It was a busy summer afternoon at Allard Farm as people stopped by to buy willows, hydrangeas, roses or vegetable plants, annuals and perennials. Located in Brewster, MA, the farm benefits from the high traffic of tourists and locals alike.

The farm was started by current owner John Allard’s parents, Virginia and Arthur Allard, who ran it from 1960 to 1998 as a wholesale nursery called Allard Nurseries.

John noted that his father had planted the three-foot-diameter ‘Dawn’ redwood tree that now shades the front tables.

The farm’s garden center and landscaping venue was started and opened in 2019 by John and his girlfriend Marjorie McGinnis, who is a full partner in the business. Their official name is Allard Farm. They currently operate as a garden center and farm stand. They are in their seventh season. They work full-time at the farm from March through December.

John grows the annuals, vegetables and perennials on 3.5 acres. Plants are started in three 50-foot hoop houses and one small germination house.

“We grow organically and sustainably,” he said.

He uses an organic granulated fertilizer called Sustane, a grape seed derivative liquid fertilizer that supplies many micronutrients and nitrogen.

“We keep away from fish emulsion because of the smell and it doesn’t filtrate through soil very well. We use very little fertilizer,” he said.

Instead, they rely on the compost John makes himself from clippings from the landscaping business and other organic material. He recently scaled the landscaping business back due to being so busy, but still has a lot of compost material on hand.

He offers 19 varieties of tomato plants, as well as cherry tomato and eggplant plants. He also offers peppers, yellow and green squash, beans and other produce in season. They buy in some of their produce to keep up with customer demand.

He sells some nursery stock from Oregon and North Carolina as well as roses and willows.

John is assisted in spring planting by Marjorie as well as part-time help, making sure everything is watered.

There are 30 tables laden with petunias, bachelor buttons, peppers, hydrangeas and other plants. “We fill each table two or three times a season,” said John.

He sells plants at the Orleans Farmers Market on Saturdays. They don’t take orders over the internet, and everything is sold first come, first served.

Allard Farm is open from the last week of April through Columbus Day weekend.

He is always happy to talk to his customers and make them feel at home. Even on this busy weekend, each customer took their time to be able to have a chat.

They also open up again to sell Christmas trees in the holiday season. John brought them back for the first time in 30 years last year and celebrated with a customer-invited Solstice party.

You can find them online at facebook.com/allardfarm.