CARIBOU — Farmhouse Greenhouse owners Matt and Jenny Coon have everything a gardener needs this summer for a garden that’s beautiful, functional and low maintenance (as they have plenty of plants designed to help growers keep bugs at bay).
Aroostook Republican photo/Natalie Bazinet
Run by husband and wife green thumbs Matt and Jenny Coon, Farmhouse Greenhouse has everything to get growers of all sizes greening up their gardens.
While customers won’t find the same-old impatiens or geraniums at Farmhouse Greenhouse, they will find a variety of vegetable seedlings, herbs and perennials that make beautiful gardens for beginners and experts alike.
Aesthetic quality aside, pruning a garden comprised of such functional plants often results in putting food on the table.
“You can have an edible, beautiful garden,” Coon assured.
Even the prettiest plants right now come with kitchen applications; currently the chives are flowering their purple poofy flowers and, as the Coons have observed, customers tend to buy what’s blooming.
For beginners, herbs are a great way to dig into gardening and chives are a hearty and almost iron-willed plant.
“You hit it with a weed whacker and it multiplies,” Matt described, half-jokingly.
Matt and Jenny have years of experience and know-how when it comes to plants, and one thing they’ve learned is that the closer herbs are to the kitchen, the more prone chefs are to use them.
“The more handy they are, the more likely you are to use them,” Jenny said.
Enter Farmhouse Greenhouses’ container gardens.
Perfect for a patio, sunny windowsill or picnic table, these serving-bowl sized containers are filled with a plethora of herbs to season all sorts of dishes.
They even have a special pizza planter that grows everything you need to make pizza sauce — including the tomatoes.
As Jenny explained, the great thing about these mini-gardens is their portability; if downpours are forecast for the entire week, gardeners can pick up the planters and move them to a less soggy location — like under an awning.
“They’re portable, and pretty, too,” Jenny said.
Resourceful, hearty and functional — the plants found at Farmhouse Greenhouse are a perfect Aroostook fit particularly since they’re grown and raised in Caribou. Some of Farmhouse Greenhouse’s perennials even come from prize-winning parent plants, grown by Farmhouse Greenhouse co-owner and Jenny’s mom, the late Roberta Blackstone.
Roberta and Jenny started Farmhouse Greenhouse in 2005, and it’s been a family business ever since.
While Farmhouse Greenhouse’s plants end up strewn about the region in various home gardens, the Coons observed that their cucumber seedlings are finding new homes particularly quickly this year.
To keep the popular plants safe, the Coons sell plants that keep the bugs away like their vibrant marigolds and prolific mint.
“[Mint] helps keep ants away and the more leaves pick off of it, the more it grows,” they explained.
For those who opt out of gardening this year, they can still reap the benefits of fresh home-grown produce.
Farmhouse Greenhouse’s fresh veggies are expected to be available for purchase at the Caribou Farmers’ Market come mid-summer and available veggies are expected to include everything customers need for a just-picked summer salad, with sun-ripened fresh fruits and berries for dessert.
As the Caribou Farmer’s Market is off to another successful season, Farmhouse Greenhouse does most of its business during market hours on Wednesday, from 3-6 p.m. and on Saturdays from 8:30 a.m. until noon at 159 Bennett Drive.
