Hilltown garden offers a retreat from normal life
Just a few miles down the road from bustling 309 and the Walmart shopping center is a garden oasis where families, writers and those who are mourning can seek solace with nature.
Dorothy Ernst, a horticulture therapist, with the help of her husband, has created the Windward Farm Garden Retreat. The Ernsts have lived on the 10-acre property in Hilltown for the past three years, but Ernst just recently felt her gardens were lovely enough to start sharing.
At the beginning of June, Windward Farm Garden Retreat officially opened, offering visitors a chance to connect with nature, while Ernst helps guests achieve mental and emotional wellbeing though the garden and garden activities, according to the retreat’s website.
Throughout the summer, it’s had a few visitors here and there. Sometimes professors from Delaware Val- ley College make their way down to study part of the 10 acres where Ernst said, “I just let mother nature do her thing.” The land used to be a farm and it offers the professors a way to study land that is being taken back over by nature.
A slightly zen experience, if one wants to call it that, the retreat can take whatever form the visitor really wants.
“I try not to structure my tours and services too much because each person responds to a different color or flower or movement in nature differently,” Ernst said.
The property has a “rain water garden,” which is situated at the bottom of a hill that comes down from Fairhill Road. This is the experimental garden where Ernst tries out numerous plants and lets them mingle together.
There’s a mixture of plants that show color in every season with red and purple berry bushes that boast a splash of color all winter long. This makes Windward Farm Garden Retreat an oasis at any time of the year.
The Ernsts created a studio space in part of their garage that looks like a yoga studio. However, Ernst said visitors practice body movement here. She is not a certified yoga instructor so rather she emphasizes moving the body in the ways it desires.
There also is a labyrinth that visitors can walk so they focus on the task at hand.
“It’s meant to quiet the thoughts in the mind to help visitors let go,” Dorothy said. “Once you get to the middle, I like to ask, ‘What do I need most right now?’ Then I turn around and walk out.”
An outdoor living room, just off the side of the driveway, is a great place for journaling, writing and just thinking, she added.
Then behind the house is a big, mossy pound with a small deck and red Adirondack chair where visitors can think and be one with nature.
Located at 613 Fairhill Road in the Hilltown, Windward Farm Garden Retreat is ready for visitors to start coming. Guests are even al- lowed to touch the flowers, vegetables, bushes and water.
“I don’t like to restrict peoples’ interactions with nature,” Ernst said. “I just spend time leading visitors through the garden and seeing where it takes us.”
Visitors can’t sleep over at the retreat, but Ernst assures visitors that there are plenty of “lovely” B&Bs and hotels in the area.
For more information, visit Windward Farm Garden Retreat’s website at windwardfarmgardenretreat.com.