Master Gardener Starts New Farming Business in Deer Park

Tina Kyser has spent a lifetime growing vegetables for her family. 

“I used to grow in my backyard, and I was just running out of space. So, I decided to bring it up on a bigger scale,” said Kyser. 

She said she purchased 10 acres at 4 E. Westmoreland Road in Deer Park in September 2025. Shortly after, Kyser and her husband, Jim Kyser, formed Mom’s Garden Patch LLC, a farming operation that primarily focuses on local, fresh produce. 

As this is the business’s first year, availability and growing will start slow, said Kyser who added that she is planting on less than a quarter of an acre of land. She said plant starts – including asparagus, celery, onion, peppers, and tomatoes – will be available for purchase in May at her farm and the Deer Park Farmer’s Market. 

Mom’s Garden Patch is an all-natural, nonchemical pesticide business, and Kyser emphasized regenerative agriculture practices and environmental biodiversity. 

“We’re using what’s here, composting what’s here, and putting it right back into the soil with cover crops,” said Kyser. 

When asked about potential garden pests, Kyser said the diversity of her operation will help deter them.

“Our biggest thing is being diverse,” she said. “The more diverse you are, and the more you’re regenerating, turning back into the soil, composting what you have, the fewer pests you tend to deal with.”

While the business is just starting out, Kyser said she already has a vision for the future, such as the aforementioned stand at the Deer Park Farmer’s Market, as well as community-supported agriculture boxes and a self-pick flower farm with calendula, echinacea, snapdragons, and more. 

“We lived in Germany for a while, and we always passed a ‘you-pick’ flower farm,” said Kyser. “It was just a farmer’s field that he planted flowers in. For a couple of bucks, you could go in and cut whatever you wanted, take home a bouquet, and leave money in a box,” said Kyser. “That’s kind of my vision for Mom’s down the road.”

Kyser said she has been a master gardener since 2019, and earned a degree and certificate from Spokane Community College last summer in small farm production and greenhouse management.

Of all the fruits and vegetables she grows, garlic is her favorite, said Kyser. She has sown more than 700 garlic plants across 20 different varieties on her farm. 

“I just love garlic. We lived in Japan, and there was a garlic restaurant. Everything they made there was garlic. You could get a whole clove, huge, that just fit in the palm of your hand,” she said, laughing.

Kyser said Jim’s favorite plant is Egyptian Walking Onions, a vegetable that Kyser said she has grown for the past six years. She said the plant boasts tall leaves with onion bulbs at the top of them. As the leaves die back, the bulbs fall to the ground and plant themselves. That is where the plant gets its name.

“They will walk across your yard from year to year,” said Kyser.

When asked what she would recommend to someone just getting into gardening, Kyser said, "It’s trial and error. One year, a plant will thrive, and the next it’ll fail."

“The love of growing and watching that seed form into a baby plant, and then grow into new tomatoes, is amazing in my book,” she said.

For more information, call 360-627-1147.