Meet Loretta Ball, the farmer and floral designer at The Never Ending Flower Farm in Barnardsville, NC. Loretta runs the farm with help from her husband, mother, and two sons, Quinn and Ledger. Loretta’s farming roots go back to her family’s tobacco farm. She and her family also grew a vegetable garden for many years, which gradually transformed into the u-pick flower farm business they run today. Watch our interview with Loretta to learn more about her family’s farm and the beautiful flowers they grow there.
Next, join Loretta’s sons, Quinn and Ledger, for a tour of their family’s farm. Hear the boys talk about how they help out on the u-pick farm, from weeding and mowing the grass to helping visitors harvest flowers. They’ll show you “brain” flowers (Celosia) and luffa gourds, plus share some tips for picking flowers.
These videos could be used as the starting point to explore many topics with students, including insects and pollination, plant parts, plant life cycles, flowers, and farm life. Relevant Growing Minds lesson plans are included below.
Lesson Plans & Resources:
- Garden Color Hunt lesson plan (preschool)
- What Plants Need lesson plan (preschool)
- Watering the Garden lesson plan (preschool)
- Insects in the Garden lesson plan (preschool)
- Soil Temperature lesson plan (K-2)
- Seasons on a Farm lesson plan (K-2)
- Insect Exploration lesson plan (K-2)
- Butterfly Life Cycles lesson plan (K-2)
- Honey Bees lesson plan (K-2)
- Stem Exploration lesson plan (K-2)
- Bees and Pollinators resource list
- Butterfly resource list