Laura Azevedo-Dominguez and Leo Azevedo, owners of Three Little Buds Farm in Newcastle, balance their full-time jobs with a growing flower farm to make their agricultural dreams a reality.
Growing on under half an acre in its first year, Three Little Buds, now in its second season, has grown from primarily wholesale accounts to retail at Lincoln County specialty stores. The farmers use no-till methods and said they focus on sustainability for themselves, their land, and their business as they plan to expand.
Azevedo-Dominguez said the business name comes from the Bob Marley song “Three Little Birds.” Flowers makes the couple forget about their worries and feel calm through their beauty.
The couple met at Mesa Community College in Mesa, Ariz. They later moved to Lynn, Mass., and spent time in Maine on the weekends. Wherever they lived, they grew food on patios, yards, and community plots.
“We’ve always been in the soil,” Azevedo said.
Azevedo-Dominguez said they both grew up in places that resemble Maine. She traveled between California, Arizona, and the Mexican border, visiting her grandmother’s ranch on school vacations. One of her core childhood memories there is of a large sunflower patch at the ranch, she said.
Azevedo was born and raised in Brazil, coming to the United States in 2006 to attend college. He said he appreciates the humidity, cold mornings, fog, and smell of manure in Maine that remind him of his childhood.
“I grew up playing in manure,” he said with a laugh.
Both work remotely full time; they spend their weekends and 5-9 a.m. every weekday tending to seedlings in their basement, cutting flowers for the farm stand, weeding their fields, and completing other farm chores before their online workdays begin. He works in renewable energy and she in education management.
“It was always something we wanted to do,” Azevedo-Dominguez said of farming. They moved to Maine to do so in 2021 after the pandemic led them to reevaluate their priorities.
She said she has always loved flowers, but disliked the packaging and generic feel of conventional flower arrangements; she loves variety and trying new things, and found community and opportunity waiting.
“The local flower scene in Maine is outrageous,” she said.
Three Little Buds is a member of the Maine Flower Collective, which sells from farmers to florists across the state.
Azevedo-Dominguez said the conventional flower industry has environmental and social consequences from pesticide use, transporting them across the ocean, and an industry with labor practices she said makes flowers almost a “conflict crop.”
The local flower movement began about 10 years ago, according to Azevedo-Dominguez, and provides resources for farmers like themselves. More varieties of seeds and tubers are available than ever before, she said.
“It’s a really beautiful time, if you love color, to be a flower farmer,” Azevedo-Dominguez said.
Their neighbors and retired farmers around the state have taught them skills and help them find community.
“We are different, but I’ve never felt anything other than super welcomed,” Azevedo-Dominguez said.
They began with primarily wholesale accounts in their first season last year, selling to florists and at their roadside farm stand.
This year, the farm is in the midst of tulip season and selling bouquets to Riverside Butcher Co. in Damariscotta, Treats in Wiscasset, and Broad Arrow Farm in Bristol. The couple plans to offer custom do-it-yourself bulk flower selections for events.
“We want to share with other people so they can connect in their own way instead of something prepackaged,” Azevedo-Dominguez said. “One that speaks to them.”
They also hope to open U-pick fields this year, pending permitting by the town. In addition, the couple has been approached by artists wanting to hold workshops and retreats in their fields.
“We cannot wait to be able to welcome people,” Azevedo-Dominguez said.
They grow their flowers using no-till methods learned from Maine farmers. Instead of tilling their land with a tractor or attachment, they focus on building the soil upwards with compost and wood chips.
Azevedo said this was an investment decision – they trialed two rows, and found the tilled one to be much weedier — but environmental responsibility is also important to the couple.
They have watched biodiversity increase on their former hayfield with clay soil in just one season.
“Leave it better than you found it,” Azevedo said. “That’s how we’ve operated since we’ve been together.”
They are assisted in the field by Nala, a small rescue dog from the streets of Mexico, assists by hunting voles from the flower fields, chasing foxes from the chicken coop, and scaring away deer. Benji, their city dog, supervises.
Azevedo said the couple is still on their learning curve, reading about the theory behind flower farming and trying it themselves.
“There is some theory, but there’s nothing like practice,” Azevedo-Dominguez agreed. “It takes a number of years to work out. We’re excited and determined to make it viable for us.”
They said balancing farming with their jobs involves a lot of coordinating, time management, and clear division of labor, but it is work they love.
“That’s how we would want to spend our free time,” Azevedo-Dominguez said.
She said they lean on each other to brainstorm, understand what went wrong when they make mistakes, and learn from the experience.
“It just makes your life,” Azevedo said. “It’s very rewarding.”
The Three Little Buds farm stand at 507 Jones Woods Road in Newcastle is open on Saturdays and Sundays from 11:30 a.m. to sunset, offering pasture-raised eggs with tulips for the next three to four weeks and summer blooms to follow.
For more information, go to threelittlebudsmaine.com or find the farm on Facebook and Instagram.
