High season is starting at Lavender Bliss Flower Farm, a cut-your-own property just outside of Bridgman. It has a store with soaps, candles and more, plus, some really tasty lavender lemonade and popsicles.

Harry and Janet Groth bought a few acres in 1979, when it was just an old farmhouse and an open field. In the 40 years since, they ripped down the house, rebuilt it, raised three kids, and “spent all of our free time gardening.”

While on lockdown during Covid in 2020, the Groths began building their greenhouse, using old windows and bits and pieces they had collected over the years. They expanded the vegetable garden, installed a small orchard, and in 2021, started growing flowers to sell at a little roadside stand. “But still,” they write on their website, “we didn’t know what to do with that big, sandy field. Until, by chance, we learned that it was the perfect place for lavender.”

The farm, at the end of a road of single-family homes, opened in 2023. It features over 2,000 lavender plants—14 different varieties, including culinary varieties. The farm is open 10-5 pm EST Wednesdays through Sundays. Peak season runs through mid July. I visited in late May, before the lavender was in bloom, but found it charming nonetheless.

Lavender Bliss provides the scissors, buckets and everything you need to cut your own lavender, but bundles and more are also for sale on the premises. Yoga is offered on the grounds on Friday mornings. Check the website or Facebook page for other special events. You can arrange photoshoots here, too, for a fee.

A friend has been to Summerhouse Lavender Farm in Fennville and has good things to say about it, but Lavender Bliss is a little closer for those of us in NW Indiana and on the southern side of SW Michigan.

After you get your lavender fix, I highly recommend a stop at Emma’s Hearth & Market on Red Arrow in downtown Bridgman for wood-fired pizzas, drinks gelato and homemade desserts. The Italian grocery and wine section is excellent as well.

Lavender Bliss Flower Farm, 11126 Lange Rd., Bridgman