Last weekend, the Garden Conservancy held an open garden day in the Boston Area. There were two gardens on the tour, and after visiting them both, I have so much to share about each of them with you. The Clock Barn Farm and Garden in Carlisle, MA, was one of the best gardens I have ever seen. It was a place that made me both completely envious and inspired to create the same feel at my own home. The best part was this – a flower-drying shed – a real haven for any gentleperson farmer-gardener.
The Drying barn was my favorite place. The drying racks (they are built-in and tilted, presumably for better drying) were filled with statice, celosia, baby’s breath, and other dried flowers and seeds. Standing in this barn, surrounded by all the rustic implements of an excellent and long-standing gardener and the harvested fruits of their labor — it was a vision that really could turn anyone into a farmer.
All sorts of garden fertilizers, feed, and seeds were stored in these aluminum garbage pales. In my own barn, I use recycled cat litter containers that I have painted brown to not be so ugly, but I have to say, while I love my recycled boxes, there is something about the beauty of aluminum against the patina of an old barn that is so charming and pretty, that I already bought two small cans today at my local hardware store.
My barn has a dirt floor, and I had thought I would have a concrete pad poured to clean it up, but now I think that would be simply blasphemous – it really needs a wood floor. I am not sure how to go about this…adding a floor that is….but I just want nothing more than to re-create the ambiance of this barn at my own home.