Synnøve Lavender Farm

Kent, WA

Heidi & David Skagen

Heidi Skagen and her husband, David Skagen, operate Synnøve Lavender Farm in Kent, Washington. Says Heidi, “I am the owner, operator, weeder, and greeter. David is the builder, consultant, and all-around supporter extraordinaire.”

How did you choose the farm’s name?

Synnøve (pronounced sin-nova) is Norwegian for “Kissed by the Sun”. It’s a funny story about how the name came about. My husband and I couldn’t agree on a name, and the ones we did agree on were already being used. I remembered how Dr. Seuss would just make up words to suit his purposes, so I decided to do that as well. I came up with a word but thought I should run it through Google to make sure it wasn’t already a legitimate word that I had just never heard of before. When I put it in, Google asked me “did you mean Synnøve?” It wasn’t the word I had thought of, but I really liked it and I thought the meaning was perfect for a lavender farm.

How did you start lavender farming in the Kent area?

In the early 1990’s my husband and I visited our first lavender farm in Sequim, WA. It was the start of a dream to someday own land where we could also have a lavender and herb farm of our own – a way to get out of city life. Years went by, our family grew, and the dream lived on. Then in 2006 tragedy struck. My husband was driving behind a pick-up truck on the freeway when it lost its load. The resulting accident took his life. I was expecting our fifth child.

Over the next fifteen years I worked hard to raise and support my family. I went back to school and got a degree in landscape design and started my own business that I loved. The dream of a lavender herb farm had withered.

In 2020 I met and fell in love with David Skagen. The next year we got married. I left my home in Lake Forest Park, to move to the 10 acres in Kent, WA where David lived.

One day, as I gazed out the large picture windows of my new home, I noticed a rainbow that went from one side of the property to the other, perfectly arching over the expansive open field behind the house. At that moment, the dream that I had thought was long dead, began to rise again in my heart. I asked David if I could do something with that field. He looked at me with deep love and said “of course”.

Image - Lavender & Butterfly - Synnove Farm

Image - Lavender Products - Synnove Farm

Once you got rolling, how did things proceed?

Over the next year I designed, prepped ,and implemented the lavender labyrinth, and then started work on the Potager Garden. After testing the waters, so to speak, one weekend in 2024 we had the farm open and got a great response. The farm opened every weekend in the summer of 2025 from the end of June to mid-August. The joy I got from meeting neighbors, locals, and people from other states and nations made my heart full. I knew my dream had come to fruition.

David and I plan to have the farm open on Fridays and Saturdays during the summers and grow the farm each year with added events, classes, and gardens. Our hope is that every person who comes will feel the deep peace and joy that this exceptional place has brought to us.

How many plants do you manage and what cultivars do you grow?

We have about 950 plants: Lavandula angustifolia ‘Betty’s Blue’, ‘Buena Vista’, ‘Folgate’, ‘Melissa’, and ‘Munstead’. Lavandula x intermedia ‘Edelweiss’, ‘Grosso’, and ‘Alba’. I really enjoy ‘Grosso’ with ‘Edelweiss’ as a close second. ‘Grosso’ is so big! I haven’t had any problems with it. It’s a beautiful and stable plant and has such a wow factor to it. The angustifolias are smaller and have deeper color which is nice.

What is your favorite product or use for the lavender you grow?

I love making products with fresh lavender such as wreaths and bouquets. This year I acquired a lavender still and started making lavender essential oil and hydrosol, which opened a whole new area of creativity that has been a lot of fun to experiment with.

What are your tips and advice regarding any aspect of growing lavender?

Some advice for new farmers: Even though I have loved lavender for decades, I didn’t realize how prolifically the L. angustifolias can reseed themselves. Before moving to my current location, my gardens never had much sun, and my lavenders tried their best to get by with the little sunshine they got, so they never spread. Our farm has the ideal growing conditions. I am constantly having to pull or replant baby lavenders that want to grow in the paths of our labyrinth. It’s something to keep in mind as you plan and plant your fields.

Also, field planning is very important! Ours is in the shape of a labyrinth which is beautiful. However, I wish I had made it more accessible for our tractor to get to more areas so it would be easier to spread fresh material on the paths.

What forms of marketing or community outreach have you used that may, or may not, have been successful for your business?

I market my products mainly through social media, word of mouth (which is the best, in my opinion), and A-frame signage that I set out every week on street corners. I also have a simple website and I am looking into e-commerce like Etsy as well as offering festivals. I do have a farm stand that I set up each weekend at our farm during the summer. We hope in the future to build a permanent place for that.

Do you have any other offerings for on-site visitors? Do you grow anything in addition to lavender?

The people aspect is what I love best about this farm. We encourage visitors to bring picnic lunches and make memories while they are here. We also offer creative classes and concerts. I have a potager (pronounced puh-tah-zhay) inspiration garden which is a French ornamental kitchen garden that artfully combines vegetables, fruits, herbs, and flowers, blending beauty with functionality. Potager literally means “for the soup pot,” so the word itself implies that what is growing in the garden is being served at the table. My hope is that it will encourage people to grow their own fresh food in a beautiful way.

Who helps you with your lavender operation?

Finding help has not been difficult. I have hired high school and college students to help with the weeding and harvesting. I connected with people from our church and local high school. Usually there are students who are fundraising for certain trips or causes and are happy to be able to earn money. I pay them well and again, through word of mouth, get referrals for people interested in working.