Flower project looks to benefit nature, Pepin

Opportunities can come out of the most unlikely of places. In Pepin, it looks to be out with the crops and in with the flowers.

Tom Brockman of Afton, Minn., is in converting his Lucky Dog Farm from growing crops into planting about 135 acres of flowers.

The Conservation Reserve Program or CRP is working with Brockman to convert his 150-acre Pepin farm into a place to grow perennial flowers.

Brockman came into the land at Lucky Dog Farm in a unique way. He bought the abandoned land from a friend in an effort to turn it into a golf course, but then he saw the tumbling market for courses and passed on the project. He decided to grow crops instead, even though the soil is very sandy and he knew it wouldn't be the best ground.

Brockman had no experience farming, but Robert Church of Pepin was close by and knew how to husband the land properly. Brockman said he was especially thankful that Church had come in and done great work with the project.

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