Peninsula Edible Gardens Tour: Homewood

Second Annual Peninsula Edible Gardens Tour,  August 11th

On a warm and sunny Saturday, Nancy, organizer of the Music in the Gardens tour, and I visited several gardens whose focus was on edible plants.  And I mean focus: The gardens focused much more on productiveness than on beauty.  I would like to see more of a mingling of ornamental and edible, but I need much education on edible gardening so it was a useful tour.   Nancy is knowledgeable about edible gardening and was the perfect friend for this event.

Garden one: Homewood

Homewood

Homewood was the loveliest of the day’s gardens, with ornamentals included in the mix.

From the programme, quoting gardener Lisa Mattfield:

 “A baby food forest on about half an acre. Every year something else I can’t get at the grocery store starts producing.”

I assumed “baby food forest” meant the garden was quite young but I later learned it was about ten years old.

(below) I value touches like the bright blue trim and the banners at the gate.

entrance to Homewood

the greeter

Homewood garden beds

I imagine that mid August is not the best time to visit an edible garden as by then all the pretty spring lettuces and peas and so on would be harvested, and fall crops would just be coming on.

a network of beds and wide bark paths

outdoor sink

compost bins

A curving path took us around the south side of the large property, where mixed plantings of trees and shrubs all offered something edible, we were told.  This concept reminds me of The Harvester by Gene Stratton-Porter, a book at my Grandma’s house that I had loved as a young reader.

a walk to a garden seat

looking scross the garden

The vegetable and fruit garden beds lay on front and back of the house.  Because there was no enclosure of a deer fence (which I know to be an expensive proposition), fruit trees were caged…

fruit tree

and strawberries were cleverly netted (probably to keep birds from stealing berries).

two netting ideas

deckside garden

deck on south side of house

a good sit spot

blue on blue

that friendly dog

on the deck, a nice way to display different edible leaves and berries

If I ever have enough edibles in my garden to be on the edible tour, I am going to swipe the above idea for displaying edible flowers.

As we left, I admired the fig tree growing against the beautiful bright blue woodwork of the sunroom.

sunroom on garage

Of course, I had to peek into the sunroom because I love to see other people’s work areas.  Between the garage and the house sat an assortment of plants that Lisa had grown from cuttings.

Next, Nancy and I will visit two new community gardens and a small private garden as we continue on the edible garden tour.

tidy sunroom

potting area