Donna's Farmette

I call my third of an acre a farmette because it is a little farm on which I grow a little bit of everything— flowers, vegetables, fruit, herbs. Sometimes I mix them all together: My organic rose garden is bordered by a raspberry patch and staged in a row along a fence covered with an apple espalier. Likewise, my kitchen garden is stocked with vegetables and brambles and edible flowers and big deal pollinators like mountain mint.

Over the years, I have made five different gardens up the hill in my backyard. I love gardening up the hill. Even its challenges have become benefits—like the stone terracing that  keeps the dirt in place. Each of the five gardens relates one way or another to my resurrected barn, devoted now half to storage, half to the potting shed of my dreams. I  planted my perennial garden along one side of it.  Painted in broad strokes of  seasonal color-- heavily flowering  and scented shrubs like lilac, deutzia, mock orange, and  roses, and a Rose of Sharon tree, they are matched with delicate plants that make big statements like tall meadow rue, foxtail lilies and a sprawling pink lespedeza. Then across from the barn is the woodland meadow filled with daffodils to asters and Monkshood and lots of beneficial bugs, and behind it is the dahlia garden, both of which keep the garden in  color  well into the end of fall. 

This garden's estimated size is ½ acre.

Open Days 2024:  Saturday, June 22
Hours: 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.