Garden Tour June 17

Our 2nd Annual Garden Tour is on Saturday, June 17th from 10am to 4pm. Featured properties include flower and vegetable farms, perennial flower gardens, orchards, and homesteads. Participants will have the opportunity to learn more about what plants thrive in northern Vermont, explore creative garden spaces, and come away with new ideas. The tour will be self-paced and participants will have an opportunity to attend guided tours of featured properties throughout the day.  

The Garden Tour is a fundraising event for the Craftsbury Public Library.  Tickets are available by clicking the button above or by purchasing at the library. Tickets can be picked up ahead of time at the Library, or on the day of the tour (from 9:30 a.m. - 1p.m.).

FEATURED PROPERTIES

 Morey Hill Farm
Hours: 10-11am tour only. This private property is only open for the guided tour from 10-11am. Please respect the landowners wishes and do not be on the property outside of this time.
Address: Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description: Morey Hill Farm is a Craftsbury hill farm specializing in cut flowers for retail and wholesale distribution. The farm supports several hundred varieties of annuals, perennials, bulbs, and woody shrubs.

Stoner Family Tree Farm
Hours: 10am - 4pm, guided tour at 11am and 2pm
Address: Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description: See how planting blueberries and fruit trees is a small part in turning an abandoned farm into a prize-winning Vermont Tree Farm. Explore how pruning wild apple and beechnut trees, selective patch cutting, and building a trout pond encourage the wild life to assist in regenerating the land. Learn the long-term development power of silviculture and the plan of ash tree management in fighting destructive insects. Tours with foresters and land owners at 11 and 2. Maps available for self-exploration any time.

Jane Marlin and Paul Gruhler
Hours: 10am - 2pm, guided tour at 11am. This private property is only open from 10-2. Please respect the landowners wishes, and do not be on the property outside of this time frame.
Address: Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description: This garden on Ketchum Hill has expansive views of Mt. Mansfield to the Lowell Mountains. It was carved out of farmland that has been in the family since the late 1800’s. The husband-and-wife team each have their own distinctive gardens. Hers are flowers, perennial and annual, both for cutting and viewing and the vegetable gardens. His are rock gardens. The rocks were moved from the tree line that generations of farmers moved out of the fields. They were influenced by trips to gardens in Japan and China. The gardens also include sculptures by 4 different artists that enhance the experience.

Breadseed Farm
Hours: 10am - 4pm, guided tours at Noon and 3pm
Address: Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description: Breadseed is a human-powered no-till farm with an emphasis on ecological growing. Kayleigh and Doug purchased the sixteen acres that would become home to Breadseed Farm in September 2020. The site has two acres of prime agricultural soil, perfect for growing veggies, of which one acre is currently in production.  The farm incorporates herbs, native perennials and flowers to encourage pollinators and beneficial insects to create a more holistic farm system.  All produce is grown organically with an emphasis on regenerative soil health practices. 

Newfield Herb Farm
Hours: 10am - 4pm, guided tour at 1pm
Address: Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description: Newfield Herb Farm is a small organically-certified farm in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont, specializing in culinary and medicinal herbs. Our herbs are grown from organic seed, and attention is paid to the health of the plants and the soil they grow in.  We offer culinary and medicinal farm-grown plant starts in the spring, fresh herbs in the summer and fall, and dried herbs year-round. All herbs sold, fresh or dried, are grown on the farm.  We will have a map to follow to help identify all the plants. Medicinal plants include Western and Chinese herbs. A view of the drying and processing activities on the farm is provided.

Stillmeadow Gardens
Hours: 10am - 4pm, guided tour at 1:30pm
Address:  Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description:  Stillmeadow Gardens has been a Craftsbury mainstay, selling flowers and hanging baskets since 1987. Our family-run business has grown to include three full, large greenhouses. We carry a wide variety of hanging baskets, annuals, geraniums, tomatoes, vegetables, and perennials. Betty, Judy, and Bruce Urie run the daily operations out of the Urie Farmstead, which has been in the Urie family for six generations. In addition to our business and greenhouses, there are a number of perennial beds throughout the property that showcase a unique variety of perennial flowers and bulbs.

Moukheiber Residence
Hours: 10am - 4pm, guided tour at 2pm
Address: Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description: As enthusiastic but amateur gardeners, we have been developing the gardens here since 2008. We planted an apple orchard around existing old apple trees, as well as pear, plum, quince and kiwi. We also planted fruiting shrubs such as currants, blackberries, elderberries, gooseberries and blueberries.

A large stone terrace was added to the south side of the house with shade sails.  Thyme and lavender surround us to remind us of Mediterranean gardens. The perennial gardens surround the house and terrace and include a rock garden created with large stones retrieved from the foundations. We also plant a small cutting garden to add to the flowers for the house.

A large, raised bed vegetable garden provides food for the family and an unheated greenhouse extends the growing season and allows for more heat loving vegetables and fruit to thrive in the summer heat. Perennial beds are slowly being added around the vegetable garden to attract pollinators.

We will have a small cafe set up offering croissants and cappuccinos etc with all payments donated to the library.

Wild Branch Valley Farm
Hours: 2:30pm - 4pm, guided tour at 2:30pm. This private property is only open from 2:30pm - 4pm. Please respect the landowners wishes, and do not be on the property outside of this time frame.
Address: Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description: Wild Branch Valley Farm is an organic, diversified, family farm located in Craftsbury, Vermont. We strive to provide our community with healthy, fresh, local foods, as well as vibrant garden plants to encourage everyone to grow a garden! We raise certified organic vegetables and mushrooms.

Cate Hill Orchard
Hours: 10am - 4pm, guided tour at 3pm
Address: Found on Garden Tour Ticket
Description: Cate Hill Orchard is a 5 acre certified organic apple orchard.  The orchard is home to over 350 apple trees, ranging from 100 year old Duchess trees from the original farm orchard to saplings planted just last year, as well as: 5 pear trees, a dozen plum trees, over a hundred honeyberry bushes, a growing patch of sea berry bushes, and a smattering of gooseberries and black and red currants interplanted between the apple trees. Josh Karp and Maria Schumann are working towards a low input, perennial based agriculture, modeled after nature’s complexity.   Interspersed among the fruit trees are plantings of herbs and flowers which act as pest confusers and homes to wild pollinators and other beneficial insects.