Marigold Acre

06/09/2026

🏃‍♀️ Run, don’t walk, to the Monticello Mercantile to get one of these local, handmade pottery vases.

💐It is incredible!

06/07/2026

Hi. I’m Kari and I am the owner of Marigold Acre. Today is my 30th wedding anniversary and without my husband’s constant support, I would have never sown one seed or grown one bloom.

Here’s a little bit about me:
I am the middle child of 3 girls…enough said.
I studied psychology and religion in college; speaks volumes of who I am today.
I met my husband in college.
We have 4 kids, starting with twins at the age of 24.
I stayed home and we all raised each other.
We’ve lived in 2 apartments, 1 rental house, and 7 houses.
I love where I live now and started my cut flower farm because I had just enough property to dream.
In 2013, I helped care for my mom for a few months during the end stages of ALS.
I didn’t know it was the end stages.
Her death rocked my world.
We never know what will test our foundation.
I’ve lost both parents now and my mother-in-law.
Those kinds of things in life often set you on the course of finding yourself.
Marigold Acre was birthed from that hard, hard journey.
30 years of marriage is my greatest testimony.
4 amazing kids, a son-in-law, a daughter-in-law, and the sweetest grandbaby make me never take for granted the goodness of God.
Prune and bloom 🌸

06/03/2026

06/02/2026

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05/29/2026

Bring me the sunset in a cup. - Emily Dickinson

May 28, 2026
8:35pm
75 degrees

A perfect evening to plant some flowers 🌼

05/24/2026

“Creativity is more than just being different. Anybody can plan weird; that’s easy. What’s hard is to be as simple as Bach. Making the simple, awesomely simple, that’s creativity.” ― Charles Mingus

The Ninebark ‘Amber Jubilee’ is one of my favorite shrubs.
I walked past it today and had to cut a few branches.
The colors are phenomenal.
The colors play differently depending on the light; full sun vs. part shade.
It never disappoints.
I added in some yarrow to pull out the color tones in the Ninebark leaves.
Things don’t always need to be fancy.
Simple is beautiful.

https://conservect.org/northcentral/wp-content/uploads/2020/02/Ninebark-Amber-Jubilee.pdf

05/22/2026

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. - Hebrews 11:1

These zinnia seeds were planted last week.
They spouted just as I had hoped.
Next week, I will thin them out.
Months prior I began visualizing exactly what these summer bouquets would look like with these zinnias.
The colors.
The filler flowers that will complement them.
What type of foliage I will use.
These bouquets were alive and real in my imagination.
Such a good thing to think about 🌸
What we think about is powerful and life-changing.
Remember that.

At Marigold Acre, each seed is hand sown and tended to each day.
We don’t buy plugs from other companies.
We don’t have hoop houses or a green house, just the gift of a plot of land.
Dreams often don’t need anything fancy.
Just a determined mindset.

The challenge of growing each seed and the fluctuations of the weather, coupled with transplant timing makes every bouquet a beautiful miracle in the end.

Prune and bloom, my friends.

05/21/2026

Turn up the volume!
No other sounds are necessary.

We planted this native garden in the fall of 2024.

Shown are:
Foxglove Beardtongue
Penstemon digitalis
It attracts many different bees, as well as hummingbirds.

Blue Wild Indigo
Baptisia australis
The first few years this plant develops roots underground. This was the first season it bloomed. It’s incredible.

05/21/2026

In the spring, I have counted 136 different kinds of weather inside 24 hours. - Mark Twain

I think that is the state quote for Illinois?
Chilly.
Windy.
Warm.
Cold.
What a spring!
The new transplants are waiting for permission to grow.
Oh, but the yarrow…
The yarrow smiles despite the weather.

05/13/2026

The true method of knowledge is experiment. - William Blake

New growing season.
New flowers.
New successes.
New “well that didn’t go as planned.”
I wish I learned the art of experimenting in life when I was younger.
The grace of both success and failure.
Trying and trying again.
It’s a beautiful gift to give yourself.

Look at that sweet, little watering can.
It’s my granddaughter’s.
She’s a little over a year old.
My future flower farmer partner.
She’s the greatest at trying to figure things out.
She’s my little hero.