PICK YOUR OWN PEONIES AT CEDAR ROCK GARDENS!

Cedar Rock Gardens has a gorgeous collection of deep rose pink, seashell pink, cotton candy pink, and ivory white peonies blooming right now. The mix of colors makes for a lovely bouquet and will last twenty ten times longer than anything in the stores. Go today and pick your own bouquet of fabulousness!

Cedar Rock Gardens owner Tucker Smith

Cheryl and Kim – just one more reason to love Cedar Rock Gardens is their super friendly and helpful staff!

 

Cedar Rock Gardens newest family members – one is the leader of the pair of juvenile Peacocks and he jumped easily over the garden wall, the other – he tried several different routes before deciding to brave the jump and follow his brother.

Cedar Rock Gardens has a fantastic array of flowers, veggies, and herbs. The nursery is located at 299 Concord Street in West Gloucester.

PICK YOUR OWN BOUQUETS OF FABULOUSNESS AT CEDAR ROCK GARDENS!

Elise and Tucker’s fields of fabulousness are begging to be picked.

Why do the tulips at Cedar Rock Gardens always open with such exquisite beauty I wonder? Must be all that TLC they applyCome by and pick your own. Cedar Rock Gardens is located at 299 Concord Street and is open everyday from 8am to 5pm, except Wednesday’s til 6pm. 

CEDAR ROCK GARDENS OPENING TODAY!

You never know what beautiful pollinator you will encounter while shopping at Cedar Rock Gardens! 

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and Sunflower, Cedar Rock Gardens

For more information visit Cedar Rock Gardens website here and see post from earlier this week.

CEDAR ROCK GARDENS OPENING FOR THE SEASON THIS COMING THURSDAY!!!

This beautiful lady in the pick-your-own peony patch.

Cedar Rock Gardens, the fabulous organic and homegrown nursery owned by Elise Jilson and Tucker Smith, is opening on Thursday April 19th. They will be open everyday. See below for hours of operation and the complete selection of flower, vegetable, and herb seedlings that will be available to purchase this spring. Cedar Rock Gardens is located at 290 Concord Street in West Gloucester, just minutes off of Route 133.

A small sampling of just some of the flowers and veggies you will find at Cedar Rock Gardens, and a reminder that spring truly will be here soon.

For more information, check out Cedar Rock Garden website here.

COMPLETE LIST OF PLANTS AND GARDEN RELATED PRODUCTS CEDAR ROCK GARDEN SPRING 2018

READ MORE HERE Continue reading “CEDAR ROCK GARDENS OPENING FOR THE SEASON THIS COMING THURSDAY!!!”

PICK YOUR OWN SUNFLOWERS AT CEDAR ROCK GARDENS AND ELISE’S TOMATOES ARE CRAZY TALL!!

Pick your own fabulous fresh sunflowers at Cedar Rock Gardens and a butterfly may follow you home!

Elise and her amazing (and wonderfully delicious) tomatoes. Elise and Tucker supply the produce to Short and Main and The Market Restaurant in Annisquam.

Cedar Rock Gardens is located at 290 Concord Street in West located. For more information, visit their website here.

Apple Street Farm

Apple Street Farm ©Kim Smith 2014Located in Essex, conveniently only a few scenic miles off Route 128, every Saturday from 10am to 2pm the farmstand at Apple Street Farm is open for business. Stopping for fabulous and fresh organically fed free-range eggs, heirloom veggies, fruits, and herbs has become a favorite Saturday morning ritual. Apple Street Farm tomatoes ©Kim Smith 2014 Frank McClelland is the owner of Apple Street Farm. Not only that, he is also the proprietor and chef of one of Boston’s most beloved and famous restaurants, L’Espalier. Apple Street Farm is the primary source of produce, poultry, pork and eggs for L’Espalier.Apple Street Farm -2 ©Kim Smith 2014 Each month throughout the summer and fall Apple Street Farm celebrates seasonal harvests with special dinners held on the farm’s spacious lawn. The five-course dinner is prepared by the L’Espalier chefs and includes cocktails, hors d’oeuvres, and wine pairings. September 5th and 6th is the Fire Pit Fiesta and October 3rd and 4th is the Essex Harvest Feast. Call L’Espalier to make a reservation at 617-262-3023.

Apple Street Farm Pick Your Own ©Kim Smith 2014Pick You Own Flowers

Apple Street Farm hummingbird ©Kim Smith 2014Female Ruby-throated Hummingbird in the Zinnia Patch

Apple Street Farm Goldfinch and Cosmos ©Kim Smith 2014

American Goldfinch Eating Cosmos Seeds-A Great Reason NOT to Deadhead!

Farm and poultry shares are available from June through September. For more information about Apple Street Farm’s CSA program, visit their website here.

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Photographing the Nubian goats was a delight. The little ones are very playful and affectionate and, when first let out of their pen in the morning, are super rambunctious. Apple Street Farm’s manger Phoebe explains that Nubian goats are great milking goats and wiki informs that Nubians are known for the high butterfat content of their milk.

Apple Street Farm  Nubian Goat Eating apple©Kim Smith 2014Apples for Breakfast

Apple Street Farm  Nubian Goats ©Kim Smith 2014

The Nubians climbed upon each other to reach the fruit and seeds.

Apple Street Farm Eating Catalpa Seeds ©Kim Smith 2014jpg copy

Nubian Goat Eating Catalpa Seedpods

Apple Street Farm Nubian Gots airborn ©Kim Smith 2014JPG SEE MORE PHOTOS HERE Continue reading “Apple Street Farm”

Beautiful Saturday September Morning

Twin Light Sunrise good harbor Beach ©Kim Smith 2013I awoke this morning before dawn to film sunrise and found a sweet gift of Virgilios sauce and amazingly fat rigatonis in the basket on my front porch. I am recovering from a leg operation and my friend Catherine Ryan called at the very moment that I was trying my personal recovery technique–on the floor doing a shoulder stand, with phone in hand–and she really got an earful. Thank you Catherine for listening to me complain about itchy leg braces and hospitals. I gave her the wrong impression though because I can walk and work–I just cannot sit or stand in one place for very long.

Good Harbor beach ©Kim Smith 2013

After putting the sauce and pasta in the cupboard I left to go film, and once again, the exquisite Great Blue Heron was there at Good Harbor Beach fishing amongst the reeds. For the third morning in a row I have observed a flock of cormorants leaving Salt Island en masse to fish with the gulls in the outgoing surf along the shoreline. I wonder, do they sleep there every night?

Sailor Stans ©Kim Smith 2013Next stop was to a friend’s home on Rocky Neck to drop off peaches from my garden. The light was hitting the Sailor’s Stan’s sunflowers perfectly and I just had to stop and take several snapshots.

Sailor Stans Sunflower ©Kim Smith 2013

By now it’s after 8:00 and I almost always go to yoga on Saturday mornings but because of the stitches, thought better of it and instead went to measure a new border at the Gloucester HarborWalk.

Gloucester harbor walk Gardens ©Kim Smith 2013 copyBlooming today at the HarborWalk are asters, goldenrod, annual rudbeckia, and salvia.

Long Hill Beverly ©Kim Smith 2013Next stop was the farm stand and then on to Pick Your Own at Long Hill in Beverly. In case any pollinators stop by, I prefer to leave my own zinnias growing in the garden and just love the array of colors in the Long Hill garden mix.

All this gorgeousness before 10:00 and I still have a work day if front of me, but it’s been a September Saturday morning I won’t soon forget! For all these gifts, of friendship and of the beauty that surrounds, I am counting my blessings.

Pick Your Own Flowers at Long Hill

Sunflower ©Kim Smith 2013

Last Thursday I spent the day photographing gardens around the north shore and couldn’t resist stopping at Long Hill and Sedgwick Garden in Beverly to pick a bouquet.

Pick your Own Long Hill Beverly ©Kim Smith 2013

Annual Rudbeckia ©Kim Smith 2013Annual Rudbeckia

Bee and Phlox ©Kim Smith 2013JPGCarpenter Bee and Phlox