Hidden Hill Gardens was purchased in 1939 by my grandparents as a weekend residence and small operating farm on the property. Soon thereafter they expanded to a greenhouse operation and flower shop.
The business “Hidden Hill Gardens,” operated until the early 1960’s. The property remained in the family and since 2009 we have been renovating and building new structures to create the new face of Hidden Hill Gardens, LLC, which will have multiple creative avenues all of which will be represented at our open-air market
Greenhouses
As a child I remember being in and around the greenhouses and playing in the potting shed. I loved the idea of growing plants. When I retired, I attended Spartanburg Community College horticulture program. I guess the love of plants was in my DNA. Since then, we have designed and erected two greenhouses, building off the foundations of the original greenhouses. The greenhouses will be used to propagate and grow out native flowers, herbs, grasses, and vegetable plants to sell at our market. We chose native plants and grasses to encourage homeowners to reintroduce plants that help sustain a healthy ecosystem. By doing so we are giving native pollinators and songbirds a place to thrive, assisting them in their critical work which is necessary for all of us.
The Market
Our farmers/makers market is open Wednesday afternoons and all-day Saturday. Besides our native plant sales, the market will have a number of outside vendors among which are local farmers with fresh produce, meat purveyors, soap makers, candle makers and a baker. We also will be selling hand-made wood products such as birdhouses, pens, and cutting boards.
The Forge
On the site of an old house on the property we built a coal forge using beams and doors from an old peach barn in the upstate and Sweetgum lumber we milled. The result is a traditional feeling smithy. Autumn Day is our resident blacksmith. Her blacksmithing journey began during college while taking an elective in welding, wood working, and metal arts. Her love of the craft led to a more intensive study in blade-smithing. Over the last six years, she has applied her trade at Poplar Grove Plantation in Wilmington, NC providing demonstrations and information for tours and field trips. As artist-in-residence, she was able to begin the teaching portion of her career. Four years and hundreds of students later, she began offering her services to Tryon Arts and Crafts to better network with other smiths in the area and continue sharing her passion for the art. Autumn is excited to open the smithy at Hidden Hill Gardens to allow more people to experience the joys of working with metal.
Saw Mill
We recently built a large woodshop, so we will be offering creative wood products such as hand-turned pens, cutting boards, birdhouses, feeders, furniture, novelty goods. Most of the wood we use is milled on our sawmill that we used to cut the siding on the Forge. We will also offer slabs and other assorted lumber that we source locally from tree companies within the upstate, always looking for unusual hard and soft woods. The mill is a Woodmizer Lt 15 wide that can handle up to a 16 foot long and 36-inch diameter log. If you have a tree down on your property we would be happy to discuss the possibility of milling for you.