About our Gardener

When owner, Terri Carstens, needed a name for part of the family’s wheat farm operation but also wanting to incorporate her love of gardening, flower growing and entrepreneurial spirit, she came up with “Dream Dirt Inc.—Living the Dream, working in the Dirt”.

Growing up, Terri loved plants and nature—she had an extensive houseplant collection and knew all their botanical names by fourth grade. She would spend recess gathering bark, dried plants and other ephemera from the adjacent woods to create tabletop “gardens” to share with her family. Both sides of her family were farmers going back many generations, and her Grandmothers tended large gardens wherever they lived. As child in the suburbs, Terri and her brother helped tend the family garden and landscape by pulling weeds and hauling bark. This desire to work in the soil continued into her college years where she would mow the lawn of the rented duplex and plant tomatoes and flowers in the beds. Terri met her fifth generation Eastern Washington wheat farmer husband, Kurt, while in Nursing school, and her lifelong wish of living on a working farm came true. In the 34 years since, she has operated a small herb and rose nursery, completed the Master Gardener Program of Spokane County, was a 4-H Garden Site Project Leader for many years, and designed dozens of weddings and special events florals for clients. Throughout the years, while raising four children and helping run the family wheat farm, Terri continued growing specialty cut flowers and greenery seasonally, selling to florists and wedding designers in the Spokane, WA area.

With Terri’s many years of horticulture and floral design experience, sharing her flowers and offering classes to those wanting a creative outlet or to learn about gardening is a natural extension of her love of growing things. She really is “Living the Dream, Working in the Dirt”.