Visit Us in Petoskey Michigan - 8591 Horton Bay Road
Demonstration Gardens at the Farm
DEMONSTRATION GARDENS FOR HANDS-ON FARMING INSPIRATION
Kitchen Herb Garden, Tree Guild, Hedgerows, Pollinator Garden, Food Forest, Visiting the Gardens.
Kitchen Herb Garden
We are die-hard foodies at Horton Bay Heritage Farm, and Northern Michigan is rich with local growers who inspire everyone from home cooks to award-winning chefs. Fresh herbs can take everyday meals to the next level, and a kitchen herb garden is one of the easiest ways to bring more flavor, beauty, and usefulness into daily life.
A small, accessible space can provide a steady supply of fresh culinary and medicinal herbs close to home. A kitchen herb garden does not have to be large to be worthwhile — even a patio planter or a few containers can be surprisingly productive. With regular harvesting, the herb garden can provide fresh herbs for cooking throughout the season, along with enough to dry and enjoy long after the garden has gone to sleep for the year.
Tree Guild
The tree guild demonstrates how a fruit tree can be surrounded by companion plants that support soil health, invite pollinators, improve nutrient cycling, and contribute to the long-term health of the whole planting. It’s a simple but powerful way to show how permaculture-inspired design works around a central tree.
Because a tree guild can be created with just one tree and a few well-chosen underplantings, it offers a very approachable way to apply food forest ideas even in smaller spaces. The result is a planting that can be both beautiful and productive, offering benefits for the gardener as well as food, shelter, and habitat for wildlife.
See what trees and shrubs are avialable in our plant nursery now
Hedgerows on a Farm
Going into our third year as of 2026, the hedgerows are among the more established demonstration spaces on the farm and serve as a strong example of design with both beauty and purpose in mind. Created as working windbreaks around the cut flower gardens, these plantings meet an important farm need while offering far more than shelter alone.
The hedgerows also provide fruit, herbs, useful plant materials, and valuable habitat for birds, pollinators, and other beneficial wildlife. As they continue to mature, they demonstrate how a practical farm feature can become a productive, beautiful, and ecologically rich part of the landscape.
Pollinator Gardens
This pollinator garden is in its earliest stage, and we’re excited to invite others to follow along as it begins to grow. Right now, the space is still a blank slate, with the first plants going in spring 2026, but it is being created to support bees, butterflies, and other beneficial insects while bringing color and life to the farm.
As the garden fills in over time, it will serve as a demonstration of how pollinator-friendly planting can be applied to home gardens, homesteads, and farm landscapes. Designed using our ecological farming approach, this space will help strengthen biodiversity, improve habitat, and add natural beauty to the landscape.
Food Forest Gardening
The food forest will be the crown jewel of our demonstration gardens, and we would love for our community to follow along from the very beginning as this special space comes to life. Food forests take vision, patience, and a lot of work up front, but once established, they are designed to become resilient, low-maintenance, and richly productive for decades.
Right now, the food forest is still in the planning phase. As it begins to take shape, visitors will be able to watch the process unfold through the planting of trees, shrubs, herbs, groundcovers, and other useful species that are meant to grow together as a layered, thriving ecosystem.
