One of the greatest pleasures of owning an old farm is discovering what once was. One of the distinct privileges is being able to do whatever we want with it.
And so it is with this old farm. We are living amidst the pleasures and privileges as we plan and build our gardens — though some might not see our current lot as either pleasurable or privileged.
I’ve mentioned previously that we bought this old farm as it sat in the midst of years of neglect. Apart from the two acres or so cut by a local farmer for hay, much of the land was left to grow wild with only the area immediately surrounding the house mowed a few times a year in the manner of the mow and blow. This land was cleared for farm and pasture use some two hundred or so years ago and remained as such until nearly sixty years ago when much of it was allowed to grow in willy nilly style. It was a farm at one time, so we aren’t exactly starting from scratch as we lay out our gardens, but we are rather scratch adjacent.
There is a considerable hill in the back of the property that allows us to divide our gardens into Upper Gardens and Lower Gardens. The Upper Gardens are a mix of woods and smaller meadows. There are established walking trails through parts of the woods, and the brook runs the length of one side. The Lower Gardens surround the house and extend into the largest meadow. Though the Upper Gardens encompass a much larger swath of land, the Lower Gardens include more individual gardens.
We’ve started clearing some areas and planting others. Because the farm was neglected for so many years, the prep work for each garden is immense. We’ve done quite a bit of work already, but if I were to guess, the casual outside observer would not be able to recognize many of the improvements we’ve made. They’ve mostly included removing invasive plants, picking up bags and bags of trash, clearing fallen trees, digging up stumps, filling in holes, grading rivets, and chasing away groundhogs. We have to do all those things and more before we can even begin to consider tulips and tomatoes.
We have started a few gardens, though, and we’ve made plans for others. In future posts, I’ll share our progress for each garden. Until then, here is a brief overview of our gardens — those in progress and those that will be:
Upper Gardens
The Orchard
The first summer we arrived on the land was our time to explore. We found a stand of ancient apple trees at the top of the hill near a small meadow. We’ve been told the fruit was used to feed the livestock on the old farm and sometimes to make cider. Generally, ancient apples don’t make for a very tasty treat, so we’ve never tried one.
We did immediately make plans to put in a legitimate orchard on the site. We cleaned up some of the land last year and planted our own apple trees. We are looking forward to our first harvest this year. We also have plans to extend the orchard and add other fruit trees once we’ve gotten the apples established.
The Lupine Garden and Trail
There is an opening along the trail with an old iron and wood bench. The wood is mostly rotten with only a hint of forest green paint remaining in thin flecks along a few of the boards. The iron is still in fair condition and with a little elbow grease can be brought back to usefulness. We plan to repair the bench and clean up the clearing. It would make a lovely picnic spot or simply a nice place to take a book and enjoy reading outside.
Last year, we cleaned up the area around the bench and planted lupines. I hope to see them grow there year after year and fill up the area with their bright spikes of pink, purple, and blue.
Leading up to the Lupine Garden is part of the trail that separates the Upper and Lower Gardens. Along this section of trail, we plan to add lots of color and perhaps a touch of whimsy. I’m not ready to share the plans for the trail entirely only to hint that anyone who loves color and texture will enjoy it.
The Vineyard
On our explorations that first year, we found a nice sunny spot on the hill that would be perfect for growing grapes. This is a “wish list” garden that we haven’t gotten around to starting, yet, but we hope to build it in the next couple of years.
The Forage Garden
Our woods are great for foraging. We have several plants growing naturally on our farm that we want to be mindful of as we clean up areas and build new gardens. I do realize “Forage Garden” is perhaps an oxymoron, but Forest Garden isn’t exactly a correct description for what we are planning to do (or not do). It’s not that we want to put in a garden, it’s more that we want to stay away and let Mother Nature do her magic in the part of the woods that’s good for foraging. We want to balance our human input in this area with Mother Nature’s desires.
Lower Gardens
Italianate Garden
Our house was built in the Victorian Italianate style, so it seems fitting that we install a Victorian Italianate garden in the front of the house. The house was built in 1882 as the Italianate craze was dying down and the Arts and Crafts movement was revving up, so we are combining the two styles in our garden design — Italianate with a dose of Arts and Crafts.
My interpretation of this style of garden will be a formal, structured garden with lots of blooms. To make this garden a challenge, I am going to use only heirloom plants that would have been available to the original owners of the house when they moved in in 1882. Expect to see roses, lilies, phlox, peonies, and other fragrant blooms.
Kitchen Herb Garden
The Kitchen Herb Garden is practical and pretty. I am planting herbs close to the house to provide easy access to the kitchen. The design for the Kitchen Herb Garden in the front of the house will coordinate with the Italianate garden and include sun-loving culinary herbs. The garden directly behind the house will include several mints and a thyme walk.
The Existing Garden
There is one garden that still exists from the immediate previous owners. At one time, there might have been many different flowers growing in the garden, but I’m not entirely sure. Today, there are two flowers competing for dominance in the summer months — bee balm and coreopsis. I found one bleeding heart growing in the midst of it all during our second summer here. I also found about a dozen or so irises crowded together on one end. Only two of them bloom. Toward the back of the garden are dozens, maybe hundreds of daffodils, and behind those are a row of lilacs.
I’ve started cleaning up the beds and nurturing the plants that are there. Over time, I plan to thin out and move some of the plants to give them all a better chance at life. Hummingbirds and bees love the summer flowers, and we love watching them.
Shade Garden
On the north side of the house is a large pine tree that shades the entire side of the house all year round. There is no grass there, only moss. I found some neglected, barely-hanging-on hostas in a sunny spot on the south side of the house, so I moved them to a shady spot under the pine. They immediately perked up and doubled in size practically over night — and that was the beginning of our shade garden. Wild strawberries and a few heirloom irises were already growing there, so we plan to tidy up the area and work with the shade.
Vegetable Garden
The very first garden we planted during our first full summer here was the vegetable garden. We started with three varieties of corn, pumpkins, cucumbers, radishes, two varieties of tomatoes, basil, carrots, okra, and zinnias the first year. The second year we expanded the garden and added onions, Brussels sprouts, strawberries, and a second variety of pumpkin. We grow more than we can eat, and preserve as much as we can.
Physic Garden and Tea Garden
On either side of the Vegetable Garden, I plan to plant a Physic Garden and a Tea Garden. The Physic, or Medicinal, Garden will include plants that traditionally have been used for herbal remedies such as echinacea, calendula, and mullein. The Tea Garden will include plants that can be used to make delicious herbal teas such as rose, lavender, and chamomile.
Double Long Border
Along the main road, planted in a straight line are a dozen mature larch pines. Beneath the pines, we are installing our first long border. This first border will be part deer deterrent and part aesthetically pleasing. We are planting things deer don’t typically like to eat, and we will be installing several different obstacles that we hope annoy the deer enough to move them along somewhere else.
On the field side of the pines, we will install the second border. That one will include only native plants.
We haven’t measured the borders, yet, but we estimate they are approximately 210 feet long.
Wildflower Meadow
We started the Wildflower Meadow the first full summer we were here just by cleaning it up. This year, we hope to plant seeds in the meadow and really get it going. We intend to build a short fence on the front of the meadow to separate it from the area where we drive the tractor.
Water Garden
We’ve started work on the Water Garden as well, mostly by cleaning it up. The previous owners moved dirt to create a berm to guide water coming down the hill into a small reservoir that filtered into the large meadow. The current system is overgrown and filled with trash, so it doesn’t really work as it was intended. We’ve been working to clear it out and remove the many invasive plants that moved in. Once we are finished with that part of the project, we are going to fix the entire system so that it works more efficiently. Then, we are going to plant water-loving trees, shrubs, and flowers around the entire gardens to help mitigate our water situation.
Dead Hedge/Stumpery
This garden is a fun one. During our first year at Mædunbroc, we found many downed trees and broken limbs. Since we’ve been here, we’ve found and added more. We could have just tossed everything into one big pile, but we decided to get a bit creative. We started piling all the unusable logs in a row to create a hedge of dead trees — a dead hedge. Over time, we will strategically place upturned stumps along the hedge and interweave ferns and other forest greens into the hedge.
The Lost Garden
Sounds mysterious, doesn’t it? And a mystery it is. We found this garden this last spring by chance. Late the previous autumn, we cleared two or three saplings from a wooded area that separates our property from the neighbor’s property. To us, it just looked like more woods, but unexpectedly, in the spring, a scraggly cane of forsythia bloomed. We’d never seen it before. Then, we noticed dozens of daffodils. None of them bloomed, but the leaves grew for probably the first time in years. I guess we cleared just enough of the saplings out to let a little sunlight into those woods.
We’d heard there were a set of old steps somewhere in those woods. No one seemed to know why. I wonder if anyone knew there were flowers, too?
We’ve since found an old, grainy photograph that seems to show a set of steps, but there isn’t any structure to go along with it. Was it the site of a small cottage long ago before anyone’s memory? A shed? An icehouse? An . . . outhouse? It’s a mystery.
I’m looking forward to searching for those steps to see if they are still there buried under all the growth, and maybe, with a little more sunlight and a little care, more flowers will appear.
So, that’s about it for an overview. We have pretty big plans here. Some things we’ve started. Others are on the horizon. In future posts, I’ll go into more detail about each garden. Until then, I hope you enjoy our website. We have playlists on Spotify and videos on YouTube. Perhaps you will enjoy our content there, too. Until next time . . .
