Tag: Montville

Turkey Tracks: Gardens in the Watershed: The Dorolenna Farm

Turkey Tracks:  August 23, 2013

Gardens in the Watershed:

The Dorolenna Farm

This farm was Giovanna McCarthy’s and my last stop on this years Gardens in the Watershed Tour, hosted and planned by The Georges River Land Trust.

In every garden, Giovanna and I learned so much more than each of us–both avid gardeners–knew.  Our creativity was sparked, and we both went home feeling we had spent our day quite well.

Andrew and Victoria Marshall have owned this 250-acre farm for seven years.  It’s beautiful land, with a mixture of forest and pasture.  The homestead dates to 1840 and is one of the few remaining farmsteads of the “Frye Mountain community which populated the area until the 1930s.

Dorolenna Farm is “certified organic and produces vegetables, tree fruit, pasture-raised poultry, cut flowers, and forest products for local markets.”

The barn is GORGEOUS.  (I love barns.)  The Marshalls built the barn in 2009 from wood harvested, milled, and cut on their farm.  The barn was raised on-site.  (Wish I’d been there.)

Here’s a picture of what must be the original part of the house–on the right.

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Here’s a long at the house and how it spreads out against the hill.  The barn is on the other side of the house, and I did not get a picture of it.   By this time of the day, Giovanna and I were tired and hot, and I, at least, got lazy with my camera.  I think I was a little on overload at this point too.

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Pastured poultry is one of the farm’s crops.  That process happens in stages where each chicken cohort gets raised together through all the steps until time for harvest.  There were chicken tractors out on the pasture holding the different age groups.  These would get moved every day so that the chickens have access to fresh grass, bugs, and are out of their own poop.   And the tractors protect them from predators.

Here are a group of babies just starting out:

Marshall

It’s so fun to watch baby chickens at this age.  They eat, run around, then flop down in a pile to sleep for a bit.

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The chicken barn is on the road to the house, so one walks along the road that winds through forest.  You can see the old rock wall where the early settlers cleared this land and planted it.  Rock walls like this one are frequently seen in Maine woods–reminders of another era.

The gardens around the house were quite lovely.  Here’s my favorite shot of delphiniums against the sky:

Marshall 4

Fields near the house were planted to potatoes–which make a beautiful, richly colored green plant that has blooms.

Turkey Tracks: Gardens in the Watershed: Atkinson/Stich Successional Garden

Turkey Tracks:  August 21, 2013

Successional Garden of Bo Atkinson and Alda Stich

The Atkinson/Stich Successional Garden has been forty-two years in the making.  Bo builds the alternative structures and Alda creates the fragrant perennial flower collections–fields of them.   A friend told me Alda did all the flowers for one of her children’s wedding–and that they were lovely.  Alda pioneered regional sales of fragrant perennial flower collections.

Out on the road, Bo has put up a sign that attempts to explain his structures:

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And here is the whimsical outer wall on the road through which the visitor passes:

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I wish my grandchildren had been with me for this garden visit.  They, as I did, would have loved it:

Atkinson-Stich

Here’s the view of the house, which sits just beyond the wall:

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I loved this curved woodwork.

And:

Atkinson-Stich 4

The back of the house has a grape-vine covered verandah that is cool and inviting–especially on the very hot day when we came to this garden.  People had gathered there to visit and enjoy one another.

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This garden is designed to work with nature, not against it.  And Bo’s structures attempt the same goal.  Here is the building to the right of the house where seedlings are nurtured and protected:

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Both Bo and Alda work to encourage local bird, frog and beneficial insect habitats.  There was a small pond with an arching bridge that led to a structure on the left side of the property.  Paths snaked through Alda’s fields of flowers.  I left feeling that these folks were living in concert with their surroundings–and that whatever they did to the land were attempts to enhance its natural habits.