Colonial Gardens in Blue Springs, Missouri, has been a popular destination for fruit and berry picking, field trips, and family outings, receiving over 230,000 visitors every year.
The gardens were recently acquired by Powell Gardens and renamed Powell Gardens Colonial Farms. Now, it's being managed by Good Oak, a company focused on regenerative and sustainable practices.
The transition will not bring immediate, sweeping changes according to Good Oak president Jacob Canyon. Instead, land managers plan to gradually shift from conventional farming methods to practices that promote biodiversity and reduce the farm’s reliance on chemicals such as herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides.
“This site was designed as a conventional production orchard, and is a beautiful one at that,” Canyon told KCUR’s Up to Date. “But I think that's actually a huge opportunity for us to show, in a public venue, how you can wean a system like this off of its dependence on chemicals and get it to something that's a little more holistic.”
By slowly transitioning the area, Canyon said he hopes to maintain the visitor experience and produce as before while improving the health of Powell Gardens Colonial Farms.
- Jacob Canyon, president, Good Oak
