Dayton "Dirt" Green Blog - July 2010

On July 17th, Dayton Nurseries in Norton will be opening the Owl Barn Market which will offer fresh produce, Amish jams, Ohio foods, baked goods and related items.

The markets emphasis will be on locally grown produce from surrounding farms in order to ensure the freshness and quality of the products and in order to buy from local farmers instead of relying on suppliers from hundreds or sometimes thousands of miles away as the grocery stores do.

In addition to having a farmer’s market, the Owl Barn’s association with the nursery will result in an expanded offering of Dayton Nursery’s potted small fruits including blueberries, raspberries, currants, rhubarb and asparagus, as well as potted herbs, most of which are grown right at the nursery.

Coupled with the Owl Barn Market is the botanical-display garden Wolf Creek Gardens which is located just north and down the hill on which the Owl Barn sits. The garden includes a dwarf conifer bed and shade gardens including a shade perennial and Rhododendron-Azalea garden and hopefully next year a pick-your-own blueberry patch that will be located along the garden’s north border.

Although the market will not specialize in organically grown foods, the relative safety and freshness of the local farm’s products will be the staple fare.

The Owl Barn Market is another way to accomplish and to advance the vision of Dayton Nurseries as an enterprise of environmentally sustainable practices among which are low energy and pesticide use, water recycling and runoff water containment on the nursery property and now locally grown healthy produce.