The Story Behind Piney Grove Flower Farm

Hi there! I am Amanda Mounce and I along with my husband, Chris, are the flower farmer and owners at Piney Grove Flower Farm. Our flower farm is located in Kernersville, NC and was established in 2022. We haven't always planned to have a flower farm but for the last several years we have been working towards a more self-sufficient and sustainable life and the dream of a flower farm grew from this.

We have been married for almost 20 years and settled in Kernersville right before we married in 2003. As a child, I grew up playing outdoors constantly and was an avid bug collector. I would spend summers at my grandparents collecting lightning bugs, swimming and licking the sap from the honeysuckle vines growing down the fence. I would also watch my grandfather tend his large garden and get to enjoy all the cucumbers and watermelon I wanted. I also had a great aunt whom we would visit while there, and she was an avid plant grower and collector. However, I didn’t really get into growing on my own until we had our first home in Kernersville. I started with several small, raised beds about 10 years ago on our ¼ acre lot and started growing those vegetables I have always been fond of.

My husband and I, however, always dreamed of having more land where we could really stretch out and grow more of our own food and lead a more active lifestyle. We also wanted our kids to be able to play outside like we did as children. But land is at a premium in Forsyth County so we didn’t know if this would ever be possible, and we were not keen on moving away. I grew up as an Army brat and moved so many times as a child I did not want to move to a new town and start over. In 2018, we found a builder constructing some homes about 2 miles from our current home on much larger lots. And the rest is history as they say.

So, in the Fall of 2019, we moved onto our 1.17-acre property and slowly started to transform it into our dream vegetable garden. The very first Spring we put in our chicken coop and our main garden area and things have only grown from there. In 2021, in an effort

to increase pollinators in the garden to help with the fruit and vegetable garden, Amanda put in a small flower garden off of the main garden area. This small flower garden consisted of zinnias, cosmos, yarrow, snapdragons, petunias and several other flowers.

And this is when the flower dream began! I fell in love with zinnias that first year and began reading and studying as much as I could on flowers. I found Erin Benzakein of Floret Flower Farm and that is when the dahlia obsession began. I just knew after seeing them that I had to grow them! And this is when the never-ending list of must have dahlias started...I also found Lisa Mason-Ziegler and learned all about Cool Flowers, which opened up a whole new category of flowers and time period for growing. So, in the winter of 2021 I began to plan the biggest garden I had ever grown as I

wanted to learn as much as I could and see if I was cut out to be a flower farmer.

In 2022, I grew as many flowers as I could to learn as much as I could. We added over 20 raised beds to our garden and created a new field for growing warm annuals. In the Fall, we planted over 100 peonies and 8 rose bushes with 18 more coming in Spring 2023. I grew dahlias in 7 of these raised beds with about 25 different varieties grown. We have since added several more raised beds for this Spring and I have doubled (maybe even tripled! But don’t tell my husband, lol!) the number of dahlias I will be growing. The dahlia obsession is real!!

And I have thoroughly enjoyed every minute of this! It never gets old watching a new seed sprout and then watching it grow and tending it until I get to watch it bloom. It has brought me so much joy and happiness! I joke that gardening is my therapy as I still work

part-time as a Nurse Practitioner in a busy pediatric practice and the Covid-19 pandemic was a stressful time to say the least. When I am in the garden everything else melts away. Holding a handful or armful of flowers can bring a smile like no other! The fond childhood memories of being outdoors also melt the stress away. And I get to share this with my two daughters, Cydney and Everleigh.

I am so excited that we will be bringing the same joy to others in our community of Kernersville and beyond. Starting Saturdays in May 2023, we will be bringing our blooms to the NW Guilford Farmers and Specialty Market in Summerfield, NC. We also have started a Spring subscription service for local customers who prefer to have a bouquet every week or every other week. I can’t wait to see what 2023 brings!

To see more behind the scenes photos of how our farm has grown click here.