WEST SUMNER — Jessica Doe’s year-old Allium Farm last year entered a crowded Maine holiday market, hoping to carve a niche by offering eco-friendly wreaths.

She’s less tinsel, more artfully worked birch bark, seed pods and variegated greens.

Doe also gleefully admits to a mossy stick habit.

In October she approached a tree-trimming road crew foreman and asked: Could she have those lichen-covered scraps for wreaths?

“He looked at me like I was completely insane,” Doe said. “He didn’t realize my mossy stick thing — if only he knew.”

She’s doing something right: Business is up 50 percent over last Christmas. Doe has big 2013 plans for Allium, part botanical workshop, part nursery and vegetable farm: A $2,000 investment in wreath-making equipment, a new greenhouse and, she hopes, a 500-pound garlic crop.

Wreaths account for a quarter of Allium’s annual sales. One of Doe’s definitions of “sustainable,” doing more than one thing, applies to herself as well.

“That’s kind of a microcosm for business in Maine,” said Doe, 36. “By doing a little bit of everything — it’s not easy, by the way — it makes it so you can have a better chance of survival.”

Doe, originally from Old Orchard Beach, moved to rural Western Maine with fiance Brent Badone in 2007 to be closer to the skiing. She grew her first garlic crop there, eight pounds of it, in 2008. (Allium is Latin for garlic.)

Before going into business for herself, Doe worked in resort management and restaurants. She has degrees in environmental science and horticulture, studying landscape and floral design.

She said she wanted to set her wreaths apart by making them sustainably. There’s no glue in the final decorating, and there are no kissing balls; she hasn’t found a way to recycle the Styrofoam cores.

Greens and trimmings come via local landowners. Doe offers her services and advice on thinning lots to allow either the large or small trees to thrive and in trade she does the thinning in November, keeping the results. It’s she, Badone, clippers and a chain saw.

“It’s a lot of work,” Doe said. “The smaller trees, it’s probably six small trees for one wreath. One large tree, we may have gotten 20.”

Family and friends volunteer to cut the greens down to size. Her garage becomes the operations center, with work space on two long tables. Wreaths sell from $10 to $60 and most are made to order.

Berries, twigs, eucalyptus and pine cones collected year-round augment the occasional glittery bow. If someone asks for tinsel, “I would take a sensitive fern seed pod, spray it gold and use that for an accent,” Doe said. “You have to think outside the box.”

She’s made 145 wreaths so far this year and has shipped them to 10 states. She also has a roadside stand on Main Street. Doe encourages customers to return the wreaths after the holidays to be salvaged, then composted. Last year, 20 percent did.

“We want to decorate and we want to make things nice,” she said. “What about afterward? A lot of it gets stuck in the trash.”

Sustainability “is a buzzword, but really, what it comes down to is having to make less of an impact,” she said.

When there isn’t snow on the ground, the farm’s specialty is organically grown garlic, followed by perennials. Allium harvested 250 pounds of garlic this past summer.

“It’s such a low-maintenance crop,” Doe said. “Ninety percent of the garlic we consume in the U.S. is grown in China. There’s nothing wrong with that, but we have perfect soil to grow it in the U.S. Why are we growing it in China? There’s no need.”

Doe is looking for more land to expand the farm. She’d like to eventually grow the business to support employees.

For now, being small does have some advantages, like having to carry less inventory.

“It makes me more adaptable to the economy and the market,” she said. “I don’t have to play by the rules a lot of players have to play by. I can make it up as I go along.”

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Jessica Doe, owner of Allium Farm in West Sumner

In your own words, briefly describe:

Your market: People looking for something unique that has a lesser impact on the environment. We strive toward sustainable practices in several ways: using recycled, compostable and/or organically grown products, sourcing our greens locally and our “wreath recycling” program where we recycle, reuse or compost the remains of your decor after the holidays.

Your biggest challenges: Reaching out to customers while doing business in a scarcely populated geographic area. It makes the Web and social media that much more important.

In the past 12 months, your biggest success: This having been my first year in business, I would say one of our biggest successes would be creating our online presence. Getting to 350 likes on Facebook was a milestone we reached last month!

Any suggestions regarding government regulation: One important regulation that affects Allium Farm is the state regulations for shipping wreaths and other plant material. Our industry needs to make sure that our product will not spread invasive pests or diseases to other areas. Tax regulations are always a concern for a small business as well. With all of the talk of the fiscal cliff and eliminating deductions, I worry what that would do to my bottom line.

Plan to hire in the next year? Since we are considered a cottage industry business, there are limits on how many employees we can have. We are thinking about a small expansion for 2013 which may allow us to hire part-time help.

Where do you see the company in 2022? On the wreath-making side, I see us with a steady clientele locally, as well as online. Mechanizing the process of making the wreaths is definitely in sight.