out, “Let’s inspire some people!”
Farm Girl Nursery is at 100 Pacheco Ave., Novato, CA; (415)730-6917. It’s open Wednesday and Saturday from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
For photos and information on upcoming events, go to facebook.com/FarmGirlNursery.
