Gigi's story

My call to lavender farming began around 2018 while researching ways to generate an income from the farm I was renting. Let me just say that the information out there at that time was almost singularly focused on one farm’s success in the northwest and the revenue quotes were astounding. For months I did the math, conducted my feasibility studies, and concluded that this was the answer! I ordered hundreds of the new hybrid Phenomenal lavender plants and expected where I bought them from would know how to grow them. And God laughed. I can now too.

I quickly discovered there was little to no available information specific to growing lavender in “the South” (gasp!)  but people were quick to share horror stories and urban legends about others who had tried and ‘failed” - [specifically - in middle TN where I am], incredulous that one would even attempt to dance with that temptress of disappointment, lavender.  It all just compelled me toward experimentation, trial and error, tears, cheers epiphanies, and breakthroughs trying to figure it out.  Almost immediately people from Kentucky, Memphis, Virginia, and Middle Tennessee began contacting me or arriving at my farm hoping I could share my experience and show them my “experimental field”.  Meanwhile, we kept our distance and defied the odds against an unknown virus terrorizing the world. It was all quite surreal - lavender life was the goal, it felt vital and significant with a gravitational pull refusing to release me to go in any other direction, as I discovered I was not the only one.

This is the part where I tell you I had absolutely zero, none, nada gardening experience nor had I ever been attracted to gardening/growing/planting in my life. No ma’am and thank you very much. 

My game changer was the New hybrid & trademarked Phenomenal Lavender that had broken through the humidity barrier excelling in multiple characteristics to crop success gaining awards and an expanding global spotlight.  Regional clay soil challenges paved the way for my experimental soil formulas to be heaped into long mounds like a new extreme sport! Many of us became pioneers of our Southern-grown destiny harvested in a hot, sweaty, air so thick you can cut it with a knife summer humidity - defying the odds.

Early on during that auspicious beginning, I founded TLx which stands for "The Lavender Exchange"  as it dawned on me that there were thousands of lavender plants being custom grown at my little bootstrapped nursery for these new farmers and soon there would be harvests! TLx was my way of disseminating information, education, or new experiments I’d pass on, connecting new farmers with others who were months or a year ahead of them,  “the class of 2019, 2020, 2021…was how I started referring to them - then that became part of the TLx interactive map of farms, identifying when their field was first established showcasing where our member farms were so people could visit them. Like a unicorn - lavender fields began appearing and people didn’t know quite what to make of it but they were genuinely thrilled and came cautiously [pandemic] to revive their spirits and breathe in the lavender fragrance. This journey has changed my life so profoundly, having less to do with horticulture and more to do with finding myself, my tribe, and my ultimate adventure beginning when I was 58 years old. Since 2019 I have consulted to or grown plants for over 20 small lavender farms, several large ones (1 acre or more), …with 5 new ones being established this Spring. My plants were also established at Loretta Lynn’s ranch and outside her bedroom.  I bought my farm in Joelton, 6 miles from the one I was renting where this all began, and am starting over establishing the nursery, the lavender fields, and the ever-present “experimental lavender garden”. We will continue to be by appointment only.

          Lavender is becoming known now as a

                " New Crop of The South" among others like Indigo,

                     and Hemp ...it's an exciting time!

Over the decades before Lavender, I maintained dual careers in the Entertainment industry - film & music, LA, NY, Nashville, USVI -  earning numerous music awards including Platinum, Gold, #1 Song, Arista A-Team Award & more,  and in the Construction industry as a project manager and land developer (VA, TN, USVI). 

I am a 4th-generation U.S. Virgin Islander, from St Croix,  in Nashville since 1993 ~ there is a 22ft sailboat planted in my field with my “Mermaid of the Lavender” painted on it to remind me of home.