I’m Dawnn Rabinovich Meiers, Psy.D., owner of Lavender Belle Farm. I’m a long-time Pacific Northwest resident (since 1979), and for the past twenty-plus years, I’ve cultivated wellness for people and planet, as a psychologist, community educator, and gardener.
Read more about my love of gardening in this interview with the Seattle Times. These days, I spend as much time as possible with my fingers in the soil, while promoting (and personally experiencing) the many benefits of people-plant connections. I also operate a part-time behavioral health practice. Although I’m retiring Lavender Belle Farm as a micro business by the end of 2026, feel free to follow me on IG and stay tuned for more “big spirit, small space” growing adventures!
Lavender Belle Farm germinated in 2015, when our family moved onto a two-acre property outside Portland, Oregon, which I named after our adopted daughter (“Belle”) and my long-standing love of lavender (although I grew quite a bit more, which you can read about here). In the early years, I attended a small farm conference and became a certified Oregon State University Extension Master Gardener. In Summer 2019, I closed my full-time psychotherapy practice to pursue a sabbatical in the field of therapeutic horticulture, launching several community garden projects as well as an education blog (“the SAVOR Project”). However, pandemic life took our farm family in a very different direction and in December 2020, we moved to Beacon Hill, Seattle, Washington. For the next three years, I grew, sold, and donated thousands of plant starts – on my rooftop, balcony, garage, tiny front yard, and P-Patch plot.
In July 2023, I attended the New York Botanical Garden’s three-week Therapeutic Horticulture Intensive training (with visits to my grandparents’ old neighborhoods in the Bronx, Queens, and the Lower East Side). I’ve presented several times at the Canadian Horticultural Therapy Association’s annual conference and facilitated a Therapeutic Gardening workshop at the UW Botanic Gardens Center for Urban Horticulture. I love teaching, so check out my Portland Community College instructor page as well as upcoming classes at South Seattle College. In more recent years, I’ve vended at several pop-up events as well as the Beacon Hill (WA) and the Rocky Butte (OR) Farmers Markets. Finally, I continue to support local food justice and community garden programs as a Certified WSU Extension Master Gardener (2025 – present).
