Ep. 88: Farming as Meditation: What Mindfulness Taught Chelsea Willis About Growing Flowers

The Backyard Bouquet Podcast: Cut Flower Farming Podcast for Flower Farmers & Backyard Gardeners · Mar 17, 2026 · 56m

Chelsea Willis is the kind of farmer who notices the frogs in the dahlias.

She's the owner of Sweet Delilah Farm on Sauvie Island, just 15 minutes outside Portland, Oregon. But her path to farming wasn't traditional. With a background in psychology and youth counseling, Chelsea originally wanted to find a way to get young people out on the land, because she saw how much easier it was for them to open up when their hands were busy and their feet were in the dirt.

Then a piece of land became available. And then another. The second one, a former lavender you-pick farm, she closed on in two and a…