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| Blue chicory borders the roadsides leading to Long Creek Herbs. |
Today was our annual Garden Open House. We were really pleased to have readers of this blog, FaceBook followers and folks who ready my bi-weekly newspaper columns come to visit. Those who came earliest were treated to the sky-blue "hedges" of chicory. This view, from inside my truck, above, doesn't do justice to the bright blue flowers. There are 6 miles of chicory in bloom each morning, both sides of the road.
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| The Herb Shop. |
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| Front door to shop. |
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| Inside the Herb Shop |
The Herb Shop has been remodeled since last year's Open House. Those visitors who came last year got to see the changes. Everyone got a preview of some of our new products that aren't in our catalogs yet.
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| Old Amish Formula to stop Acid Reflux in one of our new products this year. |
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| We had lots of our No-Itch formula on hand. I make this in small batches every year. |
But the day was really about visiting. We had gardeners from as far away as Texas. Some came from Mansfield, Shell Knob, Kimberling City and other Missouri towns, as well as gardeners from several towns in Arkansas. The Springfield Herb Club, a great group of folks, were well represented with several folks as well as long time friends from surrounding towns. People toured the garden, asked questions, traded information, took pictures, made notes and spent time sitting on the Herb Shop porch and drinking cold-pressed mint tea and lavender cookies. Those who climbed the steps under the bell tower got this view, below.
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| The driveway was full all day, people coming and going. |
The garden was never crowded, people were spread out all day, starting with photographers and art guild folks arriving at 8:30 and others coming in the afternoon. It was a full day of garden fun and a whole lot of people!
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| Nina holding Molly. |
Molly, one of our 2 Jack Russels, held court and made sure everything was running smoothly.
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| By late afternoon the garden pathways were empty of visitors and I turned the sprinklers on. |
We're dry here, it's taking constant watering to keep the garden looking good and producing.
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| Books in bay window inside Herb Shop. |
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| Herbal Nail Fungus Soak. |
It was a great day for us, getting to visit with lots of gardeners, see old friends and meet new ones and just generally getting to talk gardening. The cookies got eaten, the cold-pressed mint tea was drained and it was great fun having everyone visit. The Herb Shop is only open for special occasions like today, and for groups that reserve well in advance. Otherwise you can find us on-line at
Long Creek Herbs. Look for our new products in the next few weeks, along with our best sellers like
Herbal Nail Fungus Soak,
Arkansas Permanent Stone Nail Files and our
books.
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| Late afternoon in the garden. |
Your gardens and shop are fabulous and I would love to visit some day.
ReplyDeleteI wished I lived closer. I'd love to pay you a visit!
ReplyDeleteHi, Jim! Looks like a lovely open house. I live nearby and for the past few years have viewed your open house blog entry with dismay... I would love to know when they're held so that I could stop by and visit your gardens in person. Where do I need to sign my name/email/etc so that I can hear about it ahead of time?
ReplyDeleteHi Kim,
ReplyDeleteI always publicize our open house in my newspaper columns, which run in 17 newspapers around the Ozarks, including Stone County Gazette, Berryville papers, etc. It's always listed in my Ozarks Gardening blog, which is where all of my newspaper columns for all of the newspapers appears. Additionally I posted it in 5 of the area garden groups on Facebook including Ozarks Gardeners and others. I really do try to get the word out every year. I'm sorry you missed getting the information, would have loved for you to visit.
Jim
I love you shop! nice garden too. Great job!
ReplyDelete