The two gardens we are visiting today are very different from each other. One is a relatively new garden focused on growing organic edibles, including fruits, vegetables and herbs and raising chickens for meat and eggs; the other is a well-established garden dedicated about 50/50 to edible and decorative plants.
Miracle Green Farms, Enterprise, ON
Owners – Mehrnaz Kaviani and Gordon Frith
Miracle Green Farms is the fifth farm owned by Mehrnaz and Gordon, who purchased the 300 acres in 2010. After spending the preceding 7 years in Huron County surrounded by cash crop farming with its attendant heavy spraying of chemical pesticides, they decided to re-locate and spent a year looking for land which had not been previously cultivated. Their land in Enterprise had been used to graze cattle but not for any other purpose. Things to look for / hear about here include the extensive drainage system which can also be used to capture rain for irrigating in drought years, the gravity feed rain water system, and the various growing areas encompassing perennial crops (asparagus, barberry, currants, blueberries, honeyberries, grapes), orchards and annual vegetables and herbs.
Mehrnaz and Gordon harvest and sell their products at the Yarker Market and are considering the market in Harrowsmith. You can visit their website at www.miraclegreenfarms.com
Hooper’s Mill, Newburgh, ON
Owners – Wendy Cain and David Hunt
Wendy and David purchased the mill in 1975 and in addition to taking on a huge renovation project to make the abandoned and derelict mill their home, decided to try their hand at growing a variety of plants on a shady, dry area with almost no soil. Many truckloads of manure and many years of composting later, we are visiting them in their 39th year of gardening.
Both Wendy and David have had careers teaching at the Ontario College of Art and Design, so it is no surprise that the gardens created here show artistic influences in both the structures and the plantings. Multiple terraces have been built using rock from an adjacent mill torn down in the 1930’s and the resulting “garden rooms” are revealed as the visitor wanders along following the contours of the Napanee River. Look for unusual varieties of perennials particularly in the shady area to the south of the mill. See how Wendy and David have taken advantage of every square inch of their site with intensive plantings of vegetables in the terraced slopes on the west side and in the original garden to the north of the building. Notice the pots used where there is insufficient depth of soil to support heavy-feeding vegetables such as tomatoes, and the various structures to encourage vertical growth where space is at a premium.
All photos courtesy of David Field.