T ane O'Tiernan was raised to have dirt in her blood.

On the 30 acres in Indiana that her dad owned, O'Tiernan and her siblings grew up raising cattle and hay.

“He told us we would have the land in our veins,” O'Tiernan said.

Decades later, she has 11 acres of her own in Madison County, where she grows flowers and vegetables outdoors and in two greenhouses. In 2022, she was named Kentucky State University's first-ever recipient of the Women in Agriculture Excellence Award.

O’Tiernan sells as Jane’s Garden, Flowers, and Herbs at the Lexington Farmers Market and at the Bluegrass Farmers Market, which is a growers-only market that she helped start about 18 years ago.

“I like selling cut flowers,” O’Tiernan said. “If people come, they look, they see they’re pretty.”

O’Tiernan’s love for growing flowers goes back to her childhood: She would go down to the creek on her family’s land, dig up violets, and plant them beside the house.

“Much to my dad's dismay,” she said.

When she first started growing at her farm, O'Tiernan was frustrated by how many of her vegetables were eaten by deer—but they left the flowers alone.

O'Tiernan has almost always had a garden—at least “a small little spot.” For many years, she worked at and sold her vegetables to a restaurant. Her gardens got bigger and bigger. “It just grew,” she said.

“So then we just did more and more flowers. Everybody sells vegetables, and hardly anybody sells flowers.” O’Tiernan sells as Jane’s Garden, Flowers, and Herbs at the Lexington Farmers Market and at the Bluegrass Farmers Market, which is a growers-only market that she helped start about 18 years ago.

One of O'Tiernan's greatest joys throughout her career: “Being able to give