06/12/2026
Visitors to the South Boston Farmers Market this summer will find a colorful new addition among the fresh produce and baked goods: Dorothy’s Garden, a small flower farm dedicated to locally grown, organic, pesticide-free bouquets.
Charlotte Walsh found out about the market through her son, Gage, who previously lived in South Boston. He suggested she check it out.
And she is loving it!
The business itself is rooted in family history. Dorothy’s Garden is named after Charlotte’s grandmother, Dorothy, who owned greenhouses and a floral shop in Virginia.
"My grandmother owned greenhouses and had a floral shop in Charlottesville, VA," said Charlotte. "She was a mover and a shaker for the 1930s and she was making it happen, working outside the home."
Although Charlotte never met her grandmother, she believes the family's love of growing flowers has been passed down through generations.
After retiring from owning a specialty running shoe store in Norwood, Charlotte started Dorothy’s Garden five years ago, transforming what had once been a grassy side lot at her home in Islington, MA, into a productive flower farm. Inspired during the pandemic by the growing movement toward locally sourced flowers, she began cultivating blooms from seed, bulb, corm, and tuber.
Today, she grows approximately 900 square feet of flowers, carefully tending each plant herself.
Read the full story here: www.sbndc.org/news-and-events/dorothysgarden
