Tour This Family Vegetable Garden Packed With Rustic Charm

This small family farm in northwest Georgia features an interactive vegetable and fruit garden, primitive guest cabin and a working blacksmith shop. Take a stroll through the grounds and snag some ideas for your next family gardening project.

July 17, 2020

By: Brian Patrick Flynn

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Photo By: Flynnside Out

The Garden

Located 28 miles west of Atlanta, this charming Winston, Georgia property has brought the joy of gardening to three generations of family. The arbor, seen here, was originally built for growing muscadine grapes which the family turned into jam. Currently, it's an ideal spot on the farm to enjoy lunches or watch the sunset.

Community Effort

Designed for the whole family to pitch in and work together, the garden has a community feel and is divided into zones that serve different purposes.

Lush Entry

Two mature sky pencil hollies flank the garden's corrugated metal entry gate, creating a whimsical welcome.

Summer Chores

When the weather warms up, Amelia (one of the youngest family members) is tasked with helping to grow beds of vegetables that include tomatoes, banana peppers, cucumbers, eggplant and zucchini.

SEE MORE: Vegetable Gardening for Beginners: 16 Tips and Tricks

Garden Shed Upgrade

After relocating what was a playhouse from the back of the property to the front, this small structure was transformed into a garden shed and plumbed with a hose hookup. Skylights and windows were added to create a greenhouse effect.

SEE MORE: 20 Great Garden Sheds and Potting Benches You'll Want in Your Backyard

Plenty of Light

The garden shed is packed with function. While the outside is equipped for watering plants and cleaning up vessels and messy projects, the interior is soaked with natural light that serves as a greenhouse in the colder months. Additionally, the interior is heated, which helps keeps plants alive when Georgia's temperatures dip into the 30s in December and January.

Wash Up

The shed also features an outdoor washing station that allows the family to clean up before heading inside.

Bed of Beets

Adjacent to the red shed is a raised bed filled with beets that Aiden (Amelia's brother) tends with the shared hose.

Strawberry Beds

On the opposite side of the garden, a bed full of strawberries is protected from deer and rabbits thanks to the picket fence.

SEE MORE: 12 Animal Enemies of Your Garden

Fun for All

The perfect size for little hands, industrial metal troughs are installed alongside the planter beds and contain different vegetables such as bell peppers and sweet potatoes.

Shaded Arbor

A shaded arbor in the middle of the garden is ideal for Aiden and Amelia to enjoy summertime snacks and lunches outside.

Fresh Ingredients

With the perfect shaded spot for lunch just 15 feet away, Amelia is tasked with gathering fresh strawberries from the garden for summery salads or after-dinner sweets.

Plant Markers

Aiden and Amelia get a hands-on gardening education thanks to wooden stakes marked with the names of the vegetables growing in each bed.

SEE MORE: 9 Cute Garden Markers That Will Inspire You to Get Planting

Guest House

Built over a span of eight years from 1979 to 1987, a 600-square-foot guest cabin provides a cozy place for guests to stay just steps away from the garden.

Lumber With a Story

The exterior of the cabin is covered in southern yellow pine, heart pine and white oak wood bought from the last steam-powered sawmill in Atlanta in 1979.

Covered Porch

As afternoon showers make their way into the Atlanta area, the rain falling on the aluminum roof of the covered porch creates a soothing sound.

A Welcome Escape

Antique elements such as a metal "welcome" sign, weathered chairs and a screened front door make the guest cabin's porch a sweet spot to sit, sip and relax.

Family Time

On breezy summer days, the back porch of the guest house is an excellent spot to watch kids play in the grass while staying shaded from the sun.

Hobes Hill Forge

In addition to its garden and guest house, the farm has a working blacksmith shop named after a location in James Agee's depression-era book, Let Us Now Praise Famous Men. The exterior is reminiscent of an old-fashioned general store, complete with porch swings and rocking chairs.

Old School Outhouse

The garden also includes a free-standing outhouse that's complete with indoor plumbing and working electricity. This saves everyone trips back and forth to the guest house while working outside in the sun.

Family Goats

Amelia and Aiden's pet goats roam the farm freely, munching on tree bark and mulch.

Sweet Storage

A mix of freestanding structures add function to the community garden. Adjacent to the red garden shed stands another outbuilding covered in pretty shake siding.

Pea Gravel

When the property was developed in the late 1970s, there was only one place to purchase pea gravel in the greater Atlanta area. Between 60 and 80 tons were dropped off next to the road, then spread with a tractor into the prospective areas.