Hi, my name is goldenoakfarm and I live in the Connecticut River valley in Western Massachusetts. I am in Zone 4a for growing season and this valley has the 7th best soil in the world, known as Hadley loam.
The first plants I grew were when my husband and I moved into our first apartment in the autumn of 1974. It had enormous southern windows. I had giant wandering jews, and when the insulated curtains were pulled over them, it looked like people were standing behind them. They grew to 5’ long and were at least 18” in diameter. I also had coleus inside and they grew to 3’ high and wide. I have no photos of these gorgeous plants as we didn’t have a camera back then.
We moved to another apartment with big sunny windows and I grew giant Swedish ivy and many other plants there.
In 1978 we moved into a rented house and I had my first outdoor garden. It was all flowers. I always had lots of house plants and they moved with me.
This is my oldest plant. My husband’s grandmother gave it to me for Christmas in 1974. It’s moved all over, even to Florida and back.
When we moved to the farm in 1983, I started flowerbeds. When I think of the early ones, these iris at the corner of the house are what I remember.
The farm is 8.67 acres and back then the yard was just under ½ acre. It was completely fenced in and there were a lot of gardens along the fence.
I had not grown plants before meeting my husband. As a child, I would wander the local area in season picking wildflowers that I would put in my bedroom.
My mother started a vegetable garden when I was in my teens but I never had anything to do with it.
But after my son was born in 1991, I put in this small 12’ x 30’ vegetable garden the summer of 1992. It was just for fresh vegs in the summer.
My mom had moved to Connecticut and she came across Ruth Stout’s mulching method and had been doing that. So I tried it on this garden and every vegetable garden since then has been mulched with hay and fenced.
The veg gardens expanded and I now have 2: the Big garden, which grew out the above, is now 42’ x 60’ and the Small garden just north of it is 30’ x 36’. In 2016 I needed an herb garden close by for growing herbs, etc for the layers so I put in a 37’ x 50’ New Herb garden.
The yard has now grown to nearly ¾ of an acre with the addition of 2 sets of Little Trees and area for another garden, 50’ x 40’. This garden hasn’t been created yet.
The flower beds around the yard increased for a while and there were 36 at one time. I’m down to 25 now.
The gardens now are for a year’s supply of vegetables and herbs. In the past I did sell the extra in a farm stand my husband had built.
New South garden , looking east May 2025
My favorite gardening is the flowerbeds because I don’t have to preserve food from them. I consider the veg gardens work. But the New Herb garden gathers the most attention when people come to the farm.
My biggest success here on the farm has been improving the soil in the veg gardens by slowly balancing the soil nutrients. This soil had been continuously farmed since 1670, most often with tobacco or corn and had been severely depleted of many crucial nutrients. I’ve been adding them back since 2010 and have finally reached a stage where the plants are healthy enough to fight off most pests and diseases.
The pastures of the farm were greatly improved with careful rotational grazing. This improved the soil and the diversity throughout. I wish I could get the animals back as without them, the pastures are degrading.
I don’t really have a favorite plant, but I had lilacs and lily of the valley for my wedding, so those are the ones I look for in the springtime.
The biggest lesson I’ve learned is that each plant has conditions it prefers and if you meet those conditions, they will flourish with abandon.