Stoney Creek Valley Farm

Early this year, I was very lucky to find a group on Facebook called Katie’s Spring Plant Sale at Stoney Creek Valley Farm (I’ve forgotten if someone invited me–if so thank you). Katie Hutchison College has a farm in Dauphin PA, which is just outside of Harrisburg. Once you turn off the highway, the drive up Stoney Creek is beautiful. If you drive out on a Saturday, you’re likely to see lots of people fishing along the side of the road.

Stoney Creek.
Stoney Creek at dam.
Stoney Creek at dam.

I went to Katie’s farm this spring and got a lot of perennials: butterfly weed, delphinium, penstemon, multiple varieties of mint, Culver’s root, Russian sage, cone flower, black snapdragons (gorgeous annual), and foxglove (bi-annual). Everything has done very well, and the bees particularly love the butterfly weed. No monarchs yet, but I keep watching! Katie kindly gave me some annual poppies that were beyond their prime, and I was able to collect seeds from them a few weeks later. Here are some pics of Katie’s flowers in one of my raised beds.

Honey bee on tropical milkweed
My flower bed.
Honey bee on butterfly weed

What’s great about Katie is that she makes you feel welcome, and she is always willing to answer questions. As they say in the south, “She’s good people,” and I enjoy everything about the farm, especially the resident greeter/social coordinator, Waldorf. While I was shooting the butterflies on the tithonia, I felt a familiar sensation on the bottoms of my legs. Sure enough, Waldorf was telling me she was glad to see me, so of course I stopped shooting to give her some rubs.

Best greeter in the world!

The farm is beautiful: huge beds of perennials, annuals, and wild flowers everywhere; an awesome greenhouse; chickens and goats; a feeling of home. It reminds me of my Aunt Marge and Uncle Rich’s farm in Bannerville, PA, where I spent a lot of time as a kid. There is an especially stunning flower bed on the way to the greenhouse, covered in pollinators, and a lovely patch of cleome. Having experienced cleome for the first time this year, I’m now convinced that a large patch is the only way to properly grow it.

Bed by greenhouse.
Morning glory.
Cleome.
Cone flowers.
Wildflowers and dahlia.
Cleome bed.
Mixed flowers
Zinnia.
Basket flower.

I visited the farm again last week for Katie’s summer sale. I purchased cone flowers, foxglove, penstemon, and anise hyssop and made a pollinator corner in the kitchen garden where an old nasty patch of ivy used to be. Thank you to Ben for digging it all out for me! I mentioned to Katie that I was an amateur photographer, and she generously offered to let me come back to take pictures of the flowers and butterflies. She showed me a patch of tithonia that was covered in swallowtails and monarchs. Needless to say, I was thrilled and went back the very next day.

This first set of photos includes all bees, mostly bumble bees, on dahlia, tithonia, and basket flower. I was there early in the morning, and I found some bumbles sleeping in flowers. Some of the carpenter bees were huge; they are gentle giants.

Common Eastern bumble bee
Common Eastern bumble bee
Eastern carpenter bee
Common Eastern bumble bee

The next set of photos includes all monarchs. I was surprised that most of the butterflies I saw had ragged wings–some quite beaten up. I don’t know why, and I haven’t researched it yet. But although they looked a bit worse for the wear, they were still so beautiful.

In this set, the stalwarts: whites, pearl crescentspots, silver-spotted skippers, and a fiery skipper. You see them here on zinnias, blanket flower, and I believe lavender.

And finally, my favorites (I saved the best for last): the swallowtails. Love them! I hope to raise some from caterpillars again next year when I’ve grown enough parsley and fennel. You see these lovelies here on purple coneflower, zinnia, and tithonia. And a note on tithonia: Monty Don raves about tithonia, but I have never understood the fascination. It just looks like an orange zinnia to me. BUT, after seeing the way the butterflies love it, I will definitely plant some in the wildflower beds next year.