A lavender farm near Toronto is asking selfie seekers to stop ruining the flowers
A lavender farm in Milton, just an hour drive from Toronto, attracts people from the city who want to relish in fields of purple flowers, and of course, take photos.
The Terre Bleu Lavender Farm location tag reveals more photos of people than it does of flowers — a testament to one of the primary reasons people visit the farm.
In many of the photos, people are running through the 160-acre meadows or sitting amidst the sea of blooming flowers. But, when visitors veer off of the designated walking trails, the flowers face irreversible damage.
“This is a continuous problem,” Jasmine Marphniuk, the farm’s production manager, said.
On the short-term side, when people trample the plants, the farmers can’t harvest the lavender they need to develop their body and home products, which contributes to a large part of their business.
On the long-term, when the flower bulbs are stepped on, there is no way to revive them.
Marphniuk said the farm has seen a continuous growth of visitors, which is good news, but people need to respect the flowers in order to sustain the farm’s future ecology.
Last year, a sunflower field in Hamilton was forced to shutdown because 7,000 people showed up one day when the flowers were in full bloom. The farm, which has been open since 1874, had to get police involved to help push out the public.
Aside from preservation, Terre Bleu is the farm owners’ home and family business. For those reclining into the flowers for the sake of a photo, maybe keep that in mind.
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