Desiree Stone
Desiree has been referred to as an ‘Earth Mother’ by Dan Gill. She is a Licensed Horticulturist with over 41 years of experience. She was born in New Orleans and attended Ben Franklin High School. After getting married, she and her husband moved to Mountain Home, Arkansas. In 1979, as part of the ‘back to the land movement’, they started raising 6 acres of organic produce. The biggest lesson learned that first year was that by growing their own plants from seed they could get better producing plant varieties. It wasn’t long before they realized that growing plants in a greenhouse was much easier than produce farming. At its peak, Stone Valley Nursery was growing more than 100 varieties of herbs, perennials, and annuals in 20,000 square feet of greenhouse space. They returned to Louisiana in 1990, and opened Lacombe Nursery. After a divorce, she went on to manage Inwood Gardens in Covington for over ten years. She also grew plants for her son’s landscape business. In 2015, she and Dan Cobb started Wild Thyme Farm & Nursery. In January of 2019, they moved the Farm to Folsom. She now devotes her time to the Farm and sharing what she’s learned with others. She lets everyone know “I paid for my education with throwaways”.
We are a locally owned greenhouse and nursery. We grow a wide variety of plants, which we sell at local Festivals and pop-ups throughout the year. We offer selections for the novice plant person, just getting started, to the avid collector, looking for something rare and unique. We are trying to revive the business model of small local nurseries that grow and sell their own plants and get people to stop buying plants off an 18-wheeler from Florida that delivers them to Big Box Stores.
Desiree Stone
w/ Dan Gill (LSU Ag Center)
Dan Cobb
Born on the Bayou in Houma, Dan grew up on Bayou Blue and attended Central Lafourche High School and Louisiana State University. He credits his love of gardening to his grandfather, Willie Authement. After working in the Oil Field and then traveling the country as a Photographer, he moved to the Northshore where for years he worked in the hospitality industry and became known as ‘Daiquiri Dan’. He served on the board of the Covington Business Association for 8 years, and as the President of the organization for 2 years. He is also a Founding Member, and Co-Captain of the St. John FOOLS of Misrule, a Twelfth Night Marching and Social Club. He is responsible for the logistics at the Farm and takes all the photographs that are shared on social media.
