Welcome to Far Reaches Farm!
Sue Milliken & Kelly Dodson, proprietors
Directions:
It's simple—head into Port Townsend and take a left on Sheridan just past the QFC. You will go 3/4 of a mile and find a stop sign on 19th. Go straight through that until you come to the next stop sign which is Hastings. Turn left and go 1/3 mile and you will see the 1818 polka dot mailbox and turn right into our driveway and park out in the field watching out for Canela and Callie, our nursery overseers, who are brilliant in all things except cars. Please come only on our open days or by appointment. We'll have sandwich board signs out on our open days.
What’s Growing On...
August 17th finds us recovering from a hot (sales & temperature!) weekend at Judith Jone's Fronderosa Frolic in Gold Bar. The crowds were down a bit due to the scorching heat but we still ended up with a gratifyingly small amount to bring home so thanks to all of you who came to the sale. All the vendors really brought beautiful plants and it was an impressive assemblage. We once again met our goal of selling more than we bought and we shopped hard!
The presale shopping strategy by the vendors is quite interesting. All the intensity of the floor of the stock market but wrapped in feigned casualness and disinterest. Well, except for Nathan from Cistus who was just making piles. We favor doing a quick reccy and then going back and picking out a few critical must-haves. Then we wander through periodically adding to the stash. Others favor the systematic vendor by vendor sweep and grab. Others casually wait until the evening or early morning when no one is at the tables and shop in the cover of half light. Others profess not needing another new plant yet on loading up to go home it is obvious that they have a flat or two that is not their own yet no one remembers seeing them shopping. Obviously there are tricks to this we still have to learn. And then there is the out and out trading which is always fun.
We must thank Sean and Nathan from Cistus and April from Plethora of Primulas for bringing us some very special goodies and to Jerry of Courting Frogs, the Grand Vizier of Carnies, for parting with a few flats of Sarracenias to sell at the nursery here. And special thanks to customers Greg, Michael, Carmen and Linda who brought us very cool plants and seeds from their gardens. Growing and sharing is a big part of the fun of gardening.
The Crocosmia collection is truly jamming but there is much sorting and relabeling to do as one of the supposedly reputable sources in the UK apparently is little concerned about accuracy. Fortunately we can figure this out but we can foresee huge mislabeling problems internationally as a result of this one individual. So annoying.
Our first bit of writing for Fine Gardening is in the current issue with a profile of Cardiocrinum giganteum. It was fun to do and they are nice folks to work with. We'll have another profile coming out early next year in the magazine.
We are continuing to do some more planting in the bog garden in hopes of making it worthy of housing the new large bronze sculpture by David Eisenhour. David and Heidi delivered this epic piece titled 'Ibex' the other day and we are so pleased to be temporary custodians of fine art that speaks to us. 'Ibex' is a true-to-life representation of a Devil's Claw seedpod from the Southwest and is a magical alchemy of seed and horn, life and death, promise and fulfillment. It is for sale and while we would be pleased to part with it to a collector, we selfishly hope to enjoy this fabulous garden art for awhile longer. See www.eisenhoursculpture.com in the bio-narrative portfolio.
A lot of folks ask where we get our manure mulch which we use on our beds. It is from Ben Smith at Maple View Farm in Sequim, 360-460-9499. You can pick it up at the farm or he will deliver 15-18 yds. We don't know how far he will go but he does go to Bainbridge a lot. Ben is a good guy and a careful truck driver. Tell him we sent you!
If you are across the water in the Seattle-Tacoma area, we hear that Mike Vukich delivers good manure and can be reached on his cell at 206-271-6490 or 253-939-0627.
For the latest news, read Kelly's blog...
We're glad you stopped by to view what's new. Come back soon!
—Kelly & Sue