Jefferson Farm & Gardens offering open house events

Though its official opening is still a year away, Jefferson Farm & Gardens, a new 67-acre agricultural education project on New Haven Road, will present programming and open-house events this spring and summer.

Though the open houses are public, some of the planned programs are reserved for special groups and, therefore, cater to those groups’ particular needs, said Rob Myers, executive director of Jefferson Institute, the not-for-profit contemporary-agriculture-promoting research center that created Jefferson Farm.

“We’ve installed a number of educational field and garden demonstrations…and are looking forward to showing some of these to visitors in open houses later this summer,” Myers said. “Other visitor attractions will be added over the next several months as we prepare for our full opening in spring of 2009.”

Among the projects the staff will work on this year is the 700-foot, terraced Jefferson Garden, designed as a smaller version of Thomas Jefferson’s garden at Monticello outside Charlottesville, Va.

Staffers will plant more than 200 varieties of vegetables, herbs, herbaceous fruits, edible flowers and grains this year. Most of the produce raised will be donated to the Central Missouri Food Bank.

Heart of Missouri Master Gardeners help plant seedlings in the native wildflower meadow at Jefferson Farm

Jefferson Farm & Gardens also will encourage area gardeners to donate their excess produce or to purchase fresh food at local farmers’ markets for distribution through the food bank. The garden will be one of four drop-off points for the campaign. Contributions from April 2 through Oct. 15.

Jefferson Farm open houses will be offered from late July through September, typically on Saturdays. Specific dates will be posted on the Web site at www.jeffersonfarm.org as they are scheduled.

In addition to Jefferson Garden, the open houses will highlight 12 demonstration fields of major and minor field crops, including alfalfa, amaranth, canola, corn, flax, oats, pearl millet, sesame, sorghum, soybeans, sunflowers and wheat. A visitors’ day might be scheduled in late July or early August to showcase sunflowers, Myers said.

The project’s fruit areas and the 50-tree orchard also will be accessible. Fifty fruit trees—including nectarine, paw-paw and persimmon, among others were planted last spring.

Seeded in December 2006, the wildflower meadow is expected to produce some blooms this season.

Open house visitors may see purple coneflower, black-eyed Susan, butterfly weed, lanceleaf coreopsis and New England aster.

Summertime visitors will experience the results of bulbs planted last fall in the daffodil and daylily walk near Jefferson Garden. Myers anticipates offering a daylily viewing this summer, probably in July.

The open houses will also spotlight native aquatic plants in and around the 7-acre lake.

The Harry C. Minor Genetic Diversity Garden will include about 20 varieties of corn, sunflowers and other crops to illustrate techniques breeders can use to improve plants.

The facility will host a few groups this year. A limited number of youth educational programs will be offered in late summer and early fall, the director said. A schedule will be posted on the Web site as soon as the specifics are determined.

Once fully operational, Jefferson Farm & Gardens will offer tours, specialized classes for novice and experienced gardeners, workshops and special events.

Farm & Gardens proposed timeline:

• Jefferson Farm & Gardens to open in spring 2009, and organizers expect to attract 30,000 visitors in the first year.
• MFA Children’s Barn, now under construction, is expected to be completed May 1, 2008. Farm animals will be brought to the facility in June.
• Construction on the Shelter Insurance Pavilion, which began March 12, will be finished in April.
• Groundbreaking for the visitor education complex takes place this spring, with construction beginning in June. Work on a permeable parking lot for the complex begins in May.
• Work on the Children’s Garden begins in early summer.
• Construction of the Discovery Stream area begins in June. Designed for wading and exploration, it will be located between the Children’s Garden and the barn.