Hello! My name is Amber, and I’m looking for a unique farm stewardship and succession opportunity on Southern Vancouver Island. I’m hoping to connect with a landowner who may be thinking about the long-term future of their farm or acreage and who would be open to exploring a creative path toward eventual ownership. Ideally, I’m looking for approximately 1–5+ acres of usable land, with an existing home or suitable residential arrangement, within roughly an hour of Greater Victoria. I’m particularly interested in connecting with a long-time landowner or retiring farmer who may want to remain living on the property while gradually transitioning responsibility for the land to someone else. My Farm Plan My goal would be to develop a genuine small-scale agricultural operation and work toward obtaining and maintaining farm status for the property. I have a particular love of plants, flowers and gardening, so small-scale flower farming would be at the heart of the farm. I’d like to grow seasonal cut flowers and potentially perennials and other specialty plants, gradually developing a small local flower business as the property and my experience grow. I’d also like to keep a flock of laying hens and offer farm-fresh eggs for sale locally. I would start at a manageable scale and build gradually, with the goal of creating a productive little farm that contributes to the local community while remaining sustainable for me to operate. A Place for My Family to Grow This dream is also very much about creating a different kind of life for my children. I believe they would thrive in a farm environment, with more opportunities to be outdoors, connected to nature and engaged in real-life activities rather than spending so much of childhood surrounded by screens and technology. I’d love for them to experience the simple things that come with living on a small farm—collecting eggs, planting seeds, watching something they planted grow, helping in the garden, caring for animals and understanding where food comes from. More importantly, I want them to learn that caring for land and animals comes with responsibility. They would learn to feed and care for animals consistently, treat them with kindness, respect the land, understand the importance of healthy soil and pollinators, help grow food and flowers, and see firsthand that looking after something living requires patience, commitment and work. I hope the farm would give my children the opportunity to develop a lifelong sense of stewardship—leaving the land healthier and more beautiful because they were part of caring for it. For me, that would be one of the greatest gifts this kind of life could give them. A Restorative Garden for Workers Recovering From Workplace Injuries There is another part of this dream that is particularly meaningful to me. I’d like to dedicate a small portion of the farm to creating a peaceful restorative garden specifically for people who are away from work because of injuries they sustained through their employment. This could include workers recovering from physical or psychological workplace injuries who are on leave from their jobs and going through a period of recovery. I don’t envision this as a clinic, counselling service or formal treatment program. Instead, I imagine it as a quiet and welcoming place in nature where someone on leave because of a workplace injury could occasionally come and spend some peaceful time away from appointments, paperwork, rehabilitation programs and the pressures of everyday life. There might be flowers, trees, accessible pathways, comfortable places to sit, birds and pollinator gardens, perhaps a small water feature, and quiet corners where someone could read, have a cup of tea, watch the chickens, enjoy the flowers—or simply sit and be. It could also provide an opportunity for people who are experiencing similar challenges to meet others who understand what it is like to be away from work because of an injury and make meaningful connections with people who may be struggling in similar ways. There would be no expectation that anyone participate or share their story. Some people may want solitude; others may benefit from conversation, companionship and the simple reassurance of realizing they aren’t the only person navigating this kind of difficult period in their life. Those connections could happen naturally—over a cup of tea, while sitting in the garden, looking at the flowers or simply spending time together outdoors. There would be nothing anyone was required to accomplish. My hope would simply be to provide a beautiful natural environment where someone navigating recovery from a workplace injury could have a little space to breathe, feel less isolated and, when they want to, connect meaningfully with others who understand something of what they’re going through. The property would primarily remain our family home and working small farm. The restorative garden would be one small but meaningful part of the overall vision.
I’m open to an older or under-maintained property. It doesn’t need to be a picture-perfect farm. Overgrown gardens, aging fencing, an old barn or outbuildings that need attention wouldn’t discourage me. Part of my dream is to gradually restore and care for a property, bringing the land back into productive agricultural use while preserving what makes it special.