How an entrepreneur started an urban flower farm in neighbors' yards

Midtown Bramble and Bloom, a florist and urban flower farm in Memphis, Tennessee, started with a plea for land. 

“I would take my dog for walks in the neighborhood, and I would see all of this space that wasn't being used,” said Marisa Mender-Franklin, an elementary school art teacher who dreamed of starting an urban flower farm. “I was pretty confident that I could find a place in my neighborhood to grow, if I could just connect with the right landowner.”

Mender-Franklin put out a request on a Facebook “Buy Nothing” group for property owners willing to lend her growing space in exchange for flowers and land care.

“Within that first week, I think I had 40 offers of yards to grow in,” she said. 

Five years later, Mender-Franklin’s business still depends on free leases from neighbors' land.

“I think that having a farm in the middle of a city is good for everyone around it,” she said. “I don't know if this model would work just anywhere… and I am grateful that we get to do it here.” 

To hear the rest of Mender-Franklin’s story, click the audio player above.