'All the neighbors know who she is': How one woman built a flower farm across eight yards

SAN DIEGO -- Rachel Nafis, waist-deep in corncockles, cut the blush-colored flowers growing in her neighbor's yard as her eyes wandered to the front door.

"I hope Tom comes outside to say hello," she said as she placed the cut stems in a bucket of water.

Soon, a smile crept across her face as Tom Weaver opened the door and wheeled himself onto the porch.

"It's so wonderful to see flowers growing outside my window," he said from his wheelchair. "I love seeing them. They smell so good."

For three years, Nafis, a one-woman florist, has grown sunflowers, dahlias and corncockles outside Weaver's home, one of eight neighbors who have donated their yards to Psalter Farm Flowers, a loose collective of cutting gardens that is a draw with San Diego flower shops, event florists and bouquet lovers.

Not surprisingly, the flowers burst out of yards in various states