Three Garden Crews with Distinct Intentions

Three Garden Crews with Distinct Intentions

Our acreage provides us with the space to practice a wonderfully complete Biodynamic agricultural system—one that includes livestock manure and horn silica from our farm, and open-pollinated seeds for our wholesome vegetables and healing herbs.

The people who live in Camphill Village rely on our gardens for nutrition in our homes and Café meals. And our crew members who work these gardens through the growing season experience wellness via daily exercise and fulfilling teamwork.

In all, there are three types of gardens in our community: our Healing Plant Garden, with its remarkable and ever-changing herb and flower beds; our upper and lower vegetable gardens that feed our community; and the seed gardens operated by Turtle Tree Seed.

There’s a tremendous amount of specialized knowledge at play in each of these gardens, all of which have been waiting to spring into action—just like their crews—through the winter.

Seeds to Plant

Turtle Tree Seed packages, sells, and donates some 300 varieties of seed across the country. This crew needs to ensure that the vegetables, herbs, and flowers they germinate are cared for well past the point of being edible or ideal for display—all the while protected from pests, shade, drought, and more for many months.

We’re trying to give our peas support so they can climb up and have support without falling.

- Bill McIlroy

Bill McIlroy and Oliver Reynolds-Scheel set up fencing to support a crop of peas.

Alec Baresich and Flavia Aguilar transplant lettuce in a Turtle Tree Seed garden.

I work here in the greenhouse. I make all the plants, like this one.

- Evan Young

Evan Young transplants seedlings into a larger tray in a Turtle Tree Seed greenhouse.

Evan Young and Alec Baresich tend to some parched petunias.

A crop of lettuce in Turtle Tree’s Brookledge garden.

Food to Eat

From the first bit of spring lettuce served in our Café to the ripe tomatoes we stew and can at the height of summer for winter spaghetti, our vegetable gardeners are growing with our meals and soil in mind.

We hope to shape the beds with care in springtime, and we hope to add fertility to the beds while maintaining the integrity of the soil.

- Peter Swiatek

Zach Gastman and Mishka Zuckerman use broadforks to turn the garden soil.

Adam Smith prepares to place onion starts along a garden bed.

I enjoy planting onions and I enjoy planting leeks and I enjoy putting leaf mulch on the onions.

- Elisabeth Cooper

Elisabeth Cooper inserts the onion starts that Adam left into the soil.

We also grow vegetables in our greenhouse all year ‘round, like now we have cucumbers, bell peppers, and tomatoes that the gardeners will harvest. And we have a big walk-in refrigerator that we can put them in in spring. The coffee shop and café use the lettuce greens as part of the lunch and some of the other vegetables that we grow as well. In the fields, we also have flowers for bees to enjoy them and other varieties of vegetables.

- Emily Wallach

Elizabeth Chalakani and Emily Wallach transplant lettuce in the lower vegetable garden.

Plants to Heal

The flowers and herbs we grow in the Healing Plant Garden are destined for transformation—into healing salves and tinctures, aromatic teas with different wellness properties, and flavorful culinary herb mixes. The crew in the Healing Plant Garden spends a great deal of time focusing on compost and weed suppression while creating a peaceful environment for people to amble and pollinators passing through.

Our aim is now to try to catch up with nature. We mulch the garden to protect it. We hold the moisture in, but we also protect it from erosion.

- Andreas Fontein

Andreas Fontein writes in his notebook near a bed of sage.

In spring I sort of like to feel Mother Nature at its best. It's like finding a new beginning.

- David Wallace

David Wallace applies a hay and manure mixture to garden pathways for weed suppression and nutrition.

Kim Warga turns the soil with a broadfork.

Amanda Balducci delivers leaf mulch to a garden bed.

Michael Coughlin pours wood chips for weed suppression and moisture retention.

Sarah Bomba weeds a lavender bed.

The leaves Hamed-Ali Momenzada is applying to a garden bed are raked and collected by our Estate Crew in the fall.