Moss Valley Farm Tour at Home of P. Allen Smith

 We traveled to Moss Valley Farm outside Little Rock, Arkansas in May 2021.  It was on my list of places to go once we could get out and about with the pandemic.  Below are a few of the pictures that I am sharing of the gardens.  Along with the garden, there was a tour of the chicken farm, him home and also a guest house.  I think you will enjoy them all.  However for this blog I am only including the garden.  It was breath takingly beautiful!  Enjoy!

We arrived at 8:45 for open gates at 9:00 a.m.

When we entered the gates and rove down to the farm, parked and entered the  tour, we went thru a beautiful displayed table in the tent where we would later enjoy a wonderful lunch!  Also, P. Allen's recipe for Buttermilk Pie was served for dessert and was absolutely delicious.

The first path taken was down towards the Arkansas River which is at the bottom of his property.  The path led us by many, many beautiful plants, but the view was so spectacular I didn't take many photos of the plants here.  

At the bottom of the path/hill we arrived at the back of these pink roses behind this brick/stone barrier with the path coming out to the front from each side.

The flanking tree roses were absolutely beautiful!

Here we are enjoying the beauty! 

In front of the river after we pass the roses was a beautiful brick gothic looking gazebo with a gorgeous statue in front.  You go off the path in front of the roses and step into a round of lawn that faces the gazebo.  

Please excuse my husband's hand print in the above picture.

The gazebo was absolutely gorgeous with ivy growing up around it.  It was nice and cool inside the shade.  The statue was beautiful also.  

The entry gates to the gazebo garden were so spectacular iron with some trailing vine on it.  

These were sweet new friends that we met along the way.

Just having fun in the beautiful garden.

The next path to the right of the gazebo takes you to the vegetable garden. Or maybe we saw that first.  A little confusing as there was so much to see.  Loved the wrought iron obelisk here below.  

Though this was an interesting idea for a raised bed.

Along the way were beautiful Iris' and other gorgeous perennials and succulents

Loved this wooden obelisk also. May have that one built.

Now the path to the house!  Oh so was looking forward to that.

On each side of the house are these small little houses. This one had bee keeping supplies in it.  They were like outside garden huts that would store seeds, etc.  

Beautiful trees all over the property. This one can been seen outside the kitchen window of the house.

Now the path is approaching the house.  the red roof that we are approaching is another building.  It's an outside kitchen and has all the equipment for outside eating and cooking, etc. 

Along the path to the house you can see the Arkansas river to the right.

Another obelisk I simply loved.  I think I have a problem!

I don't have a picture of the ouside of this little outdoor kitchen, but it's just like the art studio you will see in the following pics below.  Here is the inside of the outdoor kitchen/eating area. I have seen P. Allen demo in this kitchen on TV.  You may have also.

Eating area in same kitchen.

Looking up at the house with the outdoor kitchen to your left and art studio to your right you will see the porches on the first floor.

This alcove between the bushes goes under the house goes to the basement area below. 

This is the house to the right looking up at the main house.  This is the art studio.  

No a great pic of inside but you get the jest.

This is a little better.

There is so much property that you couldn't expect it all to be cut so to the right of the house is a field that looks like this.  I thought it was very clever way to have a focal point when looking out.

How to the main event....The House......

If you know anything about this gorgeous home it was built less than 20 years ago to look like an old farmhouse.  It is spectacular and a sight to be seen.  I love the orange signature color rockers and chairs on the front porch.

There is a peak inside.  You will have to wait on my next post to see the inside of the house.  But it is worth waiting for.  So join my blog and keep up with when I publish to see the next upcoming blog post. You won't want to miss it, I promise!

Please return, it's really fun to share with you.  Remember you can to to his home.  Tickets run about $100.00 per person and include lunch.  the link is below to register.

https://pallensmith.com/

You won't regret it!

Our Garden July 2021

 I hope you enjoy our garden pics as you view through them.  This garden is 30 years old and we live on 1.3 acres.  This is only our back yard and it has many years of hard toil/work done in it.  My husband and I love to garden and see beautiful plants live and thrive.  

The pic below is outside of our garage door.  You enter onto a gravel patio off the walkway.  We developed this about 8 years ago and have added a lot to it since then.  there is a brick fireplace here also that is built out of 1899 year old bricks acquired from a friend. We enjoy this fireplace in the fall, spring and winter. I think it's in one of the pictures below.

This is a pic of a cement urn filled with inpatients that is placed in the middle of a bed of ground cover.  Notice the old tools in the urn.  

Saddens myself that I can't remember the name of this plant below.  It loves the sun and has really done well this summer.

This limelight here is only a couple of years old.  It has really bloomed well this year.  I hope it just gets bigger and bigger. The grandchildren's playground is behind it.

The garden is doing so well.  We put this in last summer 2020 during the pandemic.  We love the picket fence around it.  We have planted four above ground boxes. Two have garden vegetables with squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, banana peppers, and onions. The other outside two boxes are full of flowers and blueberries.  Some are perennials and some are annuals.  We have 4 blueberry bushes and look forward to what they may do next summer.  Even though the garden is in the sun, the caladiums have really turned out well.

This is the perennial side of the garden, most have bloomed and gone, but looking forward to next spring and what the pollinators will do with this garden.

Last fall we had a porch built on our back.  Here are a few of the construction pics so you have an idea of how and where the porch sits. This was right before the side railings were completed and the roof shingles were put on.  And not painted of course.

Here is the construction so you can see how it sits in the yard right off the path of our fireplace.

The view from the back of the yard looking head on at the house.

Now looking out into the garden. We have a beautiful view! 

This is our porch patio that sits outside our porch at the den door.  After we installed the porch the grass from all the building didn't survive, so this spring we had a brick mason put in a nice little patio for us.  The two squares on each side of the path will be landscaped.  We plan to plant monkey grass around it and then down the side walk we will have Little Gem Boxwoods line the paths on each side. The color looks different but it's not.  The sun had not dried the bricks after the rain near the porch yet. In the middle of the squares there will be potted Nikko Blue Hydrangeas with pine straw in the squares.

Here is a shot of the Autumn Daisies that I moved to the garden this spring.  they have spread and really shown pretty this summer. 

This bed runs on the left side of the porch an is really mostly shade.  It's done well this year but plan to plant a few Camilla's here this fall.

This is to the right side of the porch and this Limelight Hydrangea is about 15 years old and produces every year.  

This is a view outside our bay window of the fireplace and gravel patio.  

Look at the Begonias here.  They have just filled in so nicely this summer. The ones in the pot are in with the Meyer Lemon Tree that is about 10 years old.

Well thanks for visiting our garden with us.  It was enjoyable filling you in on our small/large projects and sharing details with you.  I hope you all are enjoying your summer and having fun in the sun as you garden along side the rest of US garden lovers.  Till next time.....