Inside the airy shop, bunches of lavender hang to dry from ceiling racks, imbuing the space with a clean, crisp fragrance. Wooden display shelves are stacked with lavender-based lotion, soap, hand sanitizer, candles, room spray and more, while an old-fashioned ice box chills lavender and fruit sodas. Outdoors, a small lake is ringed with beds of the purple herb and animated with Canada geese, egrets, herons and ducks that splash about beneath the shade of tall pine trees. 

Welcome to The Lavender Farm at Chateau de Vie, owned by Shelly and Nick Goodman, arguably one of the most bucolic spots in Chandler, if not the entire Valley. But as enticing as it is to roam the 10.5-acre grounds, peruse the lavender-centric retail goods, take a soap-making class or tour the property’s 15,000-square-foot mansion, it’s the property’s backstory that is most compelling.

“The house was built in the early 1980s by Phil and Billy Lee Erickson,” explains Shelly Goodman, “and they raised their children here.” Phil Erickson was a master framer and a major player in Arizona’s booming homebuilding industry. After buying a parcel of land that was once part of a farm, Phil put his construction skills to use, crafting a multilevel, winding brick abode that was a phantasmagorical blend of French-chateau, English-manor and gothic-revival styles, dotted with turrets, dormers and chimneys. Inside, murals, stained and etched glass, elaborate millwork, antique fireplaces and carved wood panels marked the rooms. One large bookshelf-lined space featured a barrel-vaulted ceiling that looked like the inside of a ship, while another was lined in weathered wood culled from an old
Indiana barn. 

Outside, the Ericksons sculpted the once-flat land into a series of rolling hills, making way for streams, waterfalls, the lake, a lavish pool and a tennis court. Pines, palms and orange trees added a lush touch. 

The Ericksons sold the home in the early 2000s. After two subsequent owners, the property went into foreclosure, and the Goodmans bought it in 2010. “By then all of the furniture that came with the house had been auctioned off,” remembers Shelly Goodman, “and the interior was stripped down to the light fixtures. Much of the landscape was dead or dying.” Nonetheless, the couple envisioned restoring the site to its former glory and using it as a wedding venue. Aided by family, farm manager John Sisk and friends, they began the painstaking task of refurbishing the house, cleaning up the grounds and replanting what was lost. 

For years, what they dubbed “Chateau de Vie” operated as an Instagram-worthy site for weddings. Several years ago, though, the Goodmans acquiesced to neighborhood harrumphing about events and overnight stays and stopped operating the site as an event venue. “We did list the property for sale,” Shelly Goodman recalls, “but all we got were offers from developers who wanted to tear down everything and build condos or apartments. I just didn’t have the heart to do it.”

Instead, the Goodmans returned to the land’s roots—literally. “This site was and still is zoned for agriculture,” Shelley Goodman explains, “so we decided to go into agritourism with the lavender.” In the spring of 2023, they began planting hundreds of lavender shrubs and converted the home’s freestanding gym into a farm store.

It was, she admits, learning by doing. “We started out planting too late, in May,” she says, “and we lost a lot of lavender to the heat. Lavender here in Arizona has two planting seasons—early spring and fall—if you want good blooms.” Sourcing the lavender from growers in New Mexico and Missouri, the newly named Lavender Farm team planted rows and rows of the shrubby, herbal perennial plants along the lake and in raised beds, watering via drip irrigation and keeping the soil moist with mulch chipped from the property’s dead orange trees. Several varieties do well at the farm, including English lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), French lavender (Lavandula dentata) and Spanish lavender (Lavandula stoechas).

At harvest, the flowers and leaves get dried and taken into a garage that was transformed into a workshop, where the lavender is distilled into an essential oil, crumbled into sugar scrubs or packed into bags for sachets. “We have a calendar of classes here in the workshop, too,” says Shelly Goodman, “so people can learn to make things with lavender and other ingredients.” Those other ingredients are also grown on site, including fruit from newly planted citrus trees, pine cones and needles collected from underneath the towering trees and petals from scores of rose bushes. 

Since its official opening in November 2023, The Lavender Farm at Chateau de Vie has been a inundated with guests who come to shop, wander, peek at the mansion or learn a lavender craft. “Doing this has been a learning curve,” says Shelly Goodman. “It’s a lot of trial and error, but we’re glad we can still share this property with everyone.” 

SOURCES

The Lavender Farm at Chateau de Vie, Chandler, thelavenderfarms.com