CLOSE-UP : Gardener of Eden

Kent Taylor’s life is the stuff office daydreams are made of.

“I’ve gone hours on end purposely smelling flowers in almost every breath,” says the 49-year-old organic herb farmer, who for nearly 20 years has been assembling a kind of utopia on a 30-acre spread in the quiet hills of Vista, an hour north of downtown San Diego.

Since he took over the operation from his parents in 1973, Taylor’s Herb Gardens has become one of the largest herb growers in the country, cultivating hundreds of varieties, from the familiar--oregano and spearmint--to the exotic--gotu kola and echineacea. With 15 employees, the farm sells more than a million plants a year, wholesale to nurseries and retail to visitors. And companies such as McCormick and Lipton have bought starter plants for propagation on their own farms.

Along with this business success, however, the farm has also become a place of tranquil refuge for Taylor, his girlfriend, Michele Andre, and their six children from previous marriages, as well as for friends and customers.

“When I first started here I thought I’d create a place for our plants to exist,” Taylor says, “but we’ve created a place where people can exist, too, a place where they can really relax.”

Hundreds of visitors flock to the farm each week to attend classes on cooking with herbs and their medicinal uses, take guided walks through the gardens or just kick back and enjoy the picnic areas and swan-filled ponds.

Running the herb garden takes hard work, but Taylor freely admits that life is pretty ideal on his farm, which also has a wood-fired hot-tub, a sweat lodge and a “mud wallow.”

“What’s the true essence of retirement? To do whatever you want to do, right?” he says. “Well, I’m already doing what I want every day and every night.”