After a spell of cold, wet weather, as sunshine returned to the Hudson Valley, the clean, green scent of sorrel rose from the soil in Joan Redmond and Susan Crossley’s Pine Plains garden. Raised beds brimming with greens, strawberries, and lettuces formed a patchwork of green within the couple’s old farmstead, where fruit trees bloomed and birds darted between raspberry canes. “We spend time out here every day,” said Redmond. “It’s nonstop. It’s fun. I love it.”
The couple bought the property in 1990. At the time, the land was wildly overgrown and the house verged on derelict. “It was a disaster,” said Crossley. But they saw promise in the hollow, and over decades of renovation and cultivation, transformed it into a vibrant homestead.
“It was in the same family for over 200 years,” said Redmond. “We were told this garden was their vegetable garden, and the soil here is just beautiful.”
The couple grows everything from sorrel and Swiss chard to shelling peas, asparagus, and sweet corn. A succession of fruits — strawberries, then raspberries, then blueberries — ripen across the season. Inside the beds, annual zinnias grow in rows of red, coral, and white. “I always do three,” said Crossley. “And if I go out to meet someone for drinks, I take a bouquet.”
Some plants, like their strawberries, were carried from a previous garden in Philadelphia. Others, like rhubarb, were inherited. “That was here when we moved,” said Crossley. “It’s survived every winter. I don’t think you can kill a rhubarb plant.”
Nearby, a small orchard offers pears, apples, cherries, plums, and peaches — though late frosts sometimes threaten the harvest. One heirloom pear variety, long considered inedible, now finds new purpose: “They’re called perry pears,” said Redmond. “Last year, someone from a cider house in Hillsdale came to harvest them. I’m excited to try the cider.”
Beyond the cultivated beds of the garden, Redmond is restoring native habitat on a parcel of more than 20 acres across the road, also part of the original farm. “There were invasive honeysuckle bushes taller than me,” she said. Now, winterberry, viburnum, serviceberry, elderberry, and young oaks take root. “My vision is to add to what’s here — for it to mature into a kind of hedgerow that’s good for wildlife.”
They’ve placed the land under conservation easement with the Dutchess Land Conservancy, ensuring that it can’t be developed further.
The land holds memory. A worn maple by the walkway may date back to Thomas Jefferson’s presidency, the couple says. When Redmond measured its girth, she estimated it had been planted over 200 years ago. “It’s been through everything,” she said.
Joan and Susan’s Top Three Gardening Tips
- Use raised beds
- Make compost
- Plant asparagus and rhubarb
This article is part of our ongoing series, A Walk Through the Garden, which highlights private gardens across Pine Plains, Ancram, Gallatin, Milan, and Stanford. To share your garden or recommend a neighbor’s, email editor@newpineplainsherald.org.
