To find out more about our new Butterfly House- Flying Flowers click on the link to the left. Butterflies are flying and waiting for you.

Thanks our visiting our website. If you are in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains of Southwestern Virginia this year, I hope you will stop by the farm and and see us in person.  We are open Thursdays-Sundays 10-5 and will be closed except by appointment during the month of August. We would be pleased to hear from you! Please let us know what your needs and questions are, we will be more than happy to help.

Why not bring your group for a hike, or bring your cameras and take some great wildlife shots?  If your group would like to schedule a visit please go to our "contact us" link to the left.

Please check out the events/class schedule page to help plan your visit, and spend an evening at one of our local B&B's. Click on the accomodations page, see the link to the left, for great places to stay.

Our farm building houses our herbal line of products including soap, lotions and a variety of dried flowers, tea, potpourri and of course, Lavender.                                There are 14 theme gardens and our herb collections: Lavender, Thyme, Oregano and Salvias.

So plan to visit us, sign up for one of our workshops or be sure to join us for one of our special events.

This years Lavender Thyme Festival was on June 26th, 2010. Thanks for the great turnout and hope you will join us next year on June 25th, 2011.

Garlic Thyme will be Oct 9th, 2010 for a full day of garlic and lots of food. For particulars click on the events page, to the left. Mark your calendars and register early, we are presently taking registrations. 

We grow Lavender and we sell Lavender plants, dried bouquets, sachets and bulk Lavender. You can go to our webstore by clicking on the products link, or email me at beagleridge@gmail.com for bulk Lavender. We dry it in the building and the fragrance is so overpowering and we actually open the doors to air it out ( What a complaint-too much Lavender). We have many varities of lavender so we had about 6-8 weeks of bloom time, since they overlap in bloom sequence.

This is Grosso, one of the 14 varieties of Lavender we sell.

Last fall we planted more Lavender on the slope outside the gardens with some help from good friends. We will  plant more shortly and I am so excited for you to see how the plantings are progressing.

Last year we added Gros Bleu, Impress Purple, Royal Purple and Royal Velvet to our list of Lavender Varities. This year we have added Edelweiss, Folgate and Super. Edelweiss is a "sister" of Grosso, it will be a large shrub which blooms white, YES, bright white. Folgate has a dark bloom which holds color well. This planting continues outside the electric fence, since the deer only graze a bit in winter.                                           

If nothing else gardening teaches patience!!!

We are presently scheduling group tours and speaking engaements for lunch and are also scheduling weddings for 2010 and 2011. Ask for a list of programs available and lunch options-yes be sure to come enjoy an herbal lunch in the gardens.

Nestled in a valley of the Blue Ridge Mountains, Beagle Ridge Herb Farm awaits you. Nature is the watchword at Beagle Ridge. Prior to becoming our dream come true our 160 acre property was part of a 2,000 acre hunting preserve. It's pristine beauty is what nurtures us daily and we would like to share it's bounty with you.

Our farm building was the site of the pen raised quail and partridge and the mountains around us are filled with wildlife. We share the farm with deer, turkey, grouse,rabbits, numerous bird species and even black bear. Gardening in this situation is a challenge: however we have encroached upon them so we need to work with them.

This is our tea garden, more pictures are on the picture link for your perusal. Everything in these beds can be used for a tea. Come sip teas and watch the hummingbirds, or birds, and enjoy the quiet.

The remainder of the gardens include a formal walled herbal display garden, a Lavender walk ( check our photo page), Thyme, Oregano and Lavender collections, a pergola which shades our medicinal herbs, a water garden, a Cottage garden,a Wildlife habitat garden, shrub borders with rogusa roses for long season bloom, a Japanese Meditation garden,a Tea Garden and a Gravel/ Mediterranean garden( yes everything is planted in a substance we call "Dirty Rock").The picture below shows the Thyme walk which is in bloom and looks like a persian carpet. All the plants are xeric, which means they can survive with little or no additional watering ( of course that means after being established).

The woodland garden has filled in and looks like it has been there for years. The Viburnums were in full bloom and luckily were not affected by the frost, they will soon have lots of red berries for the birds.

The dry-bed through the woodland helps eliminate a water problem which occurs when we have thunderstorms. We have had quite a bit of rain last year, but we are told we are not out of drought stage! Along this temporary watercourse we have many primroses, ferns, columbines, sweet woodruff and Golden Alexander. The pines were in place and since shade is at a premium in the garden we decided to provide a shady habitat which was lacking in the garden.

We built a raised bed planter with wheelchair accessibility- I call this my Garden for all Ages. After planting it, I have found out how much more enjoyable it was to plant, care for and harvest from it.

The Bee balm is a permanent fixture in the bed but last fall we planted Garlic as a demonstration where the tomatoes usually reside. This simple planter box is just the right height for wheelchairs and at less than 3' wide is accessible on all sides. Come see what we will plant next year. The two legs of the raised planter contain herbs on one side and cutting perennials in the other. 

They say if you will build it they will come, Well if you plant it they will come too.

The Habitat Garden is transformed into a myriad of color and activity. We enjoy a chorus of bird song in the morning and bullfrogs at night. We have resident birds, bunnies and too many species of butterflies to mention. In addition the frogs, fence lizards and toads were doing their job on the insect population.

This is one plant of Grosso, as you can see there is a lot of Lavender which can be harvested from one plant. at maturity, in full bloom this is 6' wide. If this is too large for your space, you can choose from many varieties which are quite a bit smaller. The newly planted Knot garden is in the background of this picture. It was planted with Germander, and Lavender in the summer of 2007 and we had some loses over the winter and it has now been replanted with Gray Santolina.

The slate wall surrounding the Formal garden, was an anniversary present from my husband. This creates a microclimate around the herbs, protecting them from the biting winter winds. All our hardscape( fences, walls, rock paths, etc.)helps absorb the heat of the sun and then release it at night and as such we are able to grow plants which normally could not survive in this zone. The Spanish Lavender, in the picture, is a great example of that- normally hardy to zone 8, it has thrived in our zone 6 climate due to the optimal drainage and lots of reflective heat from the stone and the slate wall. We get some winter kill, but once we do a bit of pruning it comes into bloom in April and will bloom on an off most of the summer.
The hardscape also lends a scupltural addition to the gardens. When the plants are dormant,the bones of the garden are visible and that is a great time to do planning for the next year.

The playhouse in the children's garden inspires future gardeners- how better to introduce a child to the joys of "digging in the dirt"? Children of all ages seem to gravitate to the Children's garden. Last year we let it sit fallow as we decided what changes to make. We had considered a garden railway but have now decided to make it a bit more hands on! Come see what changes we have made every year. We have added a patio to the playhouse and moved the compost pile and the insectary has been a great learning tool.

Be sure to check out our progresss either by visiting at the farm or on this web site.