♪ -Hi.

I'm Allen Smith.

Welcome back to Moss Mountain Farm.

As a designer, I often think about simplicity and how it relates to ornament.

Ornament can do so much for a space, but just the right amount.

There's no need to gild the lily with ornament.

That's something that I'd really like to explore.

I do it every day as I design gardens, and I've certainly done it here time and again.

Today we'll take a look at a beautiful gift from my mother that's come back to life in such a beautiful way.

We'll also talk about the concept of the ferme ornée.

Sounds very lofty, doesn't it?

But it just means ornamental farm, where it is both useful and beautiful.

I also want to introduce you to my friend Shane Connolly.

He's known for his work for the Royal Family in England, and we'll explore how using what's abundant and around us in the most graceful and beautiful way with some of these botanical displays.

And then we're going to head into the kitchen and make a butternut squash dish that's both delicious and, well, wonderfully ornamental.

So come on.

Let's get started.

-Funding for "P. Allen Smith's A Sense of Place" is provided in part by... -Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.

Since 1998.

Growing, saving, and sharing rare heirloom varieties.

Seeds with stories and a sense of place.

Seeds worth saving.

Learn more at rareseeds.com.

NARRATOR: And First Community Bank, where community comes first.

♪ -So, in this spirit of ornament, I want to talk about this particular piece because it's very personal.

This bronze cockerel was given to me -- well, gosh, I don't know -- maybe in the late '80s by my mother.

Here at Moss Mountain Farm, we came here and we began to create this place, and we identified this area as Poultryville and eventually built a very beautiful, if I must say so myself, classical chicken house.

It was called the Poultry Palace.

Kind of tongue-in-cheek.

And there's a long story about all that.

But, anyway, to ornament this building, right on the center was this gilded rooster, gilded by my friend Jesse Zoellner, who did a beautiful job on it.

So he'd taken what Mother had given me as a bronze.

[ Chickens clucking ] See, the choir is singing about this.

You can hear them.

But the idea was to just create this shimmering beacon in gilded 24-karat gold.

So this great Poultry Palace was the centerpiece of our Heritage Poultry production.

Then a few years ago, we had an electrical fire and sadly lost the entire barn and sadly lost our entire breeding stock.

However, the good news was that there were eggs, there were chicks on another location of all the breeds, and we were able to rescue our genetic work that had been under way with for 15 years or so.

And in the ash... digging around in it... very sad day... here was this rooster.

And I found him and pulled him out of the ashes.

And you can still see just bits of the original gilding on him here.

Really, right now, what I'd like to do is-- is preserve this out of sentiment, because it was given to me as a gift for my mother, who knew that I loved poultry.

And so we want to preserve this and put it back in good order.

And so I've now asked Jesse to come back and regild this bit of garden ornament.

So I look forward to seeing this fully restored.

♪ Now I'd like to introduce you to my friend Shane Connolly.

Shane is one of the world's leading floral designers, or, as I like to say, botanical artists.

He's created extraordinary settings for the British Royal Family, and it's an honor to have him at the farm today.

Shane, thank you so much for bringing this English-like weather here.

-We call this "misht" in Ireland.

Sort of a combination of "mist" and "wet."

-Oh.

Right.

Yeah.

-Dampness.

-Well, it's good because we need the cooler temperatures and the rain, so it's good.

Yeah.

-We've done the best.

-Now, that's a plant that's native here.

That's Campsis radicans, or the trumpet vine, and it sets these gorgeous seed pods.

What do you think?

-Fantastic and very elegant.

Sort of the way they're held at the end with the lovely leaves.

-Yeah.

Right.

-I really like those.

-So when you're gathering for these botanical displays that you create... -Mm-hmm.

-...I guess things like this capture your imagination.

-They transform it.

-Oh, yeah.

-This is the sort of thing that-- I don't know this plant.

And so if I put it in a creation, I know that most of the people there will be saying, "What is that?

I've never seen anything like it."

-Yeah.

-And that's, to me, what makes it interesting.

Even one element of that would transform a whole design because it adds a bit of quirkiness.

The skill is to echo how it grows here, and that's where the garden and flower overlap comes in.

-Yeah.

-So looking at how it grows is how exactly you should use it in an arrangement.

-It's a wonderful tip.

-You have to see things growing to really use them well.

-Shane, when you're designing, are there certain principles that you apply across the board, no matter the scale, whether it's a dinner at the V&A or the Royal Academy or even, you know, a family dinner compared to what you've done, you know, for the Royal Family with a wedding and a coronation?

-Yeah, really the most important thing to me is the season and the sourcing of the flowers to suit that and to reflect the season.

And I suppose that would be in everything we do.

Whatever the scale is, just multiply.

It's like making 400 buns instead of 10.

You just multiply the ingredients, the number of eggs, really.

Um... -Many hands.

-Many hands and a big oven.

And I think that's the same thing with all of the events we do.

-So for the Cambridges' wedding, which was absolutely spectacular, the idea was to bring the trees in.

I thought that was brilliant.

-I really enjoy things growing.

You know, the beautiful plants here that you look how they grow.

Sometimes if you use them still growing, they're even more beautiful.

We couldn't have created trees, so it was, in a way, almost the easiest solution, was to wheel a few trees in and reflect the architecture of the abbey.

Because, of course, that Gothic architecture was totally imitating branches of trees.

-Where they arch together.

-Absolutely.

Yeah.

That's the ethos of bringing more of the same and looking at what you've got, and it makes a successful garden as well as a successful event.

-With the coronation of King Charles, that beautiful display of a myriad of plants was almost tapestry-like.

-The joy of that was that the flowers were more important than the design and the origin of the flowers and that they had come from all over the kingdom to go into the abbey.

So, in a way, they were like the real reason we have flowers.

They're given.

They were given by these growers from all around the kingdom, one bucket each.

And, in effect, all we did was bring them in and spread them out a bit and change things.

You know, some colors looked better with others, so... -So that it represented the kingdom.

-What I wanted to achieve was that the flowers were the gift from the kingdom rather than... this is a design statement.

I didn't want people to say, "How clever was he to have thought of those colors."

-And that's what His Majesty wanted.

-That's totally what his nature is, anyway.

-Yeah.

Of course.

Right.

Yeah.

-It was very easy.

Very easy.

-Very tied to the planet.

-And to the seasons.

Yeah.

So it had to feel like that.

♪ -Shane, I know we're of like mind with the idea of nature really inspires creativity.

There's so many things you can do.

-Absolutely.

-Yeah.

-Yeah.

Look at this.

-Yeah.

So here's an example of just taking some vines from around the farm and doing something, you know, sort of creative with it.

I'm thinking about this as an armature for the display of autumnal things.

Maybe a base of pumpkins and Osage oranges and that kind of thing, and then flowers coming out of it.

But this would hold the flowers.

-Yes, it would.

I like it a lot.

-Well, it's rustic.

It sort of fits the place, you know, and we're all about what seems authentic to place.

-The fact that it's light in vision.

It doesn't have the solidity of stone or marble.

And it would be beautiful in a modern setting as much as it is in a sort of classical setting here.

-So it's transitional.

-It's much-- Yeah.

It's quite hard to find things like that actually, for flowers, because so often it looks of a period of a time, and contemporary things don't necessarily look as beautiful as some of the classical things.

This is a combination item.

I'll have seven, please.

-You'll have seven.

Okay.

Whoops.

[ Chuckles ] I'll whip 'em together.

Yeah.

There's some other things around the farm I think you might find interesting in terms of just native plants from this place.

-Please.

-Let's take a look over here.

Of course, Shane, these are some of the grandest of the Native American trees we have here in the South.

-Grandiflora?

-The grandiflora.

-Properly named.

-All in the name, right?

-I always think of this as the typical Southern tree.

I sort of know where I am when I see this.

-Yes.

Right.

-Though it grows very well in England as well.

-Yeah.

-Of course.

But not with this... -Seen it in many places.

Yeah.

-Not with this freedom.

-Oh, right.

-You know?

-Well, you know, this-- There's so many cultivars of Southern Magnolia or Magnolia grandiflora, as we've already stated.

This one in particular I like because it's got this beautiful brown underside of the leaf.

It's called Bracken's Brown Beauty.

-A sort of double bang for your buck when you use it in designs.

-That's right.

-You know, underneath... -You've got the glossy top and the velveteen underside.

-Beautiful and a lovely thing to be able to use, for my point of view, in flower arrangements.

-Give us an example of how you'll reach for it.

-Well, so quite often, we want something that gives us a base to begin with, especially in big, big arrangements.

So you want to look for something that is local and in quantity... -Yeah, yeah.

-...where we can make branches interlocked together to give us the armature that we want.

-So that criss-cross gives you a nexus to stick flowers through.

-And these sorts of branches, because they've got nice, long stems, but then they branch out... -Yeah.

-...we can get something that will knot together.

-Sure.

-So something like this makes a great base for a big arrangement.

-You can cut as much as you want.

-Here I am with my scissors.

You might regret that.

-Well, I don't know.

-You might regret it.

-We've got plenty.

[ Laughter ] ♪ ♪ I think perhaps my entire life I've been fascinated by this notion of beauty and function and how things can be beautiful but also very useful.

This farm, for instance, represents a concept called the ferme ornée, French for ferme, "farm"... ornée, "ornamented."

The idea is that it's a working farm.

It's productive, but it's also beautiful.

I had the good fortune to really take this homestead that goes back to the 1840s.

It was basically a tabula rasa.

Very little here from that period when the Moss family homesteaded it.

And I could create anew a farmstead reminiscent of time and place, the 1840s in this part of the world.

It also allowed me to think about the gardens that way and the various elements in the garden.

The ornament, if you will.

So I love exploring how at every turn one can think about function and also the aesthetics that can go along with that.

And perhaps some of these ideas can inspire you for your own place.

♪ ♪ Having elements in the garden that create visual interest can come in many, many forms.

This beautiful little element was made by a friend of mine in Chicago.

It's made of wrought iron, and it's been here on the west end of the Terrace Garden for probably 10 years.

And what I love about it is that it brings along with it movement just by a simple balance of these hummingbirds and these tubular flowers.

And then it just sits with this ball there in that cup.

And it's beautifully balanced.

And rarely... even in big storms, you can come down here... Is it off this pedestal.

It's just a wonderful little thing.

But the movement, I think, adds so much charm to this part of the garden.

Now let me show you another piece that my friend made.

It's just over here.

♪ So here's this other piece.

This is an armillary sphere.

You would see them in gardens from the Renaissance.

Rather old-fashioned idea of being able to track the heavenly bodies.

You know, I like it.

I think it's really kind of great fun.

Now let's go talk about other elements, a focal point that sits in the very center of a part of the garden.

♪ Here in the west roundel, It's surrounded by these glorious Lagerstroemias, or crepe myrtles.

They are on fire.

And we've got this beautiful pink bandana lantana in bloom, along with drift roses, both coral and apricot all around here, and along with a gorgeous salvia.

But the focal point is this 19th-century cast-iron urn.

What I love about the iron, as we just saw, is that it patinas beautifully and blends into the garden.

Now, in this case, the plinth that you see here that's cast iron on which the urn sits... All of that together was not tall enough, really, to fill this volume.

So you think about the volume and the scale of this with that beautiful variegated Agave americana, or century plant, in the top.

The main thing was to get this thing up so that when you come through from the east, through the muscadine tunnel, you see this.

Boom.

Here it is.

And so it's meant to be a surprise.

The idea of these focal points in the garden, they are to surprise and delight.

♪ ♪ Buildings themselves can be ornament in the landscape.

Take, for instance, this little chicken house that we built.

It's a tiny little building, but it's ornamental.

It is in the form of the Parthenon, built of eastern red cedar, and it's lasted quite a long time.

Years ago, we placed this little bantam temple in here for my niece, who was interested in raising some little pint-sized chickens to show in the local shows and so forth.

And so it was a fun thing to create.

Now it's a feature in the landscape that visitors really enjoy, as do the current residents, which are Japanese silkies.

[ Clucking ] Now, if we look at the enclosure in which this sits, it's a hedge.

And there we have another example of form and function.

Beauty and something that really adds to the landscape.

So let's take a closer look.

If you look at this farm from a bird's-eye view, you'll see a nexus of garden rooms made of edges.

That was intentional.

This is needlepoint holly.

And for the most part, it's this particular holly that we've used.

And I like it because it takes the knife, as they say.

It shears quite beautifully.

Now, we've talked about the ferme ornée, this idea of things that are useful but also beautiful.

These hedges add to the ecology of this farm.

And what I mean by that is while they're very beautiful and they create these garden rooms, the aesthetic component of it, but from a functional standpoint, they aid in the ecology of this farm.

Number one, these hollies, when they bloom, produce a tremendous amount of nectar for our honeybees.

Now, when we think about the density of this hedge, this provides excellent cover for songbirds.

In the winter, they can get in here and get out of the wind.

It's a great place for nesting.

And then go back to those holly flowers that flower in late winter and early spring.

You then begin to get these holly berries, which are a food source for the birds.

So here we are.

A beautiful example of something that's both functional and beautiful.

♪ ♪ Oh, my goodness!

Look at that!

Jesse, that looks fantastic!

Oh, my gosh.

Beautifully done.

-I love the way the light catches.

-Yeah.

Look at that.

[ Gasps ] It's staggeringly beautiful.

And, you know, it doesn't look like the old boy's been through a fire, does it?

-Not really.

He's more of a phoenix now.

-He is a phoenix, not a chicken.

Oh, this is so wonderful.

Now, Jesse, tell me about the process you went through to sort of bring it back to life.

-When I received this piece, it was in pretty rough shape.

I really needed to do some adequate surface preparation, some basic soap and water, and also some solvent to get any flaking remaining paint off.

And then we added a coat of what's known as a burnish sealer to give it kind of that yellow tone.

Because this gold, even though it's double, it's still fairly transparent.

It's pure 24-karat gold, so it will not rust, it'll never tarnish.

It'll just be a shimmering beacon wherever you place it.

-Oh, he certainly will.

You know, I almost said he looks sterling.

"Sterling job."

But this is a golden job.

[ Laughs ] Wow.

He just looks absolutely fantastic.

Outstanding.

Thank you, friend.

-Thank you very much, Allen.

It was a pleasure.

-You've restored something very beautiful and meaningful to me.

♪ When the days get shorter, we all love comfort food.

At least I do.

But also food that is beautifully presented.

And, you know, we grew a bumper crop of these marvelous butternut squash this year.

And I just wanted to show you a really beautiful way to present them.

What you want to do is just peel a butternut squash, a good-sized one, and then you want to split it like this and then just take away the inside.

Dig that out.

And same here.

Doesn't take much.

And, of course, you can save the seed if you like.

Now, what I want to do with these two pieces is show you how to split this very thinly.

And what I don't want to do is cut all the way through, so I'm just going to take these little two pieces of bamboo and I'm going to go along here.

Now, the idea is just to slice the half butternut squash into thin strips and not cut all the way through.

Because when you bake it, you want to get all these good things flowing through these spaces in between.

And it really enlivens the flavor, and it makes for a beautiful presentation.

Well, I have one completed.

The other half needs to be done the same way.

These go on a roasting pan.

Put them in a 350-degree preheated oven for about 40 to 45, maybe 50 minutes.

And what I'll do is just take this marvelous honey and hot pepper flakes, along with a little vinegar, and then we're going to drizzle these squashes with that.

Let them bake for that period of time.

And they'll be so delicious.

So let me clean this up, and we'll pull one out of the oven.

I've let them cool off just a little bit.

Here they are.

And what I'm gonna do is just take them up like this and put them on a tray for presentation.

And this is a... delicious, nutritious, and beautiful presentation of the butternut squash.

Now, to finish it off, what I'm going to do is I'm going to take some feta.

Sprinkle a little feta on top.

Mmm.

Mouthwatering.

Fantastic.

This is such a great holiday dish.

Some toasted English walnuts like that.

And then the beautiful jewel tone against this gorgeous orange.

Pomegranate seed.

You can salt and pepper to taste, although I did that just a little bit, but I'm going to add a little more.

And then the final touch is just a little bit of dill.

Smells so good.

Now, of course, this is enough for two, but you could certainly do as many as you like.

But it's one of the most beautiful presentations of butternut squash that I've seen.

Ordinary vegetable.

Grew lots of them here.

And now look at this ornamented way to present.

Now, what I have to do is try this.

So absolutely beautiful.

Love how it caramelizes.

Mmm!

And it's so, so good.

The combinations of flavors and just that little bit of heat with the honey and pepper.

Very, very good.

♪ Ornament brings intention to wildness because nature will always grow beyond our plans.

It is a faithful companion that patiently waits for the rose to bud... celebrates its bloom... and stands in silent reverence as it outlives the flower.

Perhaps that's what we seek in our own lives.

To give shape to wildness... meaning to our days... and leave behind some evidence that we were here and that we cared.

Now, that is a sense of place.

I'm Allen Smith, and I hope you've enjoyed our time together as much as I have.

We'll see you next time.

-Funding for "P. Allen Smith's A Sense of Place" is provided in part by... -Baker Creek Heirloom Seed Company.

Since 1998.

Growing, saving, and sharing rare heirloom varieties.

Seeds with stories and a sense of place.

Seeds worth saving.

Learn more at rareseeds.com.

NARRATOR: And First Community Bank, where community comes first.

-Behind every episode of "A Sense of Place" is a story that extends beyond the screen.

Allen's companion coffee table book brings those stories together through more than 500 photographs he selected of the house, gardens, flowers, and animals that define life at Moss Mountain Farm.

Available at pallensmith.com.

-Learn more at my website, pallensmith.com, and dig a little deeper with our weekly newsletter and make sure you follow along with our social media.

When creating an arrangement like this, you might think about how it's broken down into the botanicals that I've used.

What we have here are flowers that have come from the farm at a given time and arranged in a sustainable way.

And the idea was to create an armature made of muscadine vine.

Below it are a nexus of gourds sitting on a mesh of chicken wire so that all the stems would be stable when they went through this nexus of muscadine vine, which is artistic in itself and a lot of fun to create.

This is Solanum integrifolia.

They look like little pumpkins, but it's actually an eggplant that you can grow in your garden.

You know, these things are just around us, and that's what's so marvelous about it.

And it's how we put them together that I think is so exciting, and it stirs our imagination and creativity.

♪