The gift of a garden: How Facebook’s Buy Nothing helped a teacher reinvent herself as an urban flower farmer for free
"Within five minutes, my phone started pinging like crazy,” she said. Within a week, she had received 40 offers of free places to grow flowers.
Marisa Mender-Franklin, a teacher turned urban flower farmer, has reinvented herself through the support of her neighbors and the Facebook Buy Nothing group. In 2020, while planning her wedding, she decided to grow her own wedding flowers, sparking her lifelong passion for flowers. However, she lacked land ownership. Through the Buy Nothing group, she received offers from neighbors willing to share their unused gardens.
Initially, she selected four plots and received overwhelming support from the community, including volunteers for gardening tasks. Today, Mender-Franklin runs a flower shop and oversees nine flower farms, employing 10 people. Her business has held 57 workshops, provided flower arrangements for 44 weddings, and generated a strong sense of community.
The agreement with landowners formalizes the arrangement, covering boundaries and water costs. Mender-Franklin also launched the Flowers for Good program, donating flowers to local organizations and schools. Inspired by similar initiatives in other cities, she emphasizes that community-driven projects like these require a mutual exchange of help.
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